Nestle and other brands are pulling YouTube commercials from fears of child exploitation

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In a 20-minute video that has been viewed about 1.9 million times since Sunday, blogger Matt Watson said comment sections of some YouTube posts featuring girls doing activities like gymnastics or yoga were being exploited. by "a network of pedophiles with soft core".
The videos themselves seemed to have been made with innocent intentions. But some users made suggestive comments and pointed to times when girls were in "compromising positions," according to Watson. He said that some of the videos on the platform, which belongs to Google (GOOGL), made ads for leading brands including Disney (DIS).
Nestle (NSRGF), the owner of brands like Kit-Kat and Nespresso, decided to "suspend" its advertisement on YouTube after the diffusion of some of its commercials on videos "where inappropriate comments were made", declared a spokesperson of the society.

Epic Games, the maker of the hugely popular Fortnite game, has "suspended any pre-roll advertising" on YouTube and "has gone to Google / YouTube to determine the actions to take to eliminate this type of content from its service" , according to the newspaper. to a spokesperson for the company.

The fury of children's videos is another blow to YouTube's reputation for controlling confidential content. Major brands have temporarily withdrawn their advertising from the platform in previous years, following the publication of advertisements alongside extremist content.

While online anger was growing around the issue raised by Watson, YouTube "immediately responded by removing accounts and channels, reporting illegal activity to the authorities and disabling comments on tens of millions of videos including minors, "said a spokesperson for the video platform.

"There is still much to be done and we continue to work to improve and catch the abuse faster," added the spokesman.

Dr. Oetker, the German food giant, sells desserts, frozen pizzas and baked goods.

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Dr. Oetker asked YouTube "to explain how it could happen that the advertising of our company is placed in an environment that we strictly reject and that we consider highly reprehensible from an ethical point of view" said the company in a statement. He added that he expects that YouTube "immediately withdraws from its website the contributions that threaten the integrity and protection of minors".

Disney has also suspended its advertising on YouTube, according to Bloomberg, which cited unidentified people who knew the issue. Disney has not responded to CNN Business's repeated requests for comments.

Nestlé spokesperson expressed optimism about YouTube's ability to resolve issues quickly, noting that inappropriate content was affecting "extremely low volume" of the company's ads.

"We have received reassuring information from Google on the ongoing temporary actions and we will review our decision as soon as these actions have been confirmed and our investigation will be completed," said the spokesman.

Rob McLean contributed to this report.

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