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YouTube to disable comments on videos featuring minors after child safety fears
YouTube on Thursday said it won't allow people to leave comments on some videos that feature minors, as the Google-owned video site deals with a scandal involving what one blogger called a "softcore pedophilia ring."
The company will disable comments on all videos that star "young minors" and "older minors that could be at risk of attracting predatory behavior," YouTube said.
However, the company said it'll keep comments enabled for a small number of creators who are minors. In those cases, the videos will be actively moderated and YouTube will work with the creators directly. Though the company said it's starting with a small group, it eventually wants to open up comments again to more creators.
YouTube said it's also launching software that could automatically detect and remove predatory comments.
YouTube bans comments on all videos of children
Videos of older children and teenagers will typically not have the comments disabled, unless a specific video is likely to attract predatory attention. That could include, for example, a video of a teenager doing gymnastics.
YouTube told the BBC it would use algorithms to detect which videos contained children.
Blog post. Also at TechCrunch and LA Times.
Previously: Inappropriate Comments Could Lead to Video Demonetization on YouTube
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday March 01 2019, @06:33PM (2 children)
> That could include, for example, a video of a teenager doing gymnastics.
While we know that putting olympic gymnastics in prime time is not just for aspiring girls and their mommies, let's remember that those likely to post lewd comments on these kinds of videos are more likely to be teen boys than actual dangerous predators.
Not that it's a bad thing to ban both of those categories from YT comments altogether.
But the people posting the videos, and YT, don't want disabled comments ... Comments cause significant increases in page views.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Friday March 01 2019, @10:08PM (1 child)
Pfft, simple enough to fix. Just digitally edit in (or better yet, require actual prosthetics) mutton chops, mustaches, and full beards, optionally with some gray in them, and cellulite on all children. I bet that cuts out the lewd comments almost completely.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bob_super on Friday March 01 2019, @10:26PM
You might have heard of a small impediment to your plan called Rule 34 ...