Youtube: Comments off on all videos depicting minors for protection reasons

YouTube will turn off commenting on almost all posted videos showing children under the age of 18 in an effort to "better protect children and families."

ΑSeveral companies (Nestle, At & T, Hasbro, etc.) were annoyed and stopped advertising on YouTube last week, when it was revealed that their ads appeared next to aggressive or sexually explicit comments made by pedophiles, under videos with children. The issue first "erupted" in 2017 and then YouTube had stated that it would take action. But a recent article in Wired magazine revealed that the situation in the meantime has worsened rather than improved.

So, after the new "noise" that erupted and after already removing tens of millions of comments last week, YouTube decided to block by default the ability to comment on almost all videos with young children, something that will be done gradually over a period of several months. according to the BBC and other international agencies.

Under the new policy, videos with very young children will automatically be turned off by third parties. This will probably even apply to videos with their children posted by parents. In videos with older children and teenagers, blocking comments will not be automatic, but will be done when the video attracts pedophile comments, something that will be detected by "smart" software with the appropriate algorithm.

YouTube said it has now developed a more effective system that can detect unacceptable comments on videos with children and remove them immediately on its own without human intervention. He also announced that he had completely banned certain channels (eg FilthyFrankCilps) that were deemed to endanger children, such as some in which shocking content was inserted between cartoons.

There is also the controversy of blocking commentary, as the comments left by "fans" on the videos help YouTube algorithms to then "serve" content to users closer to their preferences. Some video creators have also expressed concern that disabling comments on their videos will negatively affect the development of their YouTube channels.

"We understand that feedback is an important means for creators to create an audience and connect with it. "On the other hand, we know that this (disabling many comments) is the right thing to do to protect the YouTube community," he said in a statement.

However, despite the new policy for videos with children, comments will remain part of the algorithm that gives users recommendations on what to watch. Also, some video creators with children who have a YouTube channel will retain the right to comment, as long as they commit to watching carefully and restricting comments when necessary.

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