YouTube on Thursday announced new sweeping measures meant to protect minors. Among other regulations, the video streaming platform says it will disable comments on all videos featuring children.
After reportedly purging thousands of inappropriate comments on such videos earlier this month, YouTube struck comments from tens of millions of videos it claimed “could be subject to predatory behavior.” Several channels that “attempt to endanger children in any way” have also been removed. While the platform’s initial effort concentrated on addressing content that features young minors, it plans to expand the initiative over the next few months to affect videos including children of any age.
“We understand that comments are an important way creators build and connect with their audiences,” a YouTube spokesperson told the Daily Dot. “We also know that this is the right thing to do to protect the YouTube community.”
A select few creators will be offered to work directly with YouTube to keep comments available on such content. However, they’ll be required to actively moderate comments and must be classified at “low risk of predatory behavior” by the platform.
YouTube also announced the launch of a new comments classifier it claims can detect and remove twice as many predatory comments as before. It assured creators that its methods will have no effect on monetization.
In the past month, YouTube has been rocked by multiple accusations about its content for kids, including a viral suicide “challenge” to an alleged hidden child exploitation ring.
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