In an animated version of New York, a minion encounters a misstep, tumbling down a sewer as it is engulfed by a wave of radioactive green slime. This substance initiates a transformation—mutating limbs and emerging fangs—causing the minion’s form to become menacing and wormlike, slithering ominously across the screen.
An AI-like narrator sings, “Beware the minion in the night, a shadow soul no end in sight,” as the transformed creature lurks in a swimming pool, sneaking up on a child and attacking mercilessly.
However, further exploration of the video’s owner presents a contrasting narrative. The Go Cat YouTube channel, which boasts 24,500 subscribers and over 7 million viewers, describes itself as a fun and exciting channel for children. It promises episodes filled with imagination, colorful animation, and surprising transformation stories that are engaging for kids.
Despite its child-friendly claims, Go Cat’s content is noted for being visceral and surreal, almost delving into body horror. This is reminiscent of the 2017 phenomenon known as Elsagate, where countless videos on YouTube featured children’s characters like Elsa from Frozen, Spider-Man, and Peppa Pig in inappropriate and perilous situations. These videos manipulated YouTube’s algorithms to appear on its Kids’ app, exploiting children’s curiosity to generate revenue. In response, YouTube removed ads from over 2 million videos, deleted more than 150,000, and terminated 270 accounts. Though similar channels persisted, Elsagate’s impact was significantly diminished.
The advent of AI has further complicated the landscape. The capacity to use and bypass generative AI prompts, coupled with tutorials on monetizing children’s content, has made creating such bizarre videos not only easy but also profitable. Go Cat is among many channels identified by WIRED when searching for common terms like “minions,” “Thomas the Tank Engine,” and “cute cats.” Many videos include familiar Elsagate themes such as unusual portrayals of Elsa and Anna from Frozen, but minions and animated cats are particularly popular.
In response to WIRED’s inquiry, YouTube reported terminating two channels for violating its Terms of Service and is suspending monetization of three additional channels. A YouTube spokesperson stated, “A number of videos have also been removed for violating our Child Safety policy. All content uploaded to YouTube is subject to our Community Guidelines and quality principles for kids—regardless of how it’s generated.”
When questioned about measures to prevent banned users from launching new channels, YouTube affirmed that such actions would contravene its Terms of Service and are strictly enforced “using a combination of both people and technology.”
