WebProNews

Tag: Complaints

  • Google’s YouTube Kids App Isn’t That Kid-Friendly According to Consumer Groups

    Google’s YouTube Kids App Isn’t That Kid-Friendly According to Consumer Groups

    In April, a group of consumer advocate groups including The Center for Digital Democracy (CDD), Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood (CCFC), American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Center for Science in the
    Public Interest, Children Now, Consumer Federation of America, Consumer Watchdog, and Public Citizen called on the Federal Trade Commission to open up an investigation against Google’s YouTube Kids app. The main point of that complaint involved the intermixing of “commercial and other content in ways that are deceptive and unfair to children and would not be permitted to be shown on broadcast or cable television.”

    Basically, these groups alleged that the YouTube Kids app was showing ads to kids.

    Now, CCFC and CDD are reporting that an additional review has surfaced even more disturbing things about the YouTube Kids app – pervasive adult content.

    According to the groups, they were able to find Explicit sexual language presented amidst cartoon animation; Videos that model unsafe behaviors such as playing with lit matches, shooting a nail gun, juggling knives, tasting battery acid, and making a noose; A profanity-laced parody of the film Casino featuring Bert and Ernie from Sesame Street; Graphic adult discussions about family violence, pornography, and child suicide; Jokes about pedophilia and drug use; and Advertising for alcohol products.

    To drive the point home, the CCFC and CDD made a video:

    Is YouTube Kids A Safe Place for Young Children to Explore? from CCFC on Vimeo.

    They’ve sent a letter to the FTC to update their complaint.

    Google claims that YouTube Kids was “built from the ground up with little ones in mind” and is “packed full of age-appropriate videos.” The app includes a search function that is voice-enabled for easy use for preschool children. Google says it uses “a mix of automated analysis, manual sampling, and input from our users to categorize and screen out videos and topics that may make parents nervous.” Google also assures parents that they “can rest a little easier knowing that videos in the YouTube Kids app are narrowed down to content appropriate for kids.”

    Google does not, in fact, “screen out the videos that make parents nervous” and its representations of YouTube Kids as a safe, child-friendly version of YouTube are deceptive. Parents who download the app are likely to expose their children to the very content they believed they would avoid by using the preschool version of YouTube. In addition to the unfair and deceptive marketing practices we identified in our initial request for an investigation, it is clear that Google is deceiving parents about the effectiveness of their screening processes and the content on YouTube Kids.

    A YouTube spokesperson has issued a statement, reiterating that parents can turn off search inside the app.

    “We work to make the videos in YouTube Kids as family-friendly as possible and take feedback very seriously. Anyone can flag a video and these videos are manually reviewed 24/7 and any videos that don’t belong in the app are removed. For parents who want a more restricted experience, we recommend that they turn off search,” says YouTube.

    While it’s true that parents can disable the app’s search function, it is enabled by default.

    And as YouTube’s statement reiterates – much of the content moderation is done by fielding manual reports, at which point Google then yanks offending videos from the app.

    From the get-go, Google admitted that some stuff could slip through the cracks.

    “When your child browses the app’s home screen, they’ll find a vast selection of kid-appropriate channels and playlists. When families search in the app, we use a mix of input from our users and automated analysis to categorize and screen out the videos that make parents nervous. And for added peace of mind, parents can quickly notify YouTube if they see anything questionable directly from the app,” said Google back in February, upon launch of the app.

    Google said this new YouTube Kids app is just a first step – the “first building block in tech for tykes.” We’ve heard for a while that Google is getting more serious about building products and services for kids. If this is the goal, content filtering is going to have to get better.

    Sure, Google presents YouTube Kids as a way for parents to feel safer about their kids watching YouTube.And it’s clear that Google has failed to prevent some adult-themed content from appearing inside the app. But parents can turn off the search function (maybe Google should have it switched off by default?) and in the end, parents should know that no content moderation system is 100% foolproof.

  • Razor Blade Croissant, A Not-So Delicious Discovery

    Imagine you’re enjoying a tasty Dunkin Donuts croissant when suddenly you notice it tastes funny. That “funny taste” is a combination of pain and blood. The croissant you just bit into? It turns out to be filled jagged bits of metal. That’s what Priscilla Salas is claiming happened to her this past week. Salas says she bought a croissant from a Dunkin Donut in Windham, Connecticut. When she took a bite out of the pastry, pieces of metal cut her mouth. Salas was “floored” by the discovery.

    She immediately notified police about what happened. Contact with the corporate office led to the theory that that she happened to purchase a croissant into which a box cutter blade had fallen when at a distribution center. The exact center where it occurred is still being determined.

    Absent-minded food preparation is as much a reality as absent-minded eating. Except one party is at greater risk for biting into a nasty surprise. Rather than wait for disaster to strike in any form, take a minute to actually look at what you are eating. A valuable lesson Salas learned the hard way and wishes to pass on to others. “I just want the public to know and be aware of what they buy and look over everything they eat.” Even if it’s an isolated incident as Dunkin Donuts has stated, it never hurts to check. There’s no telling how much damage could have been done to her body had she’d swallowed one of the pieces. But it’s very likely she will at least do a double take before eating purchased food from now on.

    As for Dunkin Donuts, Salas states the company has offered a sincere apology over what happened and given her a free a gift card for her trouble. Odds are, she’ll be opting for coffee.

    Image: Dunkin Donuts Facebook

  • Sriracha Irwindale Gets Odor Complaints

    Sriracha Irwindale Gets Odor Complaints

    Who doesn’t like hot sauce? Take an ordinary dish, and add some Sriracha hot sauce (considered by many to be the world’s best) and suddenly the dish will not taste ordinary anymore.

    However, liking the taste of something and liking the smell of something is not necessarily the same.

    An Irwindale plant where the famous hot sauce (that uses sun ripen chilies) is made was recently the cause of multiple odor-related complaints, eleven complaints to be precise. These complaints have all been reported since October 21st with one being placed on Tuesday and four on Saturday. Some have even claimed that the pepper condiment is like a form of mace.

    Irwindale City Manager John Davidson says that he can smell the odor from City Hall. “It’s pretty strong,” he said.

    Inspections were completed twice in the vicinity of Huy Fong Foods to check for lingering unpleasant odors. According to Sam Atwood of the South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD), these inspections were not fruitful.

    “On both occasions, they could not detect any odor,” Atwood said before explaining that several factors can influence odors such as the weather.

    “We will continue to take a look at that facility. We can do odor surveillance, and go out regardless of whether there’s a complaint or not, and just have an inspector drive around the area,” said Sam Atwood of AQMD.

    (image)

    So, is this an open-and-shut case where the company can return to doing what it does best — making tasty hot sauce if not completely fragrant hot sauce — while not being diverted from outside inquiries? No, this situation gets even trickier.

    Reports originally claimed that these complaints had not procured any specific legal actions against Huy Fong Foods. However, according to the Los Angeles Times, “Irwindale filed suit in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Monday,” citing the sauce as a public nuisance. Apparently, sauces can be considered nuisances. Who would have thought?

    In the event that the company suffers as a result of the action, consumers of the popular condiment may find themselves paying higher prices.

    According to David Tran, who is the chief executive of Huy Fong Foods, “If the city shuts us down, the price of Sriracha will jump up a lot.”

    Could it be that the smell just takes some adjusting? Employee Sergio Garcia said, “It’s not so bad. You get used to it.”

    [Image Via Wikimedia Commons]

  • For Businesses, Twitter Interaction With Customers Pays Off

    For companies, there are plenty of reasons to maintain an active Twitter presence. Once you establish yourself on the network and begin to accumulate followers, you can use it for publicity purposes – to give your customers news and information on products, services and everything that’s going on with your business. You can also use Twitter to promote contests or deals in real-time.

    But Twitter isn’t one-sided, and it’s not a pulpit. And those companies that make the best use of Twitter are the ones that use it to interact with customers, more specifically, respond to customer complaints.

    But according to research from Maritz research company evolve24, not all companies are engaging in a dialogue with their customers on Twitter.

    evolve24 surveyed 1,298 U.S. consumers that were identified as active Twitter users who use the service to address complaints they have with companies and their products/services. Less that one-third (29%) said that they received a response from the company on Twitter regarding their complaint.

    49% of those surveyed said that they “expected” the company to read their tweet. And the older the respondent was, the more they expected the company to read the tweet.

    Out of those that received a response tweet from the company, a whopping 83% said that they either liked or loved hearing from them. And beyond that, nearly two-thirds said they were at least somewhat satisfied with the company’s response.

    Of those surveyed that failed to get a response to their complaint tweet, 86% said that they would have liked or loved to hear from the company. 63% said that they would not like it if the company responded to their complaint tweet with something that didn’t pertain to the complaint.

    It looks like the moral of the story here is that people respond extremely well when a company takes the time to respond to a complaint on Twitter – and not enough companies are utilizing this weapon. When people are upset about the way they have been treated by a company or dissatisfied with a product or service, they are already in a bad mood. When a company fails to respond to a complaint on Twitter it will just exacerbate the situation (especially for those who have the expectation of a response).

    And it’s amazing how satisfied the respondents were with the companies’ responses. 140 characters seem to go a long way.

    Of course, it’s not feasible for large companies to respond to every complaint directed towards them on Twitter. Take Coca Cola for instance. In the past few days, their Twitter strategy has seen them respond to dozens of positive mentions. Here’s one of the only responses to a semi-negative mention in that time frame:

    And even then, Coca Cola didn’t quite respond to the original query and they have yet to follow up on his followup.

    Here are a couple of examples of businesses responding effectively to Twitter complaints –

    If you’re a smaller business, it would appear that is in your best interest to not only maintain a Twitter presence, but actively respond to customer problems using the platform.

    And as your Twitter presence grows, and you get more and more followers, the volume of complaints will inevitably grow. But the chance to make a customer’s experience a little better with 140 characters or less will grow as well.