YouTube CEO: Disabling comments on minor videos was a "compromise" for child safety

Thursday, YouTube has to deal with strong reactions of children on the exploitation of children on the site. disable comments on most videos featuring minors.

A day later, CEO Susan Wojcicki explained the decision, stating that it was a "compromise" between upsetting young video creators and keeping kids safe. She said that many younger users are using comments to solicit feedback from viewers about what works, what does not work, and what videos they might want to make next.

"This change has removed some of the abilities of innocent youth," Wojcicki told the Lesbians Who Tech conference in San Francisco. "In the end, it was the compromise we had made because we felt we needed to make sure that protecting children was our number one priority."

The controversy over the exploitation of children began last week when a video blogger, Matt Watson, explained how pedophiles could enter a "wormhole" of YouTube videos to see pictures of children. children with sexually suggestive positions. In the comments of these videos, users post timestamps containing links to other videos, and YouTube's algorithms recommend even more of this type of videos.

In response, advertisers, including AT & T and Fortnite's Epic Games maker, pulled YouTube's ad spend. After that, YouTube, owned by Google, banned more than 400 accounts and removed dozens of videos endangering children.

Although YouTube has said that it will disable comments for most children's videos, the company will leave comments turned on for a small number of minor creators. In these cases, the videos will be actively moderated and YouTube will work directly with the creators. Although the company has announced that it is starting with a small group, it hopes to eventually open the comments to more creators.

Wojcicki's comments come at a difficult time for the world's largest video site. In addition to the controversy over the exploitation of children, the site has been shaken in recent weeks by scandals related to vaccination and suicide. Earlier this week, a Florida pediatrician reportedly reported children's videos containing suicide tips.

Wojcicki, interviewed at the conference by Kara Swisher of Recode, was also questioned about the walkout of Google. In November, more than 20,000 Google users from around the world stepped out of their offices to oppose the giant's search for allegations of sexual harassment against key executives.

"It was a big problem," Wojcicki said. "As a management team, we wanted to give people the leeway to tell their stories, and we will listen to their stories."

One of the demands of the organizer during the walkout was to put a basic employee on Google's board, but the company has not done so yet. On Friday, when asked if she would plead in favor of this decision, Wojcicki for the most part escaped. "I do not know enough," she said, but she added, "I think the important thing is the employee."