YouTube refuses to stop recommending videos with kids



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YouTube will continue to recommend videos of young children, despite lingering concerns about presenting these videos to predators via the company's recommendation algorithm.

A new report from the New York Times found that, despite evidence from independent researchers that YouTube's algorithm was helping children's videos in predator circles, YouTube's teams did not want to turn off the recommendations because it would hurt creators by reducing the traffic generated by their videos. Instead, the company "will limit the recommendations to videos that it sees as putting children at risk," says Time written.

Limiting referrals is YouTube's latest attempt to control her pedophilia problem. The company made some important changes in February when it was first informed that predators were using the comments section of videos featuring children to participate in conversations about sexual exploitation. . The YouTube security team has decided to close comment sections on most videos featuring minors.

A new blog post published Monday by the YouTube team includes additional information on the company's current strategy to combat predatory behavior. YouTube has reduced the number of predatory comments appearing on videos, live streaming disabled for minors if it is not accompanied by an adult, and recommendations for videos featuring children. The company reiterated that it also removed "thousands of accounts per week" belonging to children under 13 years of age.

YouTube's Terms of Service state that children under the age of 13 are not allowed to create their own account, but many of these innocuous videos are uploaded by older members of the family. Many children are also key components of an entire genre on YouTube, called "family vlogging. Creators like The Ace Family (16.4 million subscribers), Tydus and Cor (2.8 million subscribers), Daily Bumps (4.6 million subscribers) and Roman Atwood. Vlogs (15.2 million subscribers) put their children in the foreground. After watching them, YouTube's algorithm recommends creating more family-friendly vlogging content and videos for kids.

YouTube is trying to balance the success of these creators and its platform as a whole with critical moderation issues. Family vloggers were frustrated by YouTube's decision to close comments earlier this year. A couple of family vloggers said The edge they understood that YouTube needed to find a solution to this problem, but many said they felt the change would mark the end of their career.

YouTube Statement at Time reiterates this double-edged sword: YouTube must ensure that its creators are protected from bad actors, but it also wants to promise its broad base of creators that they will continue to operate. When YouTube decided to remove comments, a spokeswoman for the company said The edge this they understand the frustration, but added, "We also know it's the right thing to do to protect the YouTube community." Nevertheless, changing the algorithm also means that YouTube is very successful in an area that the society values ​​deeply: watch time. YouTube is moving away from more and more recommendations based on "engagement," but time monitoring is still crucial for the company.

Updated June 3, 11am ET: This article has been updated to include the details of a new YouTube blog post on the subject.

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