Lil Nas X’s “Industry Baby” video continues to cause controversy for its explicit content but when one parent decided to complain about the video’s prominence on her YouTube search, Nas had to remind them how search functions work. Other Twitter users joined in, pointing out that YouTube already has parental control functions to prevent small children from seeing inappropriate content — and while it’s far from a perfect feature, it’s probably well capable of keeping Nas’ gyrations aware from concerned parents, with just a little more effort than taking screenshots and posting angry messages on a completely different platform.
“This was the THIRD video that popped up when I searched ‘Baby videos’ on YouTube,” read the original complaint. Ordinarily, that’d be enough to garner some sympathy, but the next line kind of belied the bad faith argument the user was actually trying to make. “How much more proof do people need that they are after our kids???” Nas, who is pretty much the Shang-Chi of Twitter trolling, expertly reversed the argument with a sarcastic quote-tweet, highlighting that merely searching “baby videos” might not be the most effective method of finding quality kids’ programming.
This was the THIRD video that popped up when I searched “Baby videos” on YouTube. How much more proof do people need that they are after our kids??? pic.twitter.com/DnXcheJG5Y
— Mama Bear
(@TierraLarai_) September 12, 2021
“BREAKING NEWS,” he joked. “Local woman shocked that search results for ‘baby’ included videos with baby in the title.” Other users were quick to point out that YouTube has a wholly separate app, YouTube Kids, to circumvent exactly this concern. “Just say y’all not attentive parents and move on,” one jabbed.
BREAKING NEWS: local woman shocked that search results for “baby” included videos with baby in the title https://t.co/bbJ6GrW7VR
— MONTERO
(@LilNasX) September 13, 2021
there’s literally a youtube kids app just say y’all not attentive parents and move on pic.twitter.com/6M3XiAUlH2
— probably just nobody (@dubbingtonknows) September 13, 2021
Meanwhile, the phrasing of the bad faith questioning “that they are after our kids” — implying that evil gay people are out to brainwash children into … being gay, I guess? — echoed more conspiracy nonsense recently spouted by Louisiana rapper Boosie. However, true to form, Nas disarmed that line of reasoning just as deftly on last night’s MTV VMAs as he won the award for Video Of The Year for “Montero (Call Me By Your Name),” shouting out the so-called “gay agenda” in his cheeky acceptance speech. Check out more responses to YouTube’s parental control policies below.
.@LilNasX accepts the award for Video of the Year: “Let’s go gay agenda!”
pic.twitter.com/5QNJxd0M42
— MTV NEWS (@MTVNEWS) September 13, 2021
https://twitter.com/smoke_nd_pearlz/status/1437417901313646594
YouTube kids & Parental controls exist for a reason. A tiny amount of actual parenting can prevent your kids from seeing content that’s not age appropriate. https://t.co/vuHPPV2aL1
— That Miss Cleo Shit (@dntcallmecindy) September 13, 2021
some people are really 6 ft. shy of smart omg LMAO like download YouTube Kids https://t.co/qSxWb44GrA
— LAUREN B. BROWN (@RAGGEDYROYAL) September 13, 2021
There’s a YouTube Kids app. And parental controls on YouTube. And what kind of kid is searching “baby videos” on YT? https://t.co/iw9qGFlMqi
— GC (@GNCordova) September 13, 2021
The search algorithm finds the word “baby” among millions of videos.
The song is trending with the exact word you searched.
No one’s out here trying to reach your kids this can happen on any search algorithm, it’s computer code dumbass. https://t.co/ijZ0594ReW
— Mutahar (@OrdinaryGamers) September 13, 2021