Major Companies Suspend Ads On YouTube Amid Child Exploitation Concerns

YouTube has been under fire over an alarming number of predatory comments in videos featuring minors, with an array of major brands either suspending their ads on the platform or considering such a move

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 21st February, 2019) - YouTube has been under fire over an alarming number of predatory comments in videos featuring minors, with an array of major brands either suspending their ads on the platform or considering such a move.

The issue was highlighted by a YouTube user named Matt Watson, who posted a video earlier this week showing "wormhole into a soft-core pedophilia ring on YouTube." The video explains how any new user can access disturbing videos targeting young children only in two clicks while searching something completely unrelated - such as, in his case, "bikini haul" - vlogs of women showcasing newly bought bikinis. After watching a couple of videos of this subgenre, a video featuring a young girl appears in the "recommended" thread - and if users clicks on it, the whole "recommended" section becomes filled up with videos featuring minors.

Whereas the videos themselves are rather innocent - young girls do gymnastics and stretching, play Twister, lick ice creams and suck lollipops - but the comment section is littered with predatory comments saying how beautiful little girls are, asking if they wear underwear, sharing time codes for moments in videos when children are in compromising poses if paused, as well as posting clearly sexualized peach, bathing suit, eggplant and water droplets emoji.

Watson's video went viral hitting nearly 2,000,000 views in three days. The relevant post on Reddit has also gained attention and got hundreds of comments.

YouTube has responded to the issue by deleting accounts and channels, disabling comments on video with children, as well as reporting predatory comments to authorities.

"Any content - including comments - that endangers minors is abhorrent and we have clear policies prohibiting this on YouTube. We took immediate action by deleting accounts and channels, reporting illegal activity to authorities and disabling comments on tens of millions of videos that include minors. There's more to be done, and we continue to work to improve and catch abuse more quickly," a YouTube spokesperson said in a statement sent to Sputnik.

The platform, however, did not specify whether it planned to update its algorithms which were blamed for "pedophilia ring" in the first place.

As the issue got mainstream attention, a number of major advertisers decided to temporally remove their ads from the platform. A Nestle spokesperson told Sputnik that even though "an extremely low volume" of some of their advertisements were shown on videos with inappropriate comments, the company decided to suspend advertising on the platform globally during the inquiry into the issue.

"While investigations are on-going directly with Youtube and our partners, we have decided to pause advertising on Youtube globally, already effective in North America and several other markets. We will revise our decision upon completion of current measures being taken by Google to ensure Nestle advertising standards are met," the spokesperson said.

Other major brands that decided to suspend their advertising on YouTube reportedly include Walt Disney, McDonalds, Epic Games, Purina, and others, but their press services have not confirmed the decision to Sputnik as of Thursday.

ALGORITHMS CANNOT HANDLE PREDATORS

The platform's algorithms have previously faced criticism for pushing 9/11 conspiracy, flat earth theories, and other doubtful content through the "recommended" bar. Professor Toby Walsh, a leading researcher in Artificial Intelligence from the University of New South Wales, told Sputnik that the issue around the "wormhole" into content with disturbing comments targeting children had the same roots - clicks-oriented algorithms

"At the bottom here, it is the YouTube algorithm that is optimised to get clicks. And these are videos where sadly there's a significant audience," Walsh said.

The expert noted, however, that AI technology used on the platform cannot properly address the issue of predatory comments on videos featuring children.

"Technology cannot today solve this problem. The comments are, on the surface level, not obviously harmful. 'Beautiful Barbie' could be a harmless comment, but it's the context of a child in a compromising position, it is troubling. AI cannot today understand context," he said.

Walsh suggested that YouTube should hire more human moderators who would be able "filter content more aggressively by hand."

"They need to hire more content moderators. They probably need to hire hundreds, probably tens of thousands of moderators. This will cost tens, even hundreds of millions of Dollars to fix. But given they make billions of dollars in ad revenue, they can afford to do so and this should be the cost of doing business," he stressed.

The expert also highlighted that tech giants, including YouTube, Facebook and Twitter should not "get an easier ride" and be subjected to large fines, accounting for 2 or 3 percent of their global turnover, in the same way as old-fashioned media.