Overview
Elsagate (エルサゲート) refers to the controversy surrounding YouTube videos containing inappropriate expressions that are set up for children or posted on children's platforms. Such themes within these videos include drug use, sexual content, graphic violence and much more.
This refers only to videos with inappropriate depictions that are posted in venues where children can also view them under the guise of being aimed at children.
For this reason, videos containing extreme expressions based on children's works do not fall under this category if there are restrictions on viewing based on age or if sufficient warnings are given before the main part of the video. It also differs from videos that appear to be designed for children, but whose actual content is intended for adults and contains extreme expressions (e.g., South Park and Happy Tree Friends).
In most cases, it refers to videos on YouTube, but it also refers to videos on other video platforms. (For example, in China, where YouTube is blocked, similar videos are posted on Tencent Video, iQIYI, Youku, etc. and are subject to restrictions).
Name Origin
The name Elsagate comes from the fact that Elsa from Frozen was often the subject of such videos. The "- gate" is a suffix often used to refer to scandalous events (from the Watergate scandal in the U.S.).
Contents
The characters are usually imitations (or in some cases, appearances) of famous characters from kids' media. Often there is also crossover between different works. In live action works such as puppet shows, commercially available toys are sometimes used.
This not only causes confusion for children and their parents, but is also likely to constitute copyright infringement.
Although the content is ostensibly aimed at children, it is in fact characterized by R-18 or R-18G like material that would be highly shocking to children if they saw it.
Although there are a few works for children that contain minor undertones or depictions of characters that may cause injury to them, the equivalent of Elsagate is:
- Characters engage in or are subjected to excessive violence
- Excessive depictions of horror, violent fights, injuries, or other expressions that strongly incite fear or discomfort.
- Grotesque and gore depictions, such as bloodshed and death
- Excessive sexual expression, or persistent depictions of excrement, genitalia, etc.
- ect.
In addition, titles often include phrases such as "for children" or "for educational use", or use the names of characters or works. This sometimes allows the measures described below to slip through.
Countermeasures
In the past, the problem was that they appeared as related videos to ordinary children's videos, including the official channels of copyright holders and sellers, and this created the risk of inadvertent viewing, or even watching them without realizing that the actual content was presented as being for adults.
YouTube has released a platform suitable for children's viewing called YouTube Kids, which filters videos posted on YouTube and displays only those videos that are deemed by YouTube to be suitable for children or content that is safe for children to view.
In addition to age restrictions on videos, YouTube has also taken other measures, such as automatic analysis using a special algorithm, so that content not suitable for viewing by children is to some extent eliminated before and after it is posted, but it is difficult to eliminate it completely due to mistakes in settings on YouTube's side and other slip-ups.
It is believed that the reason for posting videos is to gain views for advertising revenue, as many channels have set up video advertising.
However, the original works and the target audience have only changed, and the number of nonsense videos based on Among Us have been posted in large numbers since around 2021 and have become a problem. It can be said that the situation has not been completely resolved. → Reference article
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