A recent scandal took place on YouTube that put the video streaming platform on the spot in a really big way. This scandal basically involved the revelation that there was a lot of predatory behavior going on within the comment sections of the platforms. This predatory behavior mostly involved children, so it is understandable that there was an uproar about an apparent lack of security on the platform that might end up putting children at risk of getting in harm’s way.
YouTube subsequently started to delete videos en masse that seemed to violate their community standards, and the platform has recently taken another step to protect children as much as possible. This step basically involves commenting on all videos featuring children to be temporarily turned off. Only a few select groups of channels with very good reputations and a long standing relationship with YouTube will be allowed to keep comments open if their videos feature children. YouTube has stated that moving forward it will be extending this protection to videos featuring older minors as well, and that this is a temporary move that they have made while they fine tune their algorithms to make them better suited to finding predatory comments and deleting them, as well as banning accounts that end up making them.
Platforms like YouTube have become so monumentally enormous that it can be impossible to accurately monitor everything that goes on in their inner workings. Steps like this are important because they are going to reduce the possibility of unsavory behavior being conducted, and will protect children that would not know how to protect themselves while they are using the internet.
Read Next: YouTube Subscribers Battle - PewDiePie Officially Dethroned by T-Series
Photo: SIPA USA/PA Images
YouTube subsequently started to delete videos en masse that seemed to violate their community standards, and the platform has recently taken another step to protect children as much as possible. This step basically involves commenting on all videos featuring children to be temporarily turned off. Only a few select groups of channels with very good reputations and a long standing relationship with YouTube will be allowed to keep comments open if their videos feature children. YouTube has stated that moving forward it will be extending this protection to videos featuring older minors as well, and that this is a temporary move that they have made while they fine tune their algorithms to make them better suited to finding predatory comments and deleting them, as well as banning accounts that end up making them.
"Over the past week, we disabled comments from tens of millions of [YouTube] videos that could be subject to predatory behavior. These efforts are focused on videos featuring young minors and we will continue to identify videos at risk over the next few months.", announced YouTube Team in a blog post. Adding further, "No form of content that endangers minors is acceptable on YouTube, which is why we have terminated certain channels that attempt to endanger children in any way."In addition to that, YouTube also explained that Momo challenge (a viral trend that promotes self-harm) is against its terms. Julia from YouTube Help Community team said that:
"Videos encouraging harmful and dangerous challenges are clearly against our policies, the Momo challenge included." Explaining further, "To clarify, it is not against our policies to include the image of the Momo character on YouTube; that being said, this image is not allowed on the YouTube Kids app and we’re putting safeguards in place to exclude it from content on YouTube Kids."YouTube team on Twitter suggests and encourages parents and other users to flag any type of inappropriate video content immediately.
Platforms like YouTube have become so monumentally enormous that it can be impossible to accurately monitor everything that goes on in their inner workings. Steps like this are important because they are going to reduce the possibility of unsavory behavior being conducted, and will protect children that would not know how to protect themselves while they are using the internet.
Read Next: YouTube Subscribers Battle - PewDiePie Officially Dethroned by T-Series
Photo: SIPA USA/PA Images
