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YouTube’s child predator comment controversy: all the latest updates

On Sunday, YouTuber Matt Watson sparked a major backlash against YouTube, when he posted a video describing how a “soft-core pedophilia ring” of child predators have been using YouTube’s recommendation algorithms to discover innocuous videos of children, and communicate with one another by posting predatory comments in YouTube’s comments section.

The response to Watson’s video has been swift as numerous companies, such as Epic Games, Disney, AT&T and others have pulled their ads from the platform, while YouTube has been racing to delete video channels and comments.

Watson’s essay was the latest to point out a long-running issue that the company has faced, and the company told The Verge that it was enforcing its policies “aggressively, reporting it to the relevant authorities, removing it from our platform and terminating accounts.”

The situation is still playing out for YouTube, its creators, and viewers: follow along for all of the updates.

  • Adi Robertson

    Feb 22, 2019

    Adi Robertson

    YouTube says it’s not restricting ads based on creators’ comment sections

    Illustrations by Alex Castro / The Verge

    YouTube says it’s not asking creators to moderate their comments or face ad restrictions, clarifying a message that has worried some of the site’s members. Yesterday, amid controversy over child predators congregating on YouTube, the Team YouTube Twitter account stated that “inappropriate comments” could result in videos having limited or no advertising. A YouTube spokesperson, however, tells The Verge that the platform isn’t basing these limits on creators’ comment sections. Instead, YouTube moderators are evaluating videos that seem likely to attract predatory comments, then restricting advertising as a short-term fix.

    These restrictions are part of a larger effort to address inappropriate videos and comments involving minors — one that includes removing channels, banning users, and disabling comments. Unlike those measures, the monetization limits don’t remove any content; they just reduce the risk that companies might see ads appear near objectionable comments.

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  • Jacob Kastrenakes

    Feb 21, 2019

    Jacob Kastrenakes

    AT&T pulls ads from YouTube over predatory comments on videos of children

    Illustration of the AT&T logo on a dark blue background.
    Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

    AT&T has pulled all advertising from YouTube while the streaming service deals with issues regarding predatory comments being left on videos of children, according to CNBC. AT&T had reportedly only just started running ads on YouTube again after pulling them during a controversy in 2017.

    Disney, Nestlé, and Fortnite maker Epic Games have also pulled ads from YouTube this week. The trend suggests that YouTube could be facing another “adpocalypse,” where inappropriate behavior by some users on the site leads to major advertisers backing out, sometimes for extended periods of time.

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  • Feb 21, 2019

    Julia Alexander

    YouTube is ‘aggressively approaching’ solution to child exploitation controversy

    YouTube Billboard Advertisement
    Sean Gallup/Getty Images

    YouTube is “aggressively approaching” a solution to its recent child exploitation controversy by clamping down on monetization, increasing moderation, and addressing recommendation search issues.

    This week, YouTube has further limited which videos some ads can run on and has applied those ad restrictions to millions of videos, according to a memo sent to advertisers, which was obtained by AdWeek. The memo describes how YouTube is trying to protect children as major companies, including Disney, Epic Games, AT&T, and Nestle, pull ads from the platform.

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  • Feb 21, 2019

    Julia Alexander

    YouTube terminates more than 400 channels following child exploitation controversy

    YouTube Studios LA event (STOCK)

    YouTube has terminated more than 400 channels and deleted tens of millions of comments in response to concerns from creators, users, and advertisers over videos being used to exploit children.

    The details come from YouTube’s creator outreach team in response to a video from commentator Philip DeFranco published yesterday evening. The team’s statement said that “all of us at YouTube” are working on the problem, and that “we are continuing to grow our team in order to keep people safe.” YouTube has also been reporting comments and accounts to law enforcement, which it has to do in compliance with federal law.

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  • Feb 20, 2019

    Julia Alexander

    Disney reportedly pulls ads from YouTube following child exploitation controversy

    The Disney logo on a white background.

    Disney has reportedly pulled its ads from YouTube entirely in the wake of new controversy over a series of new videos showcasing child exploitation on the site.

    A report from Bloomberg states that Disney has “withheld its spending” on YouTube in the wake of creator Matt Watson’s explainer, which demonstrates how predators use videos of children to sexually exploit them. Disney joins Fortnite developer Epic Games and Nestlé in removing its ads from the platform. (Epic removed its Fortnite preroll ads that appear before a video plays.) Other companies, including Peloton, have asked YouTube to investigate the situation.

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  • Feb 20, 2019

    Julia Alexander

    YouTubers fear looming ‘adpocalypse’ after child exploitation controversy

    Matt Watson/YouTube

    YouTube creators are worried that a catastrophic drop in ad revenue may be upon them following a new controversy over YouTube’s inability to curve predatory behavior on content featuring young children.

    “I’m not reporting the story because it negatively affects the whole YouTube community,” Daniel “Keemstar” Keem, the host of popular show, DramaAlert, tweeted. “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 there livelihoods.”

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  • Feb 20, 2019

    Julia Alexander

    Epic Games pulls Fortnite pre-roll ads on YouTube following child predator controversy

    Fortnite

    Epic Games has stopped plugging Fortnite pre-roll ads on YouTube videos following a discovery that ads were playing on videos predators used to exploit children.

    “We have paused all pre-roll advertising,” an Epic Games spokesperson told The Verge. “Through our advertising agency, we have reached out to Google/YouTube to determine actions they’ll take to eliminate this type of content from their service.”

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  • Feb 19, 2019

    Julia Alexander

    YouTube still can’t stop child predators in its comments

    Illustration by William Joel / The Verge

    YouTube is facing a new wave of criticism over the alarming number of predatory comments and videos targeting young children.

    The latest concerns started with a Reddit post, submitted to r/Drama, and a YouTube video, exposing a “wormhole into a soft-core pedophilia ring on YouTube,” according to Matt Watson. Watson, a former YouTube creator who returned with a single video and live stream about the topic, demonstrated how a search for something like “bikini haul,” a subgenre of video where women show various bikinis they’ve purchased, can lead to disturbing and exploitative videos of children. The videos aren’t pornographic in nature, but the comment sections are full of people time stamping specific scenes that sexualize the child or children in the video. Comments about how beautiful young girls are also litter the comment section.

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