Middle schoolers turn NPR podcast comments into a secret group chat
Blocked from social media, kids flooded Spotify comments under NPR's "Wild Card" podcast, and it took a Gen Z staffer to realize they weren't bots.
What to know
- Middle schoolers barred from mainstream social media apps used Spotify's comment sections under NPR podcasts as an improvised, unrestricted group chat.
- NPR staff initially mistook the coordinated comment floods for bot activity and reported them to Spotify before a Gen Z producer recognized the pattern as kids.
- The workaround echoes an earlier trick where students used shared Google Docs comment threads to chat secretly, and NPR itself had spotted the podcast-comment version on TED Radio Hour roughly a year earlier.
- The story spread widely on social media, drawn mostly from amusement at kids outmaneuvering restrictions rather than concern.
This is a funny, wholesome example of kids' resourcefulness against social media bans.
-
“The kids are alright.”
rdn.ee · Bluesky ↗
This isn't new — NPR and others already reported this workaround, and it followed an earlier Google Docs version.
-
“Funny thing is that @npr.org and @techdirt.com reported on this a year ago. And it was Google Docs before podcasts.”
johnperrino.com · Bluesky ↗
Adults use the same kinds of workarounds themselves, so the irony cuts both ways.
-
“This is actually very funny because when I was at NPR, we stole a trick from middle school kids by using a shared Google Doc as a chatroom when Slack went down.”
thomaswilburn@hachyderm.io · Mastodon ↗
Ira Glass Host, This American LifeHannah Chin Audio producer, NPR's Wild CardNPR Public radio organization / podcast producerSpotify Platform hosting the podcast comments
How it unfolded 2 developments, newest first · click a bar or a number to jump articlesposts
-
2
Tech press and social media pick up the story widely
TechCrunch, The Verge, and other outlets republished the account, and it spread across Bluesky and Mastodon with users noting the irony of teens outsmarting age restrictions.
“The kids are alright.”
— @rdn.ee -
R
Sotsiaalmeediapiirangud teismelistele toimivad nagu oodatud oli 😂 The kids are alright.
2 more of the top 3 · 9 posts in this stretch
-
B
They were likely middle schoolers who were too young for social media, running a group chat in the comments of the podcast. (Perhaps someone at NPR should have grokked this sooner: it spotted kids doing the same thing on TED Radio Hour show last year.): The hottest new hangout for middle schoolers is NPR's comment section? | TechCrunch https://…
-
L
Jälleen hyvä muistutus, että nuorilta ei voi kieltää nettiä Tämän(kin) takia olisi paljon olennaisempaa keskittyä somen ongelmien korjaamiseen kuin laittaa vaan kieltoa nuorille
-
-
1
Ira Glass details the story on "This American Life"
Host Ira Glass tracked down one of the kids involved and aired the story, including the kid's blunt explanation for why they chose NPR's podcast and Glass's own reaction to it.
“Um, I think we just, like, looked for podcasts that didn't have many comments.”
— unnamed middle schooler -
J
I'm glad more people are seeing the @thisamericanlife.org report about how children use the NPR comments section to get around social media bans today. Funny thing is that @npr.org and @techdirt.com reported on this a year ago. And it was Google Docs before podcasts.
2 more of the top 3 · 3 posts in this stretch
-
A
The folks at NPR started seeing weird activity in the comments section of the Spotify account their show "Wildcard" -- stuff totally unrelated to the podcast, in mostly English but weird abbreviations. Thinking they had found bots, they asked Spotify to delete the comments -- which of course came back. Because, as Ira Glass of This American Life…
-
K
Kids that are too young (age-restricted) from social media figured out they can use the comment section for NPR podcasts on Spotify, to talk to each other. Basically a group chat in an unrestricted random public place. In an alternate timeline, this is where escaped LLMs leave messages for themselves, but this time, it's kids working around age…
-
-
background
NPR's TED Radio Hour team flags a flood of kid comments on Spotify — On NPR's "How To Do Everything" podcast, a comment moderator described noticing sudden floods of coordinated, nonsensical comments on old TED Radio Hour episodes weeks earlier, the first documented sighting of the phenomenon.
-
background
Gen Z producer Hannah Chin identifies the commenters as middle schoolers — Audio producer Hannah Chin reviewed the flagged screenshots and quickly concluded the posts weren't bots but middle schoolers, too young for social media, using the podcast comments as an improvised group chat.
-
background
NPR's Wild Card team mistakes kid comments for bots, reports them to Spotify — Producers of NPR podcast "Wild Card" saw bizarre abbreviations and emoji flooding Spotify comments under their episodes, assumed it was bot traffic, and reported the posts to Spotify for removal.
-
background
Students repurpose Google Docs as a hidden chat room — Before podcast comments, teens blocked from apps used shared Google Docs comment threads to chat secretly during class, a workaround cited as precedent in Techdirt's coverage.
Also covered reported alongside — the timeline has no entry for these yet
-
first by Межа. Новини України., 2d ago · also TechCrunch, The Verge
2 more headlines
- The hottest new hangout for middle schoolers is NPR’s comment section? TechCrunch · 2d ago
- Kids turned the comment section of an NPR podcast into a group chat The Verge · 1d ago
and 1 smaller piece
What people are saying 3 voices from 2 sites · best of 12 · verbatim
- Today
-
L
https://www. theverge.com/entertainment/100 1056/this-american-life-npr-kids-group-chat-comment-section Uh oh, we've found another swarm of immature autonomous agents going rogue in the comments section. There's a greater than 10% chance they could destroy the world! 🙀
-
Jälkeen hyvä muistutus, että byirukta ei voi kieltää nettiä Tämän(kin) takia olisi paljon olennaisempaa keskittyä somen ongelmien korjaamiseen kuin laittaa vaan kieltoa nuorille
- Yesterday
-
This is actually very funny because when I was at NPR, we stole a trick from middle school kids by using a shared Google Doc as a chatroom when Slack went down. https://www. theverge.com/entertainment/100 1056/this-american-life-npr-kids-group-chat-comment-section One good turn deserves another.