Parents have been issued an urgent warning about fake Bluey episodes surfacing on YouTube kids - and they're so inappropriate.
Kids mistakenly watching rude content online is every parent's nightmare but with the ever growing reliance on technology like mobile phones and child-suitable tablets, with parents still have to devise clever tricks to get their kids to put the devices down, the world wide web is even more accessible to young children.
But while TikTok is banned in some states, and as much as you can filter out the adult and age-inappropriate content or child-lock some content platforms to protect your kids from what they might accidentally click on, there's a new hidden danger and it could easily go unnoticed.
Parents using YouTube kids to access their children's favourite shows like Bluey season 3, are being warned about fake Bluey episodes that contain 'odd' storylines - and they're so cleverly done that the only way you know its inappropriate is by watching the episode in full.
At first glance, one mum thought she had passed her child a regular episode of Bluey to watch, but on closer inspection, she realised something wasn't quite right about the show.
Not only was it fake, but it also showed a reimagined Bluey and Bingo crying in the first scene. Meanwhile, other mums had also spotted other 'odd' story lines on the fake Bluey show including one where a character eats faeces and another where the parents were hitting the kids.
One mum alerted other parents on a Facebook Bluey fan page, "Honestly, I just turned it off ASAP so I don't know what happens but Bluey and Bingo were crying in the first scene but it's nothing like (Bluey). It's on Kid's YouTube, be careful,"
The fake Bluey episodes, uploaded on Lotus Animation Story's YouTube page, featured the characters in different colours but they have the same names and animation style.
The episodes and the account has been since suspended from the site after parents proceeded to raise their concerns and report it.
Another parent asked, "'Has anyone seen this? My husband put it on for our daughter and it's NOT Bluey,"
While a third parent explained, "I won't let my kids watch this version, it's odd and weird things happen. My three year old screamed and shut it off one day because the parents were hitting Bluey and Bingo and it freaked him out. That was the day YouTube got removed from the TVs."
The YouTube kids app on which the content was found enables parents to control and filter inappropriate content but on this occasion the clips slipped through the net.
Another mum explained, "'There are so many of these animations for Bluey that are so inappropriate, I had to go through and block them all."
You can see the difference with the official Instagram account for Bluey below.
And Stephanie Lowe, Family Editor at Goodto.com and mum to son Ted, has shared why she prefers to use official streaming platforms like BBC iPlayer and Disney+, "I have trust issues with Youtube and only ever used BBC iPlayer or Disney+ to play Bluey.
"I'm obsessed with wondering what - in my son's daily life - might become a core memory, anything watched can't be unseen. So I try to cover all my bases including never watching Peppa Pig and never leaving child on YouTube."
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