A video giving step-by-step instructions on constructing an air rifle was viewed more than 3.6 million times on the site aimed at youngsters, with other disturbing content accessible
A YOUTUBE app for young children showed a video on how to make a gun, The Sun can reveal.
The four-minute clip, viewed 3.6million times, was easily accessible on YouTube Kids, which is supposed to carry content specifically for youngsters aged three to 12.
Typing “gun” into its search function gave a step-by-step clip on constructing an air rifle.
A man in a bomber jacket is seen assembling the crude home-made weapon from bits of old pipe, with a plastic bottle for the compressed air.
He then loads it with a ball-bearing before firing into cans in the video, entitled “Homemade Air Gun — How To Make EASY Airgun”. Tonight campaigners called it “deplorable”.
Chrissie Hall, of the Gun Control Network, said: “No one should be allowed to put videos on YouTube showing children how to make air weapons.”
She highlighted the case of Ben Wragge, 13, who was accidentally shot dead by a friend with an air rifle in Thurston, Suffolk, in 2016. Ms Hall said: “He was the 15th child killed by an air weapon over the last two decades in the UK. They are lethal.”
The video has no safety commentary, and some viewers said the weapon made was also highly dangerous.
One, Bill Haley, commented: “Don’t do this. The bottle explodes in your face and loads of sharp bits embed themselves into your skin.”
Tory MP Andrew Bridge, slammed the online giant, saying: “It’s highly irresponsible for YouTube Kids to feature a video of this nature.”
YouTube tonight removed it from the app after being alerted by The Sun.
It said: “The YouTube Kids team is made up of parents who care deeply about this, so it’s extremely important for us to get this right, and we act quickly when videos are brought to our attention.”
A Government spokesman said: “We expect online platforms to have robust processes in place.”
The Sun also uncovered a host of other highly inappropriate videos accessed through the site.
YouTube says it uses cutting-edge technology to filter out adult and inappropriate content.
But within seconds of downloading the free children’s app, users have easy access to sites hosting wholly unsuitable material for its target audience of kids aged under 12.
Other sites had videos peddling conspiracy theories about aliens, a rant about transgenderism and even shows featuring paedophiles Rolf Harris and Jimmy Savile.
Our findings come just days after YouTube Kids was forced to take down posts in which conspiracy theorist David Icke claimed aliens built the pyramids and that the planet is run by reptile-human hybrids.
Yet it was easy to find other similarly wacky output.
We typed “UFO” into the search bar. Lurking among the harmless cartoons and Lego videos was a post called “UFO Zaps Man’s Camera From Space!”
It was uploaded by American group SecureTeam, which boasts that it exposes “the truth behind the long-standing alien cover-up”.
Having clicked on it, YouTube Kids began recommending more from SecureTeam.
This included a fake news video claiming astronaut Neil Armstrong saw aliens after landing on the moon in July 1969, but this was covered up.
Most parents would not take such postings too seriously, but would not expect impressionable kids to have such easy access to them.
YouTube Kids could also be exposed to videos of disgraced entertainers Harris and Savile.
We found a video of Harris teaching children in the 2011 C4 series Dream School, and an episode of the 1990s ITV series Rolf’s Cartoon Club.
The Savile post was taken from a BBC show marking 20 years of Jim’ll Fix It.
None of these broadcasters will ever screen them again, so why does YouTube Kids?
The app also exposes users to topics they might not be mature enough to understand.
A video posted by Geeking Out had a discussion about LGBT characters in Doctor Who. Other footage featured children as young as seven questioning their gender.
Anyone typing “trans” into the search panel was offered a rant from American right-wing polemicist Alex Jones entitled: Transgender Rant: Leave My Children Alone!.
YouTube Kids was started in 2015 and is available in 37 countries. It has had more than 70billion views. But moving into the children’s market has proved a minefield for YouTube, which was bought by Google for £883million in 2006.
Last summer, members of its Trusted Flaggers team, volunteers who check the site for harmful content, claimed it was “systematically failing” to protect children.
It was also embroiled in the ongoing Elsagate scandal, named after the character from Disney film Frozen.
YouTube announced a crackdown on videos showing popular children’s TV and film characters like Elsa in violent, dark or obscene scenes. But some of them ended up on YouTube Kids.
In one doctored clip, Peppa Pig drank bleach and had her teeth extracted to a soundtrack of screams. Another showed her being menaced by a zombie Peppa.
A lot of YouTube Kids posts come via the YouTube site. Unsuitable material is mainly blocked by algorithms but twisted people use famous characters and keywords like “nursery rhymes” to sneak controversial posts on the site.
YouTube has tried to tighten access to its services and this year aims to increase to 10,000 the number of people working to address inappropriate content.
Users of its YouTube Kids app can also narrow the search facility, restricting the number of videos available.
We did not use this facility for our research — something many busy parents won’t have the time or know-how to do.
