Graphic content disguised as a children's cartoon has found its way onto a 'family-friendly' phone app.
It's left one Auckland mother feeling uneasy, after she came across the show with her toddler on Youtube Kids.
"When the episode started I soon realised it was a rip-off version," the woman, who doesn’t want to be named, says. "A main character violently crashed into a road sign after running away from police. I quickly turned it off and told my son that is was 'not good'.
"There's something quite sinister and eerie about it."
After investigating further she found even more troubling content.
"As I flicked through them, I saw violent & disturbing behaviour carried out by what resembled popular cartoon characters. This included public urination, vandalism, bullying, arson, fighting and voyeurism.
"In one episode, two characters blew themselves up by taking the petrol cap off a car and sparking up a lighter. Others showed how to kill daisies by urinating on them, or how to do 'fire cooking at home'."
She says while the cartoons looked like bad imitations, "a pre-schooler wouldn't be able to tell the difference".
It isn't the first time violence has disguised itself in a cartoon online. Similar videos have circulated the internet this year, including Peppa Pig parodies showing the characters brandishing weapons and being graphically injured.
The videos appear to be deliberately designed to trick kids into watching them.
YouTube Kids promotes itself as a free smartphone app that makes it easier for children and parents to find content they are interested in.
"One thing that was really shocking was that the videos that were on this particular channel, they had at least 100,000 views each and one had 800,000," the mother says. "It was kind of appalling that this video had been viewed this many times, and I'm not sure how many times they're been reported, but they're still there."
Newshub has reached out to YouTube for comment.
Newshub.
