Google Issues Stricter Policy to Address Child Exploitation on YouTube
Google's YouTube recently issued a stricter policy for the platform to address issues of child exploitation.
YouTube is a free platform where people can upload their videos and garner millions of views. However, it has also been a source of controversy for the variety of content it offers that is very easily accessible regardless of its message or imagery.
Recently, YouTube addressed reports that a number of videos being uploaded onto the platform contained children in inappropriate skits that some called borderline abusive.
Some of the punishments YouTube mentioned include demonetizing or removing ads from "inappropriate videos targeting families." This will prevent its creators from making money off of their content. YouTube also promised to block inappropriate comments targeted at minors in a video and to keep communicating with creators interested in making family-friendly videos.
Meanwhile, YouTube has started a crackdown on channels that are reportedly involved in child abuse and exploitation.
In a statement given to BuzzFeed, YouTube emphasized that they were treating the subject of child safety "extremely seriously" and that they have always laid down their policies "against child endangerment."
"We recently tightened the enforcement of these policies to tackle content featuring minors where we receive signals that cause concern," YouTube added.
One of the first to have been sanctioned was the Toy Freaks channel that had up to eight million subscribers before it was taken down.
Toy Freaks had shown videos by single dad Greg Chism that featured his two young daughters. In some of them, he captured the reactions of his children as he scared them with random animals while in the shower. There were also other skits where the girls would pretend to be babies, be force fed, or spit out food.
Even before YouTube made a move, the said channel had been a subject of criticisms by several articles that not only condemned its contents but also called out the video-sharing platform on its lack of action. Some also described Toy Freaks as "a child abuse fetish channel."
However, as of this writing, if one does a quick search on YouTube, people may still find and watch Toy Freaks' videos on it after they had been re-uploaded by other channels.
Meanwhile, Toy Freaks' Chism voluntarily took down his two other channels and was reportedly "working closely" with YouTube.
In a statement to Variety, the father of two said: "While it is disturbing to me that anyone would find inappropriate pleasure in our video skits, I deeply appreciate YouTube's concerns for my family and I could not be happier with having had this remarkable experience."
