YouTube Deletes More than 400 Channels Over Child Exploitation Controversy

In response to concerns from users, advertisers and creators over youtube videos being used to exploit children. YouTube terminated over 400 channels and deleted over 10 million comments

These details come from the YouTube creator outreach team in response to a video published yesterday evening by a commentator, Philip DeFranco. The statement by the team said that “all of us at YouTube” are currently working on the problem, and that they keep growing their team in order to keep people safe. In addition, YouTube has reported accounts and comments to law enforcement in compliance with federal law.

Creators, as well as Advertisers, have thrown in their responses to the issue over the past couple of days following a published video highlighting the issue that gained mass attention.

YouTube’s spokesperson stated that the team “took immediate action by deleting accounts and channels, reporting illegal activity to authorities, and disabling violative comments. ”

“Any content – including comments – that endangers minors is abhorrent and we have clear policies prohibiting this on YouTube,”  said the spokesperson. “There’s more to be done, and we continue to work to improve and catch abuse more quickly,” he added.

While a lot of people are criticizing YouTube DeFranco defended the team by saying “this is something that YouTube has been consistently fighting” for many years now. The company laid down guidelines to address predatory behavior on videos featuring minors in the year 2017, and it has given advertisers more control on where their ads get placed. DeFranco said that this isn’t necessarily a YouTube problem anymore that an issue with the current online landscape.