March 1, 2019
Chavie Lieber
Vox
Lexile: 1275-1375L
For
years, health professionals and childhood advocacy groups have been
vocal about their concerns over child safety and YouTube. The company
has taken measures to try to make YouTube a safe space for children and
shield its young viewers from the dangers of the internet. Four years
ago, for example, it launched a special app specifically for children’s
content, YouTube Kids.
But despite these efforts, the problems have not gone away.
Last
week, an investigation by Wired reported that on YouTube, “a network of
pedophiles is hiding in plain sight.” People are apparently flocking to
YouTube to watch videos of children performing activities like yoga or
gymnastics, or playing games like Twister; these users are then leaving
sexually suggestive comments on the videos, and communicating with each
other as well. Per Wired, there are hundreds of thousands of sexually
suggestive comments on videos featuring children.
In a statement
to Vox, YouTube says it “took immediate action by deleting accounts and
channels” and that it will “continue to work to improve and catch abuse
more quickly.”
On Thursday, February 28, YouTube announced on its
creator blog that it would be suspending the comments on all videos
that feature minors and other types of content that could be at risk of
“attracting predatory behavior.” YouTube said a small selection of
accounts will have their comments enabled but will require a moderator,
which YouTube will work with directly, to actively watch the comments
section.
YouTube also said it has updated its algorithm to better
detect predatory comments, which is “more sweeping in scope, and will
detect and remove 2X more individual comments.”
Just days before
the Wired story was published, a YouTube vlogger named Matt Watson said
he discovered via an investigation of his own that the YouTube algorithm
feeds people videos of children playing once they start looking for
it–a “wormhole into a soft-core pedophile ring,” as he terms it.
These
are troubling findings–for parents who upload videos to YouTube of
their kids playing, and for children who are increasingly abandoning
television to hang out on YouTube instead. In some cases, children are
even interacting with the commenters, according to Wired, responding to
their questions and providing personal information like their age.
It
also spells big trouble for advertisers. In the past week, brands like
AT&T, Disney, Hasbro, Epic Games, and Nestle have pulled their ads
from YouTube, saying they won’t work with the tech giant until it can
figure out how to solve this problem.
Google has claimed it’s
fixed the issue by banning some accounts and closing the comments
sections on certain videos. But Haley Halverson, of the DC-based
National Center on Sexual Exploitation, says it’s still very much
ongoing.
“Within two clicks, I was able to enter into a rabbit
hole of videos where children are being eroticized by pedophiles and
child abusers,” Halverson wrote in a statement released Friday. “The
content became more flagrantly sexualized the more I clicked, as the
YouTube recommendation algorithm fed me more and more videos with
hundreds of thousands, and sometimes millions, of views. Despite
YouTube’s claims to be cleaning up this content, YouTube so far still
continues to monetize videos that eroticize young children and that
serve as hubs for pedophiles to network and trade information and links
to more graphic child pornography.”
YouTube is now figuring out
how it will deal with its issue of sexually exploitative comments, as
advertisers abandon deals that help Google earn its billions. But like
all issues involving tech giants, the solutions aren’t so simple.
How YouTube became an inadvertent home to a “soft” pedophile ring
YouTube
was launched in 2005 by three former PayPal employees. The idea for
creating an easily accessible video site came about after one of the
founders had trouble locating a video of Janet Jackson’s wardrobe
malfunction from the 2004 Super Bowl.
Google bought the site in
2006 for $1.6 billion, and today it is the second-most-visited website
on the internet (behind Google.com). YouTube has 1.9 billion monthly
users, which is about a third of the population of the entire internet.
YouTube
today has turned into, among other things, a platform where
personalities can make millions of dollars off weird DIY videos and
beauty tutorials. It’s also home to plenty of funny videos, many of
which involve children. One of the first viral videos was “Charlie bit
my finger”; the clip of 3-year-old Harry having his finger chomped on by
his 1-year-old brother has more than 867 million views. There was the
video of then-7-year-old David after the dentist, who got high off
nitrous in 2009, or a video of an adorable then-3-year-old girl named
Cody, who cried because she couldn’t handle how much she loved Justin
Bieber.
Like these viral videos, there are hundreds of millions
of hours’ worth of content about kids on YouTube, most of which is
innocent. But child advocacy groups have spoken for years about the
dangers of YouTube–and of the internet in general–when it comes to
childhood safety, and it’s now starting to bubble to the surface as it’s
become clear that these videos are not always being viewed with
innocuous intentions.
YouTube has clear rules against explicit
content. In its outline of its nudity and sexual content policy, the
company writes that “content meant to be sexually gratifying (like
pornography) is not allowed on YouTube” and that “videos containing
fetish content will be removed or age-restricted.” The company also says
that “sexually explicit content featuring minors and content that
sexually exploits minors” is not allowed. It says it reports content
that contains imagery of child sexual abuse to the National Center for
Missing and Exploited Children, which works with law enforcement.
But
as the Wired story points out, these people aren’t necessarily coming
to YouTube to look for pornographic content, but are interested in the
more innocuous type, like videos where children’s private parts are
shown, both covered and uncovered, while doing exercise or playing
games. People are leaving suggestive comments on the videos (which are
mostly of girls, some as young as 5) and are sharing the timestamp of
when this content is spotted. Per YouTube vlogger Watson’s assessment,
the YouTube comments section is also enabling these people to
communicate with one another.
Child pornography “is being traded,
as well as social media and WhatsApp addresses. YouTube is facilitating
this problem,” Watson writes in the description of his video,
explaining how these YouTube commenters are getting in touch with each
other to share sexual content about children, making their network
broader and more sprawling than just YouTube.
Because of
YouTube’s algorithm, once viewers start watching videos of children
playing and jumping, they are then fed videos that seem to be popular
along the same lines; in this way, the video-sharing site is essentially
feeding viewers the content they are looking for. In some cases,
children on YouTube are even responding to commenters. Per Wired, “on
one video, a young girl appears to ask another commenter why one of the
videos had made him ‘grow’.”
YouTube has said that it’s “aggressively” tackling this problem. In an email to Vox, a spokesperson wrote:
Any
content–including comments–that endangers minors is abhorrent and we
have clear policies prohibiting this on YouTube. We took immediate
action by deleting accounts and channels, reporting illegal activity to
authorities and disabling comments on tens of millions of videos that
include minors. There’s more to be done, and we continue to work to
improve and catch abuse more quickly.
The company also says it’s
purged 400 accounts responsible for uploading videos that appear to be
exploiting children, and deleted millions of comments. YouTube told Vox
it constantly tries to kick users younger than 13 off the platform, and
that it’s been trying to hire more child safety experts, including
former CIA and FBI employees.
Yet YouTube is still littered with
hundreds of thousands of videos of children, and many of these still
have problematic comments.
I’ve spent a few hours this week doing
my own searches on the site. I found that many videos of children
playing have had their comments sections disabled; I’ve also seen some
videos taken down.
But there are still plenty of videos with
innocent content that’s being exploited, like of girls playing in
skirts. These videos still have comments with timestamps, as well as the
ongoing exchange of personal information.
Another “adpocalypse” as advertisers back away from YouTube
The
problem becomes even more morally disturbing when you consider that
money is being made from this content. The clicks are being monetized by
dozens of brands, as YouTube brings Google about $3.9 billion in
advertising revenue every year, per Statista.
“The pedophile
crisis, like all YouTube crises, is a direct result of the platform’s
business model,” Josh Golin, the executive director of the advocacy
group Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, says. “It is extremely
important to note that YouTube’s algorithm was not malfunctioning; by
recommending more and more videos to pedophiles of girls in swimsuits or
doing gymnastics, it was functioning exactly as intended: to keep users
on the site as long as possible so YouTube could make more money.”
Nearly
every big company you can name, from HBO to Peloton to L’Oréal to
Samsung, has advertised on the video-sharing site. After these reports
surfaced last week, many began pulling their advertisements from
YouTube. A spokesperson for Epic Games, which owns Fortnite, told Wired
that it’s paused advertising on YouTube and had “reached out to YouTube
to determine actions they’ll take to eliminate this type of content from
their service.” Disney, Hasbro, and Nestle have also pulled their ads
from YouTube, as has AT&T.
This is not the first time YouTube
has gotten into trouble with advertisers. In 2017, brands like Verizon,
Johnson & Johnson, and AT&T pulled their advertisements from
YouTube and Google after it was revealed that their ads were playing
alongside extremist content that promoted terrorism.
Some advocates are calling for more assertive action on YouTube’s part, like cracking down on all types of children’s content.
“Why
isn’t YouTube taking more serious steps, like temporarily shutting down
all comments and recommendations; removing children’s content from
YouTube; and using Google’s enormous reach to tell parents to keep
children–and videos of children–off YouTube?” asks Golin. “Obviously,
these would be drastic steps, but if having pedophiles openly trade
information on your site doesn’t lead to drastic action, what will?”
(YouTube would not comment on why it has waited this long to start
addressing the problem of sexually suggestive comments on videos of
children.)
But flagging content based just on the fact that it
contains children is likely not a viable solution, mainly because there
are seemingly endless videos of children playing with toys, reviewing
games, and so on. And some of these toy and gaming influencers bring in
huge paychecks–for themselves and for YouTube. Other creators say
they’ve been trying to take on this comment moderation issue on their
own, and don’t want to be punished.
“I’m not reporting the story
because it negatively affects the whole YouTube community,” Daniel Keem,
host of the YouTube show DramaAlert, tweeted. His show covers all the
drama going on in the world of social media, and he fired back after a
follower asked why he hadn’t brought up YouTube’s issues with sexually
suggestive comments on children’s videos. “We don’t need another ad
apocalypse. What I have done behind the scenes, though, is reached out
to my YouTube contacts showing them the video and my team is showing
them content to take down. This is not just about me. This is about all
my friends, big and small creators. I’m not reporting something that’s
going to affect their livelihoods.”
YouTube, so far, is trying to
fix the problem short term by limiting ads on videos with children. On
Twitter, it said that “even if your video is suitable for advertisers,
inappropriate comments could result in your video receiving limited or
no ads.”

This, of course, has rattled the community of YouTube stars, who are concerned their content won’t make money now. Content creators can file an appeal if their videos get flagged and the ads are removed. As one mom YouTuber tweeted: “MY 5 YEAR OLD SON: does gymnastics and is a happy, sweet, confident boy. youtube: NOT ADVERTISER FRIENDLY.”

Meanwhile, it’s clear that even if YouTube solves its children’s content problem, the task of cleaning up other concerning material on the site is going to be difficult. Just this past week, a pediatrician and blogger from Gainesville, Florida, Free Hess, said she’s found content promoting suicide on YouTube, and that even though she’s flagged the videos, they keep reappearing.
Posting this type of violent content is against the rules, but some of it isn’t searchable. Instead, Hess found that clips are hidden inside children’s videos. In one video, a man jumps in to say, “Remember, kids: Sideways for attention. Longways for results,” as he pretends to slice his arm.
“I think it’s extremely dangerous for our kids,” Hess told the Washington Post about YouTube. “I think our kids are facing a whole new world with social media and Internet access. It’s changing the way they’re growing, and it’s changing the way they’re developing. I think videos like this put them at risk.”
Searches for Peppa Pig and Doc McStuffins lead to knockoff videos of the franchises that are violent and inappropriate for children. Most recently, internet trolls have been capitalizing on the ongoing scare of the “Momo challenge,” where a creepy, bug-eyed character (which is actually a Japanese sculpture) supposedly tells children to harm or kill themselves. Although the theory that kids are taking their lives because of Momo is a viral hoax, moms say they’re finding that Momo is now actually appearing in kids’ videos on YouTube, spliced into content to scare them (although YouTube denies the challenge is being promoted in videos on its site).
On Friday, March 1, YouTube told The Verge that it would stop running ads on videos about the Momo challenge. These videos apparently violate the company’s advertiser-friendly content guidelines, which states it won’t run ads on videos that depict violent or harmful acts. It will also demonetize content from news publications covering the hoax (and the scare it’s causing parents), as YouTube scrambles to make its platform more child-friendly.
Tackling the issue of cleaning up content on YouTube won’t be an easy fix, and it won’t happen overnight. But it’s a pressing matter for both parents and children, and if their concerns won’t get the tech giant to act, then Google potentially losing revenue dollars because of an advertiser exodus might.
Questions Using Close Reading and Critical Thinking:
- The first section of an article should answer the questions “Who?”, “What?”, “When?”, and “Where?” Identify the four Ws of this article. (Note: The rest of the news article provides details on the why and/or how.)
- Does this article have any bias? Why or why not?
- What have been YouTube’s solutions to this problem so far? Do you think that these solutions will work?
- What advertisers have pulled ads from YouTube? Why would any of these companies do this? Use specific details from the article in your explanation.
- Explain how YouTube’s recommendation algorithm contributes to the pedophilia problem.
- In the article, the author Chavie Lieber states that this “problem becomes even more morally disturbing when you consider that money is being made from this content.” What does Lieber mean by this? Why do you think she finds this more “morally disturbing”?
- Why are some parents with children in YouTube videos upset with the changes YouTube has made to fix the problem?
- What is the author’s purpose for this article? How do you know?
- Have you ever thought about the content you post on the internet? Will you think differently about what you post after reading this article? Explain your thinking.
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