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YouTube Promised To Halt Comments on Kids Videos Already. It Hasn't. (cnet.com) 60

Posted by msmash from the slow-responses dept.
A pedophilia scandal compelled YouTube to vow to suspend comments on videos with kids age 13 and younger. Six months later, comments are still easy to find. From a report: YouTube is about to reposition how its massive online video service treats clips for children. Following a record $170 million penalty, announced Wednesday, for violating kids' data privacy, Google's YouTube pledged to disable comments, notifications and personalized ads on all videos directed at children. And its machine learning will police YouTube's sprawling catalog to keep kids videos in line, the company said. One problem: YouTube's machine learning was supposed to be suspending comments on videos featuring young minors already. It hasn't.

Comment-enabled videos prominently depicting young kids are still easy to find on YouTube. A single YouTube search for one kids-focused subject -- "pretend play" -- returned more than 100 videos with comments enabled, all prominently featuring infants, preschoolers and other children young enough to still have their baby teeth. After CNET contacted YouTube with a list of these videos, comments were disabled on nearly half of them.
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YouTube Promised To Halt Comments on Kids Videos Already. It Hasn't. More

YouTube Promised To Halt Comments on Kids Videos Already. It Hasn't.

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  • non-story (Score:5, Insightful)

    by iggymanz ( 596061 ) on Monday September 09, 2019 @03:32PM (#59175078)

    so a few videos out of millions happen to slip by the system but had comments disabled after being reported, so what?

    Comments on videos by and large weren't and aren't a problem anyway for the issue of pedos and such. Hysteria over a few cases.

    • Re:non-story (Score:5, Insightful)

      by sycodon ( 149926 ) on Monday September 09, 2019 @03:44PM (#59175126)

      90% of the comments on YouTube seem to be from Children.

      • About 90% of the AC comments I get on Slashdot seem to be from children with paste-bin addictions. Sad. Really sad.

      • I'll bet that your 90% comprises 25% actual children (less than 18 years old), 5% pretending to be children (perhaps 1% are pedos), and the balance are just ignorant "adults".

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by DarkOx ( 621550 )

      because it a binary proposition. Its either unacceptable in terms of privacy to allow comments on videos with kids or its not. Google should not be allowed to hide behind "well our algorithm isn't perfect" any more than you or I get to say "Well officer it was just this once I obey the speed limit on this road almost all other drives I take."

      That isn't how things work. Big tech - Social media especially want to evade responsibility because "its to hard" but at the same time want to enjoy all the other pro

      • That's 100% correct and that's what IMDB did with their forums. Could not moderate the boards so they close them. A sad action to a sad reality. How can these giants get away with a fine they'll be making in the next 2 hours?

        • They're rich as shit, that's why.

        • that's 100% wrongheaded thinking, nothing will ever make any forum 100% safe. It's absurd expectations and no one should be held to unrealistic and absurd standards. There is no problem at youtube.

          • I agree. The 'problem' with Youtube is the same as the problem with any public space - people want to control what happens in it, yet they still want to be free to do whatever they like and not feel like they're being supervised. This is contradictory. You either have a completely locked-down system where you can only post stuff with Youtube's prior approval, or you have a situation where stuff gets posted freely, then you deal with the issues with whatever gets posted. People can't constantly bitch about h

      • Responsibility for what? 99.999% comments on kids videos are fine, just like any other video. Are you imaging some rainbow-shitting-unicorn world where everything is 100% safe? not happening. not allowing comments is absurd, and not finding 100% of bad comments is absurd expectation. for people like you to talk about something being "unacceptable" just means "waaah waah something I don't like happens 0.00001% the time." and is silly snowflake thinking.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          99.999% comments on kids videos are fine

          It's really nothing like that. Go do a search for yourself, the problem is huge. There are forums where people post links to the videos so they get quickly swamped with these comments.

          The real issue is that people expect too much of YouTube's technology. It can locate copyrighted material nearly instantly and flag it, but detecting images of children is a much harder task. Detecting images of children under 13 is damn near impossible, even for humans, and they probably don't want to cut off comments for 15

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by DarkOx ( 621550 )

          I am all for 1A and a big fan of individual liberty but with that comes responsibility. If someone wants to stand up their own web sever they are free to publish anything they'd like to publish.

          Youtube/facebook/twitter is free to publish anything they'd like to. However CDA-230 is wrong. We have libel laws, we have laws against facilitation other crimes these have not been found to be constitutionally incompatible with 1A and these organizations should not enjoy any special exception. If Slashdot for exa

  • Indeed (Score:3)

    by nospam007 ( 722110 ) * on Monday September 09, 2019 @03:34PM (#59175082)

    "A pedophilia scandal compelled YouTube to vow to suspend comments on videos with kids age 13 and younger. Six months later, comments are still easy to find. "

    You're commenting it right here.

    • I think there is more of a being a lazy ass/not wanting to spend any money to monitor the comments scandal going on. The moronic/lazy always take the easiest and most destructive way out. How about we just ban kids entirely from the internet? It will cut down on all of the noise, and will save everybody's ears from the mouths of babes who call others "fags" and threaten to come to your house to rip your throat out when playing multiplayer online games.

      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        by DarkOx ( 621550 )

        Actually banning minors from using the internet seems quite sensible. Treat it like alcohol in most states make it legal to serve (supervise) your own child in your own home but leave complete responsibility for anything a minor does online with the parent/guardian.

        • Re: Indeed (Score:5, Interesting)

          by Malays Boweman ( 5369355 ) on Monday September 09, 2019 @04:15PM (#59175264)
          But it's too much for to ask parents to take responsibility for their own kids, especially with an overzealous CPS that routinely misses real abuse cases and 'feewings'. A kid's school chums have more authority than they do. That's why we get these stupid "think of the children" rules and laws only a true brownshirt could love.

          • That's why we get these stupid "think of the children" rules and laws only a true brownshirt could love.

            It's simply the result of wanting government to do more & more. The only thing a domestic government can do is make laws. It can only remove/restrict liberty or allow more liberty. The more government does, the more laws, rules, regulations, etc etc that must exist and the less liberty there will be. It is a zero-sum game.

            Strat

            • Yes, everybody knows just how good a parent the government is. Ask any prison inmate who is now doing hard time after being shuttled through the foster system.

                How about the parents stop asking for the gubmint to take care of their kids while at the same time chanting about wanting lower taxes and smaller government,.

                I want a magic unicorn, but that doesn't mean I'll get one.

              • I'm not sure to friend you or foe you.
                You like Facebook, or at least have an icon, and that's bad but your comments are good.
                Oh, and I have the invisible pink unicorn you want, but it's not magic.

        • Re: Indeed (Score:4, Insightful)

          by CrimsonAvenger ( 580665 ) on Monday September 09, 2019 @07:17PM (#59175772)

          Actually banning minors from using the internet seems quite sensible. Treat it like alcohol in most states make it legal to serve (supervise) your own child in your own home but leave complete responsibility for anything a minor does online with the parent/guardian.

          Actually banning minors from reading books seems quite sensible....

          Or not. And keeping kids from using the internet is just as bad an idea....

  • The 2 related stories to this one on the bottom of the page, Linus Trovalds, and Julian Assange. I always had a hunch. Thanks /. For linking them all together.

  • I see what happened here . . . (Score:3)

    by PolygamousRanchKid ( 1290638 ) on Monday September 09, 2019 @03:54PM (#59175160)

    One problem: YouTube's machine learning was supposed to be suspending comments on videos featuring young minors already. It hasn't.

    The machine learning backfired and transformed the AI system into a pedophile instead!

  • Great excuse to shut down comments on videos with a bonus "for the children". What's next, shut down comnents for teenagers/PG-13 videos before getting rid of the comments system entirely? We must save the children, and fuck any kind of feedback or democracy.
    • Does anyone *really* read comments on YouTube? wow. I barely read on /. which I admit is due to 15 years of inertia. Not that quality got any better.

      • Re: Oh no the peedoez! (Score:5, Funny)

        by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Monday September 09, 2019 @04:56PM (#59175394)

        On some videos, the comments are actually the entertaining bits.

        Seriously, what other reason is there for flat earth videos?

        • Not just entertaining but informative. Sometimes very important such as when there is a video of a crime or police brutality (ignoring the racist twats)

        • I find a brick wall to be more entertaining that trying to reason with the Flat Earth loons.

          Unless you are fishing for online meltdowns, well OK, that is entertaining.

          • These videos are not there for you to argue with. They are there for you to feel better about yourself. And to know that, no matter what, there will always be people whose pinnacle of a career includes the phrase "do you want fries with that".

      • I don't think any pedo would be actively soliciting minors through the comments section, unless he or she is incredibly stupid. If anything, they would do it through private messaging (does YT still have that?). The real target should be the PM.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by codlong ( 534744 )
        Yeah I read the comments, but It's more like when you see an accident on the road, and you just have to glance over to see what you can see. Morbid curiosity more than anything. Whenever I get disgusted at comments anywhere else on the internet, I jump over to Fox News and read a few comments on one article. Then I'm numb enough to tolerate comments pretty much anywhere else :(
  • The woke purple haired Twitterati and progressive male feminist generation of today certainly are giving the 'Think of the Children' crowd of the 90s a run for their money. Just goes to prove hysteria isn't limited to fundy suburban christians.
  • If the viewers leave naughty comments, they are probably adults.

  • The problem is the comments from pedos, not that the videos are aimed at pedos? So ... if we can't see their reaction anymore, it's fine?

    That's like playing hide and seek with a 3 year old. He'll close his eyes and declare that I can't see him anymore because he can't see me.

  • Honestly, if anyone says anything that will require any additional work on their part or inconvenience them in the slightest, the default assumption is to just assume that they are lying, and carry on as if they had never said anything.
  • I would put the onus on the children's parents to ensure comments are disabled. If they're letting their kids have free-reign of the internet, they should at least try and monitor what they are doing.
  • A good place to start would be here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com] (some people are true sickos)!

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