YouTube introduces a label that identifies reputable health information

Created: 12/23/2022, 8:30 p.m

By: Juliane Gutmann

When it comes to health problems, many people turn to the internet for first aid.

The problem: dubious sources can also be tapped in this way.

YouTube wants to flag legitimate channels.

© Rüdiger Wölk/Imago

The YouTube Health label is to be introduced in Germany.

Internet users should be able to distinguish serious information from dubious information.

Quick answers to urgent questions, arranging spontaneous meetings and booking hotels online: the Internet has many advantages.

In any case, one of the downsides is that, in addition to a lot of verified information, fake news is also circulating.

And even listing all the possible causes of a problem can cause uncertainty.

Anyone who googles their symptoms usually knows it: a twitching in the left arm suddenly becomes a sign of a heart attack and the headaches indicate a brain tumor - self-diagnosis using the internet is usually not a good idea.

It is important to only trust reputable sources of information.

This includes the websites of (university) clinics or specialist magazines.

Texts written by editors with expertise and only peppered with reputable sources are also trustworthy.

The video portal YouTube would like to mark serious health information with a label from the beginning of 2023.

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YouTube identifies reputable sources of information

The YouTube Health label is to be introduced in Germany at the beginning of 2023.

The aim is to give the user of the US video platform the opportunity to quickly identify whether the content offered is reliable information.

Germany is the first country to introduce the new YouTube Health concept.

"It is very important to us that information on health-related topics is made available from reliable sources," Zeit Online quotes Garth Graham, Global Head of YouTube Health.

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According to its own statements, YouTube uses criteria developed by the US non-governmental organization National Academy of Medicine (NAM) to verify health information.

According to YouTube, these principles have also been validated by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Providers of health information have been able to apply to receive the health label since October 27, 2022.

According to YouTube, the providers would benefit from the fact that content verified by the label is prominently highlighted in the search results and the number of clicks is correspondingly positively influenced.