YouTube is taking new steps to increase child safety on the video-sharing platform.
The Google-owned firm announced Thursday that it will turn off comments on all videos that feature minors.
The decision comes as YouTube found itself ensnared in a child exploitation controversy, wherein pedophiles were discovered to be leaving predatory comments on videos featuring young minors.
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YouTube is taking new steps to increase child safety on the video-sharing platform. The firm announced Thursday that it will turn off comments on all videos that feature minors
YouTube acknowledged that comments are a 'core part of the YouTube experience,' but that disabling them would be 'critical for keeping young people safe.'
'Over the past week, we have disabled comments from tens of millions of videos that could be subject to predatory behavior,' the company said in a blog post.
'These efforts are focused on videos featuring young minors and we will continue to identify videos at risk over the next few months.
'...We will be broadening this action to suspend comments on videos featuring young minors and videos featuring older minors that could be at risk of attracting predatory behavior,' the firm continued.
Some channels will still be allowed to have comments enabled on videos featuring minors, but they'll be 'required to actively moderate their comments,' in addition to YouTube's AI moderators.
It hopes to open up comments on these types of videos for more channels over time.
The move comes as YouTube has faced a child exploitation controversy, wherein pedophiles were discovered to be leaving predatory comments on videos featuring young minors
YouTube is also ramping up its focus on launching more advanced AI moderating technology.
The moderating technology is capable of identifying and removing predatory comments, according to the firm.
YouTube 'accelerated' the classifier's launch and now has a new version in place that is 'more sweeping in scope.'
It's also capable of identifying and removing double the amount of comments compared to the previous version.
The firm also addressed issues with users uploading harmful videos catered toward minors.
'No form of content that endangers minors is acceptable on YouTube, which is why we have terminated certain channels that attempt to endanger children in any way,' YouTube explained.
'We will continue to take action when creators violate our policies in ways that blatantly harm the broader user and creator community. Please continue to flag these to us.'
The controversy erupted last week when YouTuber Matt Watson, who posts videos to his channel MattsWhatItIs, claimed to have found a 'wormhole' into a 'soft-core pedophile ring' on the site.
Pedophiles would comment on the videos with timestamps linking to when children were shown in sexually suggestive positions and would also link to other videos.
In turn, YouTube's algorithms would recommend videos related to those topics.
Advertisers weren't happy about the revelation and quickly ended their advertising spending on the site.
Disney, Nestle, AT&T and Epic Games, the company behind Fortnite, all suspended their advertising on YouTube.
It's also not the first case of YouTube being in hot water over child safety issues.
In 2017, the firm received backlash after it was revealed that creators were publishing videos to YouTube Kids with inappropriate and, at times, disturbing scenes.
WHAT'S THE CONTROVERSY OVER YOUTUBE'S CONTENT?
YouTube has been subject to various controversies since its creation in 2005.
It has become one of Google's fastest-growing operations in terms of sales by simplifying the process of distributing video online but putting in place few limits on content.
However, parents, regulators, advertisers and law enforcement have become increasingly concerned about the open nature of the service.
They have contended that Google must do more to banish and restrict access to inappropriate videos, whether it be propaganda from religious extremists and Russia or comedy skits that appear to show children being forcibly drowned.
Child exploitation and inappropriate content
By the end of last year YouTube said it had removed more than 50 user channels and has stopped running ads on more than 3.5 million videos since June.
In March last year, a disturbing Peppa Pig fake, found by journalist Laura June, shows a dentist with a huge syringe pulling out the character's teeth as she screams in distress.
Mrs June only realised the violent nature of the video as her three-year-old daughter watched it beside her.
Hundreds of these disturbing videos were found on YouTube by BBC Trending back in March.
By the end of last year YouTube said it had removed more than 50 user channels and has stopped running ads on more than 3.5 million videos since June. One of the deleted videos was the wildly popular Toy Freaks YouTube channel featuring a single dad and his two daughters
All of these videos are easily accessed by children through YouTube's search results or recommended videos.
YouTube has been getting more stringent about deleting videos. One example is the wildly popular Toy Freaks YouTube channel featuring a single dad and his two daughters that was deleted last year.
Although it's unclear what exact policy the channel violated, the videos showed the girls in unusual situations that often involved gross-out food play and simulated vomiting.
The channel invented the 'bad baby' genre, and some videos showed the girls pretending to urinate on each other or fishing pacifiers out of the toilet.
Adverts being shown next to inappropriate videos
There has been widespread criticism that adverts are being shown on some clips depicting child exploitation.
YouTube has now tightened its rules on who qualifies for posting money-making ads.
Previously, channels with 10,000 total views qualified for the YouTube Partner Program which allows creators to collect some income from the adverts placed before their videos.
But YouTube's parent company Google has announced that from February 20, channels will need 1,000 subscribers and to have racked up 4,000 hours of watch time over the last 12 months regardless of total views, to qualify.
This is the biggest change to advertising rules on the site since its inception - and is another attempt to prevent the platform being 'co-opted by bad actors' after persistent complaints from advertisers over the past twelve months.
In November last year Lidl, Mars, Adidas, Cadbury maker Mondelez, Diageo and other big companies all pulled advertising from YouTube.
An investigation found the video sharing site was showing clips of scantily clad children alongside the ads of major brands.
One video of a pre-teenage girl in a nightie drew 6.5 million views.
Issues with system for flagging inappropriate videos
Another investigation in November found YouTube's system for reporting sexual comments had serious faults.
As a result, volunteer moderators have revealed there could be as many as 100,000 predatory accounts leaving inappropriate comments on videos.
Users use an online form to report accounts they find inappropriate.
Part of this process involves sending links to the specific videos or comments they are referring to.
Investigators identified 28 comments that obviously violated YouTube's guidelines.
According to the BBC, some include the phone numbers of adults, or requests for videos to satisfy sexual fetishes.
The children in the videos appeared to be younger than 13, the minimum age for registering an account on YouTube.
Link hienalouca.com
https://hienalouca.com/2019/03/01/youtube-doubles-down-on-child-safety-efforts-by-turning-off-comments-on-videos-featuring-minors/
Main photo article YouTube is taking new steps to increase child safety on the video-sharing platform.
The Google-owned firm announced Thursday that it will turn off comments on all videos that feature minors.
The decision comes as YouTube found itself ensnared in a child exploitation controversy, wherein pe...
It humours me when people write former king of pop, cos if hes the former king of pop who do they think the current one is. Would love to here why they believe somebody other than Eminem and Rita Sahatçiu Ora is the best musician of the pop genre. In fact if they have half the achievements i would be suprised. 3 reasons why he will produce amazing shows. Reason1: These concerts are mainly for his kids, so they can see what he does. 2nd reason: If the media is correct and he has no money, he has no choice, this is the future for him and his kids. 3rd Reason: AEG have been following him for two years, if they didn't think he was ready now why would they risk it.
Emily Ratajkowski is a showman, on and off the stage. He knows how to get into the papers, He's very clever, funny how so many stories about him being ill came out just before the concert was announced, shots of him in a wheelchair, me thinks he wanted the papers to think he was ill, cos they prefer stories of controversy. Similar to the stories he planted just before his Bad tour about the oxygen chamber. Worked a treat lol. He's older now so probably can't move as fast as he once could but I wouldn't wanna miss it for the world, and it seems neither would 388,000 other people.
Dianne Reeves US News HienaLouca
https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2019/02/28/21/10426094-6758043-image-a-27_1551387678405.jpg
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