Elsagate (derived from
Elsa and the
''-gate'' scandal suffix) is a controversy surrounding videos on
YouTube
YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
and
YouTube Kids
YouTube Kids is an American video app and website developed by YouTube, a subsidiary of Google. The app provides a version of the service oriented solely towards children, with curated selections of content, parental control features, and filte ...
that were labelled as "child-friendly" but contained themes considered
inappropriate for children. These videos often featured fictional characters from family-oriented media, sometimes via
crossovers, used without legal permission. The controversy also included channels that focused on real-life children, such as ''
Toy Freaks'', that raised concern about possible
child abuse
Child abuse (also called child endangerment or child maltreatment) is physical abuse, physical, child sexual abuse, sexual, emotional and/or psychological abuse, psychological maltreatment or Child neglect, neglect of a child, especially by a p ...
.
Most videos in this category were produced either with
live action
Live action is a form of cinematography or videography that uses photography instead of animation. Some works combine live action with animation to create a live-action animated feature film. Live action is used to define film, video games o ...
or
Flash animation
Adobe Flash animation (formerly Macromedia Flash animation and FutureSplash animation) is an animation that is created with the Adobe Animate (formerly Flash Professional) platform or similar animation software and often distributed in the SW ...
, but some used
claymation
Claymation, sometimes called clay animation or plasticine animation, is one of many forms of stop-motion animation. Each animated piece, either character or background, is "deformable"—made of a malleable substance, usually plasticine cl ...
or
computer-generated imagery
Computer-generated imagery (CGI) is a specific-technology or application of computer graphics for creating or improving images in Digital art, art, Publishing, printed media, Training simulation, simulators, videos and video games. These images ...
. The videos were sometimes tagged in such a way as to circumvent YouTube's child safety algorithms, and some appeared on YouTube Kids. These videos were difficult to moderate due to the large scale of YouTube. In order to capture
search results and
attract attention from users, their
buzzword
A buzzword is a word or phrase, new or already existing, that becomes popular for a period of time. Buzzwords often derive from technical terms yet often have much of the original technical meaning removed through fashionable use, being simply ...
titles and descriptions featured the names of the fictional characters, as well as
keywords such as "education", "learn colors", and "
nursery rhyme
A nursery rhyme is a traditional poem or song for children in Britain and other European countries, but usage of the term dates only from the late 18th/early 19th century. The term Mother Goose rhymes is interchangeable with nursery rhymes.
Fr ...
s".
They also included
automatically placed commercials, making them lucrative to their owners and YouTube.
Public awareness of the phenomenon grew in late 2017. That year—after reports on child safety on YouTube by several media outlets—YouTube adopted stricter guidelines regarding children's content. In late November, the platform deleted channels and videos falling into the Elsagate category, as well as large amounts of other inappropriate videos or user comments relating to children. While these efforts, intended to wipe the platform of Elsagate-related media, curbed much of the older content, as of the 2020s similar videos and channels (this time utilizing video games popular with children) have been found to remain pervasively accessible to children on YouTube.
History
Early history (2016–2017)
In June 2016, ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'' published an article about the channel ''Webs and Tiaras'', which had been created in March of the same year. The channel showed people dressed as characters like
Spider-Man
Spider-Man is a superhero in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, he first appearance, first appeared in the anthology comic book ''Amazing Fantasy'' #15 (August 1962) in ...
,
Elsa, and the
Joker engaging in bizarre or nonsensical actions. The videos themselves had
background music
Background music (British English: piped music) is a mode of musical performance in which the music is not intended to be a primary focus of potential listeners, but its content, character, and volume level are deliberately chosen to affect behav ...
but no dialogue. The lack of dialogue meant that there was no
language barrier on the videos, which would normally hinder worldwide distribution. The article also reported that several nearly identical channels, named ''Toy Monster'', ''The Superheroes Life'', and ''The Kids Club'', had appeared on YouTube.
In January 2017, one channel under the control of a YouTube partner in Vietnam, ''Spiderman Frozen Marvel Superhero Real Life'', blocked their Vietnamese subscribers after complaints from parents regarding the content of their videos. The channel's owner was later fined by Vietnamese authorities.
The increase in the number of views had led some to voice concerns that such channels are
gaming the system by using bots or
click farms to inflate
viewing figures to higher proportions; however, there is no evidence for this.
In early February 2017, ''
Tubefilter
Tubefilter, Inc. is a privately held company based in Los Angeles, California, that operates media businesses focusing on the online entertainment industry. It publishes Tubefilter News, a blog targeted at the fans, creators, producers, influenc ...
'' interviewed one of ''Webs And Tiaras'' creators, Eric, who insisted that the team has "never used any
bots
The British Overseas Territories (BOTs) or alternatively referred to as the United Kingdom Overseas Territories (UKOTs) are the fourteen dependent territory, territories with a constitutional and historical link with the United Kingdom that, ...
or any other method to increase our views." Given the channel's substantial numbers, he said, "If we were not respecting the rules, YouTube would certainly have taken notice." He also said that his team is based in Canada, and there is no larger company behind his channels, and that it represents a
grassroots
A grassroots movement is one that uses the people in a given district, region or community as the basis for a political or continent movement. Grassroots movements and organizations use collective action from volunteers at the local level to imp ...
project among friends.
In February 2017, ''
The Verge
''The Verge'' is an American Technology journalism, technology news website headquarters, headquartered in Lower Manhattan, New York City and operated by Vox Media. The website publishes news, feature stories, guidebooks, product reviews, cons ...
'' commented that "adults dressing up in costume and acting out weird, wordless
skits
Sketch comedy comprises a series of short, amusing scenes or vignettes, called "sketches" or, "skits", commonly between one and ten minutes long, performed by a group of comic actors or comedians. While the form developed and became popular in ...
has become a booming industry on the world's biggest video platform" and that while many videos were "puerile but benign", others featured more questionable content, such as
scatological humor and violent or sexual situations. The article noted that most videos were made with a very limited budget and "a few
Halloween costumes", which made them easy to produce and contributed to their multiplication. It also attributed their success to the frequent use of "
Freudian concerns", which young children may find fascinating, amusing, or frightening, such as "peeing, pooping, kissing, pregnancy, and the terrifying notion of going to the doctor and getting a shot".
Also in February, ''
The Awl'' published an article on ''Webs and Tiaras'' and similar channels, describing their content as "nonsensically nightmarish" and "pretty twisted for children's content: some videos involve Elsa giving birth, and in some others, Spider-Man injects Elsa with a brightly colored liquid. You half expect the scenarios to be
porn setups." In most videos, the
like and dislike options were disabled, which makes it difficult to understand how many users were actually engaging with them. Many videos feature hundreds of positive comments written by similar channels in an apparent attempt to attract more clicks.
In March, the
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
ran a piece titled "The disturbing YouTube videos that are tricking children". The article focuses on a ''
Peppa Pig
''Peppa Pig'' is a British preschool animated television series created by Neville Astley and Mark Baker. Produced by Hasbro Entertainment and Karrot Animation and formerly produced by Astley Baker Davies, the show follows Peppa, an anthro ...
'' imitation, where the titular character's teeth are painfully
pulled out by a dentist, and a video featuring said character
burning down an occupied house. The article also mentioned the existence of "hundreds" of similar videos, ranging from
unauthorized but otherwise harmless copies of authentic animations to frightening and gory content.
CTV News
CTV News is the news division of the CTV Television Network in Canada. The name ''CTV News'' is also applied as the title of local and regional newscasts on the network's owned-and-operated stations (O&Os), which are closely tied to the nationa ...
also reported in March about YouTube's "fake toons problem", with adult-themed imitations of popular children's shows frequently appearing on
YouTube Kids
YouTube Kids is an American video app and website developed by YouTube, a subsidiary of Google. The app provides a version of the service oriented solely towards children, with curated selections of content, parental control features, and filte ...
: "In some cases, the video will feature a
kid-friendly thumbnail, while the video itself might be entirely different" and be very unsuitable for small children. The network commented that such videos were "often nightmares to behold, with lots of frightening scenes involving monsters and blood. Many of these videos venture into dark territory, with the characters often being chased, attacked, or injured in a bloody manner."
The term "Elsagate" was coined on the Internet in 2017. During the summer of that year, it became a popular
hashtag on
Twitter
Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...
as users called attention to the presence of such material on YouTube and YouTube Kids. On
Reddit
Reddit ( ) is an American Proprietary software, proprietary social news news aggregator, aggregation and Internet forum, forum Social media, social media platform. Registered users (commonly referred to as "redditors") submit content to the ...
, an Elsagate subreddit
r/ElsaGate was created on June 23 to discuss the phenomenon, soon attracting tens of thousands of users.
In July 2017, ''
Yahoo! Lifestyle'' reported that disturbing videos masked as ''
Peppa Pig
''Peppa Pig'' is a British preschool animated television series created by Neville Astley and Mark Baker. Produced by Hasbro Entertainment and Karrot Animation and formerly produced by Astley Baker Davies, the show follows Peppa, an anthro ...
'' and ''
My Little Pony
''My Little Pony'' (''MLP'') is a toy line and media franchise developed by American toy company Hasbro. The first toys were developed by Bonnie Zacherle, Charles Muenchinger, and Steve D'Aguanno, and were produced in 1981. The ponies feature ...
'' cartoons (in particular, the infamous ''
PONY.MOV'' web series) were being shown to children on YouTube.
Discovery of Elsagate videos (2017)
In November 2017, several newspapers published articles about the YouTube channel ''
Toy Freaks'', which had been created five years earlier by a single father named Greg Chism. ''Toy Freaks'' had a total of 8.54 million subscribers and were among the top 100 most viewed channels before it shut down that month. The channel often featured Chism's daughters, and in most cases showed them scared or crying.
Several individuals, including the rapper
B.o.B and commentary channel
h3h3Productions, discussed Elsagate on social media during this time.
On November 4, ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' published an article about the "startling" videos slipping past YouTube's filters and disturbing children, "either by mistake or because bad actors have found ways to fool the YouTube Kids' algorithms".
On November 6, author
James Bridle wrote on
''Medium'' about his worry about videos aimed at scaring, hurting, and exploiting children. He said these videos were common on YouTube, and noticed that many of these videos were confusing as obvious parodies and imitations interacted with algorithm-driven content creators, which led to content that mixed up popular
tropes, characters, and keywords. He said this made videos with real people resemble automated content.
On November 17, Internet commentator
Philip DeFranco posted a video addressing the issue.
''The New York Times'' found that one of the channels featuring counterfeit cartoons, ''Super Zeus TV'', was linked to a website called ''SuperKidsShop.com'', registered in
Ho Chi Minh City
Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) ('','' TP.HCM; ), commonly known as Saigon (; ), is the most populous city in Vietnam with a population of around 14 million in 2025.
The city's geography is defined by rivers and canals, of which the largest is Saigo ...
, Vietnam. A man working for ''SuperKidsShop.com'' confirmed that his partners were responsible for the videos, on which "a team of about 100 people" were producing. Subsequent requests for an interview went unanswered.
On November 9, members of the satirical sound collage group
Negativland
Negativland is an American experimental music band that originated in the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 1970s. The core of the band consists of Mark Hosler, David Wills (aka "The Weatherman"), Peter Conheim and Jon Leidecker (aka "Wobbly" ...
presented an episode of their weekly radio show ''
Over the Edge'' dedicated to Elsagate. Modern Animal Kids' threads Elsagate through a remix of three '90s episodes of ''Over the Edge'' which focused on media for children, all broadcast in the final years before ''
Teletubbies
''Teletubbies'' is a British children's television series created by Anne Wood and Andrew Davenport for the BBC. The programme focuses on four differently coloured characters known as the Teletubbies, named after the television screens on t ...
'' pioneered marketing to the 6- to 18-month-old demographic".
On November 22, ''
BuzzFeed News
''BuzzFeed News'' was an American news website published by BuzzFeed beginning in 2011. It ceased posting new hard news content in May 2023. It published a number of high-profile scoops, including the Steele dossier, for which it was strong ...
'' published an article about unsettling videos that depict children in disturbing and abusive situations. The information on the article came with the assistance of journalist and human rights activist
Matan Uziel, whose investigation and report to the
FBI
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...
on that matter were sent on September 22, informing its leadership about "tens of thousands of videos available on YouTube that we know are crafted to serve as eye candy for
perverted, creepy adults and online predators to indulge in their child fantasies".
On November 23, French-Canadian outlet ''Tabloïd'' released a video investigation about ''Toy Monster'', a channel linked to ''Webs and Tiaras''. They confronted the videos' creators – based out of the south shore of
Quebec City
Quebec City is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the Census Metropolitan Area (including surrounding communities) had a populati ...
– who refused to be interviewed. One of the actors featured in the videos anonymously stated that he was contractually obligated to refrain from commenting. The investigation revealed that identical content was being posted on numerous channels apparently operated by the same people.
According to a report by
China News Service, many Elsagate clips had been re-uploaded onto Chinese video platforms from YouTube, but others were created domestically, involving youngsters being beaten with rulers and children giving each other injections. The authorities eventually announced in January 2018 to launch a nationwide campaign against the videos. A creator told ''
The Beijing News'' that his daughters appeared in a video he made, in which they lined up and were
spanked with a ruler.
2020s
Although YouTube initiated a crackdown on Elsagate content in 2017, videos hosting similar content have continued to be found on the website in the following years. Much of the content is based on video game
IPs popular with children, such as ''
Minecraft
''Minecraft'' is a 2011 sandbox game developed and published by the Swedish video game developer Mojang Studios. Originally created by Markus Persson, Markus "Notch" Persson using the Java (programming language), Java programming language, the ...
'', ''
Among Us'' or ''
Poppy Playtime
''Poppy Playtime'' is an episodic survival horror video game series first developed and published in 2021 by American indie developer Mob Entertainment. The game is set in an abandoned factory owned by the fictional toy company Playtime Co. ...
'', and is both marketed towards, and freely accessible to, children. And while YouTube Kids disallows inappropriate content and is intended to steer children away from the main app, the efficacy of that method has been called into question.
An investigation, published by ''
Wired
Wired may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Music
* ''Wired'' (Jeff Beck album), 1976
* ''Wired'' (Hugh Cornwell album), 1993
* ''Wired'' (Mallory Knox album), 2017
* "Wired", a song by Prism from their album '' Beat Street''
* "Wired ...
'' on 30 March 2021, found dozens of "disturbing" or "grotesque" animated videos targeting ''Minecraft'' and ''Among Us'' fans that were featured under YouTube's "Topics" or "hashtags" pages for the games. The magazine argued that these newer discoverability features lacked moderation, and allowed "opportunistic" channels to display questionable or inappropriate content. One livestream showcased an animated video of a bare-chested, female ''Minecraft'' avatar opening a present containing a
poop emoji, as well as a thumbnail featuring two inflated breasts holding up a "poop ''Minecraft'' brick", with other inappropriate or disturbing ''Minecraft'' or ''Among Us''-style thumbnails, easily seen via the Topics or hashtags sections. Still, the magazine acknowledged the 2017 purge and stated that their findings didn't represent "a direct Elsagate repeat", noting that these videos were not on YouTube Kids, that much of their shocking content was limited to the thumbnails only, and that many of the more obvious ways of targeting children had been challenged by the purge.
In 2022, ''
Newsweek
''Newsweek'' is an American weekly news magazine based in New York City. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely distributed during the 20th century and has had many notable editors-in-chief. It is currently co-owned by Dev P ...
'' also reported on channels and videos containing similarly inappropriate content or thumbnails, featuring characters from horror games such as ''
Five Nights at Freddy's
''Five Nights at Freddy's'' (''FNaF'') is a video game series and media franchise created by Scott Cawthon that includes video games, novels, graphic novels, and films. The story arcs typically follow a night guard or other character trying t ...
'' and ''
Poppy Playtime
''Poppy Playtime'' is an episodic survival horror video game series first developed and published in 2021 by American indie developer Mob Entertainment. The game is set in an abandoned factory owned by the fictional toy company Playtime Co. ...
'' that were popular with children. The magazine described suggestive thumbnails, as well as content that featured drugs (including
date rape drugs) and violence, such as murder,
school shootings, or physical abuse towards children and female characters. YouTube responded, stating that "the content shared has not been found in the YouTube Kids app which is our recommended experience for children under 13." However, Sonia Livingstone, professor at the London School of Economics and expert on children's digital safety, argued that this was insufficient, given that the main app still had the content in question accessible to children, with poor moderation, labeling and "age-gating". ''Newsweek'' further contended that, while YouTube encourages creators to age-restrict content intended for older users and disallows content that targets minors while displaying inappropriate themes, none of the videos they found had been age-restricted.
Effect on children
''The New York Times'' quoted pediatrics professor Michael Rich, who considered it upsetting that "characters
hildrenthought they knew and trusted" were shown behaving in an improper or violent manner.
Research suggests that exposure to inappropriate and disturbing content can have detrimental effects on their emotional well-being, cognitive development, and behaviour. Children may become desensitized to violence, display aggressive tendencies, or suffer from anxiety and nightmares. Furthermore, this content can confuse and distort their understanding of appropriate behaviour, relationships, and societal norms.
Response from YouTube
In response to the controversy, on 1 June 2017, YouTube changed its guidelines, specifically to ban children's characters in inappropriate situations. However, that ban had little effect, and in the months after, the subreddit ''r/Elsagate'' became a place for amateur investigators to raise the alarm on videos that slipped through YouTube's moderation system.
In August 2017, YouTube announced its new guidelines on content and monetization. In an ongoing series of
efforts to demonetize controversial and offensive videos, it was announced that creators would no longer be able to monetize videos that "made inappropriate use of family-friendly characters". In November of the same year, it announced that it would implement "a new policy that age restricts this content in the YouTube main app when flagged".
The controversy extended to channels that featured not necessarily children's characters but actual children, who sometimes performed inappropriate or dangerous activities under the guidance of adults. As part of a broader action, YouTube terminated the channel ''Toy Freaks'', which featured a father (Greg Chism) and his two daughters in potentially abusive situations.
Chism was subsequently investigated by
child-protection officials in
Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...
and
Missouri
Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...
for alleged child abuse.
In December 2017, authorities announced that Chism would not face criminal charges. Before its removal, the channel had over 8.5 million subscribers.
It was also revealed in the media that many videos featuring minors – frequently uploaded by the children themselves and showing innocent content – had attracted comments from
pedophiles and other groups. Some of these videos were monetized. As a result of the controversy, several major advertisers froze spending on YouTube, forcing YouTube to ban children from their site, citing legal obligations.
On November 22, 2017, YouTube announced that it had deleted over 50 channels and thousands of videos that did not fit the new guidelines. On November 27, the company said in a statement to ''BuzzFeed News'' that it had "terminated more than 270 accounts and removed over 150,000 videos", "turned off comments on more than 625,000 videos targeted by child predators" and "removed ads from nearly 2 million videos and over 50,000 channels masquerading as family-friendly content".
''
Forbes
''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...
'' contributor Dani Di Placido wrote that many problematic videos could still be seen on the platform, and that "the sheer volume of videos hastily deleted from the site prove that YouTube's algorithms were utterly ineffective at protecting young children".
In December 2017, as advertisers pulled ads, YouTube CEO
Susan Wojcicki announced new moderation guidelines, removing inappropriate children's content and bringing the total number of moderators up to 10,000.
See also
*
*
Brain rot
*
Child Online Protection Act
The Child Online Protection Act (COPA) was a United States law, law in the United States, United States of America, passed in 1998 with the declared purpose of restricting access by Minor (law)#United States, minors to any material defined as h ...
(COPA) and
Children's Online Privacy Protection Act
The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA) is a United States federal law
The law of the United States comprises many levels of Codification (law), codified and uncodified forms of law, of which the supreme law is ...
(COPPA)
*
AI slop
*
Fantastic Adventures scandal
*
*
Content farm
References
External links
*
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