The most Successful youtube channel on youtube right now is hosted by a 7 year old kid. He
makes more money than the most subscribed youtuber, pewdiepie, more money than logan
and jake paul. Currently sitting at 21 million subscribers and 31 billion views, ryan toysreview
is youtube’s passion project, and attempt to make the platform more family, and more
advertiser friendly. But at what cost? This is the Dark Truth about Ryan Toys Review.
Welcome back to informoverload, we do the news, we spill the tea and eat potatoes. I’m
charlotte and if you’re new here, you should subscribe for the most interesting viral news
updates on youtube, and turn on the bell so you never miss one of our videos.
So before you come for me in the comments, you should know this. I’m not criticising
a 7 year old kid. He doesn’t know any better. What I want to address in this video is a
wider problem on youtube thats finally being brought to light by organizations like Truth
In Advertising, and the Federal Trade Commisssion who have accused ryan toysreview of quote
‘deceptively promoting a multitude of products to millions of preschool-aged children in
violation of FTC law. Ryan toys review is unlike other channels,
in that pretty much all of the videos are an advertisement for whatever toy ryan is
playing with or unboxing or reviewing. Literally every single video. But is he actually enjoying
the toy, or was he paid to enjoy the toy on camera? Ryan is one of the biggest child influencers
on the planet, if not the biggest. When he plays with a toy, theres a very high chance
that it will sell out. Advertisers know how much power this kid has, and they definitely
take advantage. I’m going to tell you why this is a problem.
Human beings are becoming extremely susceptible to advertising, and part of that reason is
because companies know how to predict our behaviour so that they advertise products
to us right when we’re thinking about making a purchase. If you havent seen the documentary,
the great hack, I highly recommend, it goes into this phenomenon in more detail, but for
the sake of time, I’ll give you an example. I was hanging out with a friend of mine and
we were looking at lenses for iphones. ON HIS PHONE, not on my phone. We had about a
10 minute conversation about it the other day. All of a sudden, the next day I start
seeing advertisements for the exact product I was looking at on someone elses phone on
my instagram feed. The same company, the same 58millimeter lens. How is that possible? Is
it a coincidence? No. Its not. The problem with youtube promoting channels
like Ryan Toys Review is it shows youtube cares about one thing, and one thing only.
Money. Advertising. And children under 5, even though they aren’t even supposed to
be allowed to use youtube according to the terms of service, are the most vulnerable
class of people because they are unable to identify television commercials and separate
them from the regular programming. And guess what? Ryan has been warned about
this before. There was a CARU investigation in 2017 into ryans channel that had already
found that sponsored content was not adequately disclosed. CARU recommended that ryans videos
feature a disclosure at the beginning of every video to identify sponsored content. The channel
ignored this recommendation and continued business as usual. Which is why this recent,
more severe complaint was launched in late august of 2019.
Here’s a direct quote from the complaint. “a preschoolers cognitive ability to identify
and understand that they are being presented with marketing materials is generally lacking.
They added that the FCC prohibits ads in TV shows for children under the age of 12 for
this reason. But Youtube is not TV. Its not being regulated in the same way. Yet because
youtube is free, and also because youtube is becoming the new TV, the amount of kids
that are watching youtube has grown substantially in recent years. The rules for advertising
on this platform have not been enforced. Ryan toys review has done brand deals and
sponsorship videos with brands like Chuck e Cheese, Walmart, Hasbro, Nickelodeon and
Netflix. Yet in many cases, you cant tell Which is why Truth In Advertising has accused
Ryan Toys review’s sponsored videos of deceiving millions of young children on a daily basis.
Truth in advertising’s executive director Bonnie Patten said in a statement I quote,
Kidfluencers like Ryan Toys Review Have Taken Influencer marketing a step too far. Targeting
a vulnerable population that cannot differentiate marketing from organic content is deceptive
and the Federal trade commission needs to take a stand and put an end to it.
In recent Years, The FTC and other organizations have issued stark warnings to influencers
about clearly disclosing their brand deals and sponsorships whenever they post it. Now
influencers have to clearly state that whatever section of the video features branded content
is an ad, the video or post itself has to say either ad or sponsored, and it cant be
hidden in the hashtags. It has to be clearly visible. But many influencers still don’t
abide by these laws. And yes, they are laws. Google, the company that owns youtube, has
gotten into a huge amount of trouble over this problem before, they’ve agreed to pay
170 million dollars to settle an investigation into youtube’s alleged violation of a child
privacy law. But at this time, there is still no way to punish channels like Ryan Toys review
for not properly disclosing brand partnerships. We will keep you guys updated on the investigation
into ryan toys review. But for now, I want you guys to really pay attention to how advertisements
and social media platforms make you buy things. The next time you see something you want to
buy because a particular influencer is posting about it, stop, and ask yourself, why do I
need to buy this product to be happy? Do I really need to buy it? or am I being manipulated
to believe I wont be happy unless I do. For now I’m going to wrap up this video
with some comment features. Vitotheo – so they’ve been decieiving
people by not indicating when a video is sponsored? These kids channels.
Imaginazian – ryans videos do not allow comments. Hmm. That is also because of youtubes
new rules. Jo Mcu – no lie you are the coolest person
charlotte the potato queen u are just so funny.