YouTube bans comments on most videos with kids to fight pedophilia



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YouTube now prevents users from commenting on almost all children's videos after the publication of a pedophile ring, which uses the platform's comment section to search for and exploit minors.

The video platform wrote a blog post on Thursday explaining his decision to disable comments on videos featuring children under 13 years old. YouTube also announced that it would also ban comments on videos of 13 to 18-year-olds that may attract predators.

"We recognize that comments are an essential part of the YouTube experience, the contacts you connect with and increase your audience," the company wrote. "At the same time, the important milestones we share today are essential to keeping young people safe."

All videos with minors will not have disabled comments. YouTube, which is part of Google, has announced its intention to grant exceptions to the ban for "a small number of channels actively moderating their comments and taking additional steps to protect children."

The decision came after video blogger Matt Watson published a video Earlier this month, you explained how a "soft-core pedophile network" uses YouTube to share and comment on videos of very young children, by providing timestamps and details in the comments section of the time the kids go to school. undressed or occupied certain compromising positions. The YouTube algorithm would then recommend to users viewing these videos more sequences featuring children. Watson stated that he was able to find links to child pornography with a few clicks on the site.

Since the Watson video, reports have been published on a clip encourage suicide and self-harm being bundled into children's videos on YouTube and YouTube Kids, an app created for kids. The videos were in the style of "Splatoon", a cartoon whose episodes are viewed several million times on YouTube. The video platform told BuzzFeed that it was ending the chains of users responsible for spliced ​​videos.

YouTube has removed more than 400 channels and tens of millions of comments on videos featuring kids last week. Thursday's announcement is an important step forward in relation to the company's previous behavior regarding inappropriate site behavior.

The company said it expects the change to take several months to fully enter into force. YouTube also plans to launch a new automated tool to detect and remove twice as many predatory comments.

YouTube's recommendation algorithm is not solely responsible for promoting pedophilia. He also recommended videos of conspiracy theories, dangerous jokes and the self-muting film mentioned above.

The algorithm "is extremely biased in favor of conspiracy theories. It promotes a huge amount of false information – literally, the craziest possible for the algorithm that recommends it, "said William Chaslot, a former employee of Google, who helped create the algorithm, already said HuffPost.

YouTube is working to improve the algorithm, but that has not stopped many major advertisers from reducing their spend on the site. After the February feature series on YouTube's operating videos, brands like Hasbro, Disney, AT & T and Nestle have suspended their ads.

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