Controversy over video content from popular children's YouTube channel in Vietnam

Domestic Internet users criticized the YouTube channel Tho Nguyen's video instructing how to make a jelly bathtub, which contains scenes of characters moaning, which is considered inappropriate for children.

A video titled “How to Make a Giant Gelli Baff Jelly Bathtub” is going viral on social media. As the title suggests, the main content of the video is to guide users to make a jelly bathtub.

The whole thing would not have been controversial if the video did not show the female lead lying in the bathtub moaning because of “cramps,” according to the female character.

The scene of the female protagonist moaning in the bathtub made many people upset because these are videos for children. Photo cut from video.

From the video of YouTuber Tho Nguyen, many people searched to find out who this character was and found some other scenes and videos with content considered “inappropriate” for children. Meanwhile, this YouTube channel itself is oriented towards children and has 1.4 million subscribers.

Unlike previous offensive videos aimed at children, the "moaning" audio clips are only about 1 minute long and are hidden deep in the video. Therefore, it is very difficult for parents to detect when they first turn on the video.

Right below the video on YouTube, there are also quite a few comments criticizing this video. “It was made for children but there are such groaning sounds. Request the author to edit or delete it,” one person commented.

“This is not for kids. There is nothing beneficial. Bathing like this will only ruin you,” another user commented.

The purpose of the moaning part in the video is also not really clear. If it was to "attract views", this strategy seems to have failed when the number of views and likes of the video did not increase compared to other "clean" videos without "sensitive" content.

However, since the video of the moaning was posted, many social networking sites have shared and "edited" the expressions and sounds in the video. Many other videos from the channel have also been brought out to "examine" the characters' expressions. However, the number of people curiously searching for the keyword "Ms. Tho Nguyen" has not increased significantly on Google since the video.

The metrics don't show the "effect" of adding moans to the clip.

There are quite a few other opinions when watching some videos from this channel that the video content is really not useful for children. Besides, the female characters in the clips often have exaggerated expressions. They do not find these clips attractive.

However, there are still opinions online that many people are too critical of this character. These opinions assert that if this is a video for children, adults should not be too imposing because for some people it is not attractive but children really like it. In addition, the content of the videos is not offensive, except for the recent video.

On other videos on the same channel, comments tend to be positive, expressing love for the content. Comments that are negative, even abusive, only appear on videos that contain moaning.

Tho Nguyen's YouTube channel is quite famous in Vietnam. This YouTuber once received YouTube's gold button with 1.4 million subscribers, specializing in producing videos reviewing Japanese toys, instructing children on how to play games, cook, and study. Each video on this channel has millions of views.

According to statistics, this video channel was established in March 2016, has had more than 640 million views with a maximum monthly income of 328,000 USD.

The YouTube channel that hosts the video is growing pretty well, according to SocialBlade.

The phenomenon of unhealthy content labeled for children appearing on YouTube is not new in Vietnam. Earlier this year, the YouTube channel Spiderman Frozen Marvel Superhero Real Life was fined 30 million VND for posting videos with content that went against public morality for children. The network provider was also fined 20 million VND.

The YouTube channel that hosts the “moaning” video is owned by BroadbandTV, a Canadian company. Therefore, it may be more difficult to monitor and punish than before.

According to Zing