Youtube is directing children to clips pushing extremism, violence and self-harm, say parents.
One toddler who loves Thomas the Tank Engine ended up viewing graphic footage of train crashes.
A 10-year-old girl looking for dance videos saw clips promoting self harm and extreme weight loss.
And vulnerable young people looking for advice on LGBT issues were advised to watch videos with extreme homophobic content.
Adults were also affected. One looking for Vikings content was sent to white supremacy videos.
They were all promoted by the site’s recommendation function, research by internet safety group the Mozilla Foundation revealed.
The girl’s mum said: “She’s now restricting her eating and drinking. I tried to delete all recommended videos and put in parental controls but she’s finding ways to log on using browsers and school computers.”
A YouTube spokeswoman said its systems ensured authoritative content was recommended first.
She added: “We’ve introduced over 30 changes to recommendations this year, resulting in a 50 per cent drop in watchtime of borderline content and harmful misinformation from recommendations in the US.
"This update has also begun rolling out in the UK.”
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