YouTube CEO says platform is ‘valuable’ for teens’ mental health

YouTube has been criticised for allowing kids to access content suitable for adults, which Wojcicki said the company has worked to address. — Bloomberg

YouTube chief executive officer Susan Wojcicki said Google’s video platform is beneficial to adolescents’ mental health, amid growing concern that rival Instagram may be “toxic” for teenage girls.

“We certainly do see for a lot of really tough issues that YouTube can be a really valuable resource,” Wojcicki said in a Bloomberg Television interview. “So body positivity, mental health, we see a lot of creators actually talk about mental health and that, for a lot of kids, really it destigmatizes, and enables people to talk about what’s happening and what’s going on with them. So we do take it very seriously.”