The Dark Side of YouTube Children's Programming: From Elsagate to the Finders Cult

For months Periscope was warned of children being taken advantage of by organized pedophile gangs on their platform. Finally, after some pressure from a small group of journalists and Periscope users, they acted on users' concerns. Similarly, YouTube has been called out for several months for certain creepy, disturbing and sometimes sexual videos that show up in the restricted mode of YouTube for kids. Our own writer, <a href="http://thegoldwater.com/news/5566-Every-Parent-Must-Read-YouTube-Channels-Brainwashing-Your-Children">red pill, wrote on this back in July</a>. Many feature Elsa from Frozen (sometimes in various stages of undress or simulating sex with Spiderman), Peppa Pig and a creepy series called "The Finger Family."

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Every Parent Must Read: YouTube Channels Brainwashing Your Children<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RedPill?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#RedPill</a><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Goldwater?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Goldwater</a><a href="https://t.co/gLaVc6I81J">https://t.co/gLaVc6I81J</a></p>&mdash; Red Pill Groyper (@IWillRedPillYou) <a href="https://twitter.com/IWillRedPillYou/status/889339351632564224?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 24, 2017</a></blockquote>

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Previously there was no human oversight and algorithms were left to find similar content to feed babies, toddlers and small children watching YouTube on AutoPlay. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/nov/10/youtube-disturbing-kids-videos-dark-peppa-pig-children">Unnerving violent scenarios, sexual innuendo</a> and other disturbing and purposefully inappropriate videos had been slid in between the scenes for unsuspecting children to happen upon. Eve now with the new changes, a video must be flagged by a user before it is sent over for "human review." The company also failed to delineate what would constitute inappropriate videos for children.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Whos committ violence man we want our bias justice system to do something about it ESPECIALLY THE FINDERS CULT</p>&mdash; Wanda spangler (@Wandaspangler2) <a href="https://twitter.com/Wandaspangler2/status/928631369210781696?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 9, 2017</a></blockquote>

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Earlier this week, technology writer and artist James Bridle shared his opinion, “Someone or something or some combination of people and things is using YouTube to systematically frighten, traumatise, and abuse children, automatically and at scale, and it forces me to question my own beliefs about the internet, at every level."

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Right on <a href="https://twitter.com/danieltosh?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@danieltosh</a> for getting this creepy channel taken down! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/pedogate?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#pedogate</a> <a href="https://t.co/O9N27oMkpy">pic.twitter.com/O9N27oMkpy</a></p>&mdash; Sheila Allen (@Sheilaaliens) <a href="https://twitter.com/Sheilaaliens/status/880147685637971968?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 28, 2017</a></blockquote>

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Elsagate, however, may just be the tip of the iceberg. <a href="https://steemit.com/pedogate/@sheilaaliens/daniel-tosh-exposes-pedo-youtube-channel-video-included">Daniel Tosh exposed a very popular, very dark YouTube channel</a> with videos netting hundreds of millions of views each. The channel, and many like it, features young girls in bathing suits or leotards and often in suggestive or provocative poses and situations. Some theories attempt to connect the CIA affiliated child trafficking cult, The Finders to the videos. At least a few odd YouTube channels featuring users with the names of Finders cult members exist with some seriously odd videos.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Thank you Dr Mary Grogan my guest tonight <a href="https://twitter.com/Gatehouse_The?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Gatehouse_The</a> <a href="https://t.co/0dxlkS2r1W">https://t.co/0dxlkS2r1W</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Toronto?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Toronto</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/sillentnomore?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#sillentnomore</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/stopchildabuse?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#stopchildabuse</a> Thursday <a href="https://t.co/qtYefuinW2">pic.twitter.com/qtYefuinW2</a></p>&mdash; Unforgiven Warrior (@gottogetoutof) <a href="https://twitter.com/gottogetoutof/status/895825895633637378?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 11, 2017</a></blockquote>

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The Finders were discovered in the 80's with a group of "feral children." After they were arrested evidence of child pornography and wholesale kidnapping and exploitation were recovered. Documents involving the sale of children to overseas buyers and more evidence wasn't enough to hold them when the CIA closed down the investigation explaining that it was now an internal affairs matter. YouTube profiles with names of Finders associates (<a href="https://spidercatweb.blog/2017/07/18/the-finders-cult/">Mary Grogan</a> and others) that predate the recent Pizzagate inquiries by years were <a href="https://voat.co/v/Amalek101/1232436">researched at Voat and elsewhere</a> but, just as disturbing, the online notes keep getting scrubbed.