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YouTube Will Disable Comments on Nearly All Videos With Kids (variety.com)

YouTube said today it will disable the ability for viewers to leave comments on most videos featuring minors, as it tries to contain the damage from a scandal involving child predators leaving coded sexual comments on the site. From a report: YouTube said in a blog post Thursday that over the past week it had already disabled comments from "tens of millions of videos" that could be subject to predatory behavior. Now, it will expand that to suspend comments on virtually all videos featuring young minors, as well as videos featuring older kids that "could be at risk of attracting predatory behavior." In a tweet, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki linked to the update and explained the change: "Recently, there have been some deeply concerning incidents regarding child safety on YouTube. Nothing is more important to us than ensuring the safety of young people on the platform."

81 of 172 comments (clear)

  1. Not surprised by willaien · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Was actually talking about the current "adpocalypse" and its causes, and wondered if youtube wouldn't be eventually working towards disabling comments. In fact, I'd go a step further and start phasing out comments in general. While they increase "engagement", they're so incredibly useless that I definitely wouldn't miss them. Leave chats for livestreams, though, as that actually provides instantaneous feedback that can be valuable.

    1. Re:Not surprised by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Was actually talking about the current "adpocalypse" and its causes, and wondered if youtube wouldn't be eventually working towards disabling comments. In fact, I'd go a step further and start phasing out comments in general. While they increase "engagement", they're so incredibly useless that I definitely wouldn't miss them. Leave chats for livestreams, though, as that actually provides instantaneous feedback that can be valuable.

      sometimes I go there just for the comments...

    2. Re:Not surprised by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      "useless" very much depends on the video. Yes, comments on most entertainment-style videos are probably useless, they can be helpful on how-to videos and the like, especially if the channel is small enough that the creator actually sees and responds to the comments.

    3. Re:Not surprised by Crash+Dummy+Redux · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Or go one step further by removing ads from all videos featuring children. That would remove the incentives for adults to exploit children for financial gain on YouTube.

    4. Re:Not surprised by doug141 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      [comments are] so incredibly useless that I definitely wouldn't miss them.

      I disagree. When I see a video making an incorrect statement, I often see the highest voted comment is one making a correction. I think this is great.

    5. Re:Not surprised by RickyShade · · Score: 1

      start phasing out comments in general. While they increase "engagement", they're so incredibly useless that I definitely wouldn't miss them

      Really? Never? You've never seen useful information relevant to a video in the comments, or had an enlightening conversation in comments? Maybe the problem is you're only watching trash videos and nothing educational or intellectual. Your idea is preposterous.

    6. Re:Not surprised by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 1

      Not ALL comments are useless. Often times a comment will be time stamps because the original uploader was too lazy. People asking for the name of the song / video / game / etc. are also very handy. I've come across a LOT of new media due to user comments: "If you liked this you may also like ..."

      Also having questions about the content answered by _other knowledgeable viewers_ provides value.

      Throwing the baby out with bath water just dumbs YouTube down even further.

      This is why we can't have nice things -- because a few asshole wreck it for everyone else. :-/

      What's next? Removing the ability to downvote incorrect information or click-bait videos?

    7. Re:Not surprised by willaien · · Score: 1

      Fair points, but, if they're going to have "advertiser friendly comments" being enforced by video creators, we're going to have to have some sort of moderation system in place that can handle the massive amount of comments that some videos get.

    8. Re:Not surprised by vix86 · · Score: 1

      Comments aren't useless, its just that the YT comment system is horrific. Its impossible to view comments on videos with 1k+ comments because of how they load. They lack any kind of threading system really, so you can't have easy to follow conversations on there. If YT would implement a karma system where upvotes improve your karma and then they filter bad karma commenters, then the YT comments section wouldn't be... "the YT comments sections."

    9. Re:Not surprised by lgw · · Score: 2

      Or go one step further by removing ads from all videos featuring children. That would remove the incentives for adults to exploit children for financial gain on YouTube.

      It would punish normal families vlogging normal family stuff. Not what I watch, but apparently that's pretty common. Unless you're really stretching the meaning of "exploit" and that's what you meant.

      It would remove financial incentives for kids posting whatever kids post about themselves. I'm not sure that matters much, though you'd need some exception for professional performers, I'd think. Much as the web would have been better off without Justin Beiber,

      It would not remove the incentive for actual pedos, since I doubt the money is what motiviates them (almost by definition).

      Seem like demonetizing all videos with kids would only hurt the wrong people. Which is likely why YT went this way. There was a big push-back over the past week to their initial demonetization of clearly wholesome videos, because some of them had creepy comments.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    10. Re:Not surprised by rmdingler · · Score: 1

      Sufferin' succotash.

      We've living in a privileged western representative that mostly provides safe water, regular food, and your Mom's internet... but yeah, youtube comments are such a buzzkill, of the like we haven't seen since 1998, when the Undertaker threw Mankind off Hell In A Cell, and plummeted 16 ft through an announcer's table.

      --
      Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

      Ernest Hemingway

    11. Re:Not surprised by Z80a · · Score: 1

      I probably would leave the comments on, but hand all the info for the FBI.

    12. Re:Not surprised by rtb61 · · Score: 1

      I often find more interest in the comments than in the videos, want to kill Youtube further kill the comments, who cares, YouTube is already dying, so meh. Once you provide commenting, take it away and immediately lose readers and Google pretty much truly does deserve to lose users all over the place, pretty nasty bunch and make no mistake.

      Reality is the big shits at Alphabet are purely focused on turning YouTube into nothing but a wall to wall advertising channel, all advertising all of the time, ads breaking up the advertising pretending to be content and of course political propaganda sponsored by all the major corporations, when it ain't ads it's corporate propaganda pretending to be political activist speech, of course political propaganda is advertising, so yeah, wall to wall advertising all of them time.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
    13. Re: Not surprised by Archangel_Azazel · · Score: 1

      Big G, Hasbro, Chuck E Cheese, et Al would like to have stern words with you for attempting to interfere with their cash cow programming. These cheap toys (cheap to MAKE, they're still expensive as hell, trust me.) won't just sell themselves, we need an army of tiny, stubborn, whiny salespeople to hock our shit for us until the parents give in.
      Seriously, as the father of two young children I can barely have them watch TV. It's a vapid wasteland of 4m of program and 26m of REALLYALLY FUCKING LOUD, REPETITIVE ADS.
      Luckily there's at least Netflix. Not a perfect solution but a damn sight better than TV.

      I really wish we would stop selling to children. Get kid sized and walk down the cereal isle, it's like being in a haunted house... All the boxes are looking at you...
      Creepy as fuck if you ask me.

      --
      Your mind is like a parachute. It works best when it's been opened.
    14. Re: Not surprised by Archangel_Azazel · · Score: 1

      I should really stop posting from my phone. Spellcheck and auto complete are killing me.

      --
      Your mind is like a parachute. It works best when it's been opened.
    15. Re:Not surprised by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      That would remove the incentives for adults to exploit children for financial gain on YouTube.

      Indeed. Children shouldn't be allowed to earn anything until they are 18.
      Also children need to be thrown out of the house when they are 18 and stop mooching off their parents.
      Also why don't those young adults own houses yet. Their entire generation is so slack!

  2. So it has come to this (xkcd 1022) by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

    This is the end of comments on the web as we know it.
    As usual, a handful of assholes ruined something for everybody else.

    --
    #DeleteFacebook
    1. Re:So it has come to this (xkcd 1022) by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 1

      This is the end of comments on the web as we know it.
      As usual, a handful of assholes ruined something for everybody else.

      That's a bit of an exaggeration- it's one site. A few others might stop sensitive topics; there was an article just yesterday about an uncensored add-in that lets you discuss any web page even if it doesn't have a built in comment section.

      Some options for communication will close and others are open.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    2. Re:So it has come to this (xkcd 1022) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      Gab wants to be an external comment section for any 3rd party URL. That is the future of comments.

    3. Re:So it has come to this (xkcd 1022) by serviscope_minor · · Score: 1

      Gab wants to be an external comment section for any 3rd party URL. That is the future of comments.

      That I'm sure will improve things.

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
    4. Re:So it has come to this (xkcd 1022) by Kuruk · · Score: 1

      No one was watching other people's rugrats anyways....they are annoying. Except for the pedos.

  3. Why stop there? by alvinrod · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Why stop there? YouTube comments are some of the worst on the internet. Disable them for all videos. Nothing of value will be lost.

    1. Re:Why stop there? by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 4, Informative

      YouTube comments on most "how-to" videos can be pretty useful, they're another source of information.

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
    2. Re:Why stop there? by barc0001 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      How-to videos are a relatively small subset of the total videos on the platform, and even they aren't immune from garbage comments. A quick serach for "how to repair" auto-suggested this:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvtoikKG318

      Now while the comments on this particular video aren't openly racist, calling for a group's extermination, or cancer, but they're still mostly useless. And the shit-posters on YouTube will start moving around to other videos once they can't comment on a certain category of video as their primary motivation is to shitpost.

    3. Re:Why stop there? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Keeps the asshats busy though. I dont want them all commenting in the wild.

    4. Re:Why stop there? by jetkust · · Score: 5, Insightful

      YouTube comments are some of the worst on the internet.

      This comment is worse than most YouTube comments.

    5. Re: Why stop there? by c6gunner · · Score: 1

      I like how you try to lecture him on what is and isn't censorship, despite clearly having no clue what the word means.

    6. Re:Why stop there? by barc0001 · · Score: 1

      > Why applaud censorship

      Censorship? Where the hell is it written that it is your God given right to comment on videos?

    7. Re:Why stop there? by barc0001 · · Score: 1

      I agree. Especially the ones from Anonymous Cowards. I think 90% of the quality issues with /. comments would go away if AC posting was removed, at least for a while.

    8. Re:Why stop there? by Oligonicella · · Score: 1

      Just because *you* chose to view videos that have no commentary worth anything doesn't at all mean they all don't. Perhaps you need to dismount that high horse.

    9. Re:Why stop there? by Oligonicella · · Score: 2

      How-to videos are a relatively small subset of the total videos on the platform

      Which you would gladly suppress the conversation on/for because *you* think comments are useless.

    10. Re:Why stop there? by BringsApples · · Score: 1

      That, and don't forget the ever-famous "This is click-bait" comments, warning others about the video not matching the title.

      --
      Politics; n. : A religion whereby man is god.
    11. Re:Why stop there? by lgw · · Score: 1

      Watch smarter videos and you'll get smarter comments.

      I frequently see good commenting on math and science videos. The ratio is lower on political videos, but still quite valuable when someone points out factual errors and links evidence.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    12. Re:Why stop there? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Sure, if you feel destroying the influx of new users (commenting participants) leading to the eventual disappearance of the entire site is a good solution to the problem. That would eliminate 100% of the bad comments by eliminating 100% of the comments.

      This subject has been discussed countless times in the past. Look at those older discussions from the early slashdot.

      Any media is a reflection of the individuals who make it, who are themselves a subset of the individuals who consume it. Therefore if you would like to see the quality of comments improve you must both improve your own comments as well as improve the way you use your moderation points.

      I frequently see anonymous comments modded down for disagreeing with the average POV although they add very valid points to the discussion. Is a post valued based upon how much you personally and emotionally agree with it? Or does it possess a more objective value based upon the unique information it contributes?

      I'm open to argument on this point of course: personally I have never been motivated to create a slashdot account due to the poor quality of moderation of my anonymous comments. This makes me feel as if my posts and the content I contribute are undesired by the majority of actively moderating participants. You actively dissuade me from contributing while you waste your mod points on my anonymous posts which you emotionally disagree with rather than correctly down-voting troll posts or spam. I may be wrong about your motivations on an individual basis but I am generalizing and referring to the general userbase.

    13. Re:Why stop there? by AHuxley · · Score: 1

      No comments about funny French politicians?
      Taiwan as the real China?
      Nothing to say about political memes and funny art?
      No adding to a video about a cult, faith, religion.
      No comments about a German history video?

      Lots of groups, NGO's, nations, think tanks will have great reasons as to why comments should be stopped.

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    14. Re:Why stop there? by mobby_6kl · · Score: 1

      This comment is worse than most YouTube comments.

      That's correct!

    15. Re:Why stop there? by GuB-42 · · Score: 1

      The comment system on YouTube is not the best but the content matters more than the platform.
      Some videos have awesome comments. "PBS Space Time" is a good example but it is in no way special.

      It is just like Reddit and Hacker News, which work in about the same way. Some consider Reddit to be the worst, but Hacker News have one of the best comment section, better than Slashdot in fact. It is not specific to HN, there are some awesome subreddits too.

  4. In other news... by Macdude · · Score: 5, Insightful

    In other news YouTube nuked its head office from orbit in order to deal with a mouse found in their cafeteria kitchen.

    --
    "Grab them by the pussy" -- President of the United States of America
    1. Re:In other news... by DarkRookie2 · · Score: 2

      One could only hope.
      Also, spiders require the LOIC. A rat you can get rid of with a firebomb.

      --
      http://progressquest.com/spoltog.php?name=Son+Of+Son+Of+DarkRookie
    2. Re:In other news... by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 3, Funny

      Well, it was the only way to be sure. /Aliens

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
  5. Hysteria by Headw1nd · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I thought I had seen some incredible feats of hysteria before, but this has to be a new high water mark. Because some comments *might* be left by perverts, we are just getting rid of them altogether? "Featuring minors" also is incredibly vague, would this include anything with child actors? What about reviews of something that featured child actors?

    I feel like this is just going to push yet another chunk of the creator base to other platforms, if they exist. It might be time for Youtube to decide on the content it really wants on its platform and then build outward from there, as they have obviously moved (or been forced) away from just a general video sharing service.

    1. Re:Hysteria by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I thought I had seen some incredible feats of hysteria before, but this has to be a new high water mark. Because some comments *might* be left by perverts, we are just getting rid of them altogether? "Featuring minors" also is incredibly vague, would this include anything with child actors? What about reviews of something that featured child actors?

      There's a reason the keys to the kingdom are so often worded "think of the children". How far we've come that the issue is precisely so many adults "think of the children" and Disney doesn't like that--probably because they can't monetize it.

    2. Re:Hysteria by dissy · · Score: 1

      "Featuring minors" also is incredibly vague, would this include anything with child actors? What about reviews of something that featured child actors?

      Youtube has a now-standard policy to over react and sort it out if anyone of importance complains.

      To answer your question, yes it includes all of that and more. Car videos, cats and dogs, the 24 hour count down timer, the seven minutes of silence song, all of that qualifies as "featuring minors"
      A mod can go down a whole page of videos flagging all of them without a glance and this is acceptable.

      If you think "featuring minors" is any sort of definition or defining term to youtube, it might help in making sense of it to just mentally replace all nouns with a wildcard character when reading any statement they put out.
      For example:
      YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki linked to the update and explained the change: "Recently, there have been some * incidents regarding * on YouTube. * is more important to us than * on the platform."

    3. Re:Hysteria by misexistentialist · · Score: 1

      youtube is trying to get ahead of regulation, which could pass quickly with no concern for implementation. Good opportunity for politicians to put on a show, while huge numbers of kids are abused in the real world through churches and schools and families while government social workers and law enforcement keep calm and collect pension credits.

  6. Re:What the hell is a "child predator"? by fat+man's+underwear · · Score: 2

    What the hell is "bullshit"? Is there an actual bovine inside my screen taking a dump?

  7. Re:Great by DarkRookie2 · · Score: 3, Informative

    If you don't like YT, you technically don't have to use it.

    --
    http://progressquest.com/spoltog.php?name=Son+Of+Son+Of+DarkRookie
  8. I am confused by gweihir · · Score: 1

    Are these "coded sexual comments" somehow secretly raping the servers or what? If they are coded you would expect that nobody outside of the know actually notices or cares. This seems to be a panic-reaction at best. Talk about throwing out the [censored] with the bathwater.

    --
    Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    1. Re:I am confused by Anonymice · · Score: 1

      This is the first I've read of any supposed "sexual predation" in relation to this story. Where did the paedo angle come from? Every other article, including the one linked, only makes mention of macabre & violent content being hidden in the midst of the videos, explicitly for unexpecting kids to see. There's nothing "coded" about it, it's shock material that was meant to be seen.

    2. Re:I am confused by gweihir · · Score: 2

      And where is the problem with that? Does them looking at some videos suddenly turn these videos "bad"?

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    3. Re:I am confused by gweihir · · Score: 1

      Good question. I think it was already discussed here https://news.slashdot.org/stor...
      I have no idea where this discussion angle started. Probably just the usual moral panic nonsense.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    4. Re:I am confused by Headw1nd · · Score: 1

      You are thinking of a different issue. This is not about the self-harm clips in video for kids, this is about pedophiles watching normal videos of kids and leaving comments pointing out the parts they found most interesting. Apparently if you know the terms they use you can just search for them to find videos of children doing whatever pedos think is hot.

    5. Re:I am confused by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      And where is the problem with that? Does them looking at some videos suddenly turn these videos "bad"?

      Obviously not, but one must question the source of the motivation to upload videos of your children performing actions clearly intended to provoke sexual arousal.

      It's a very difficult problem. The solution is not to do nothing but it is also clearly not possible to eliminate this type of behavior. It's not much different from the way homosexuals were treated as "mentally ill" and remain so to a certain degree today. Is pedophilia a mental illness? Can we differentiate between subjective emotional reactions to varied content on an individual basis vs. real actions such as molestation, child abuse or rape? Is the objection to this type of subjective sexuality sensible? Does not differentiating produce the greatest benefit?

      For example, perhaps someone is most aroused by a bowl of fruit?

      When I bring this subject up I'm frequently attacked as a "pedo sympathizer"... is our culture capable of having a rational discussion on this topic and coming up with genuine solutions?

      If not then this emotional over-reaction is inevitable and we will continue to lynch and burn those expressing outlying sexualities.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Turing

    6. Re:I am confused by sexconker · · Score: 1

      The solution is to ban minors, and videos featuring them, from YouTube.

      That will never happen, though, because teens and tweens make up over 90% of all YouTube views and ad revenue.

    7. Re: I am confused by c6gunner · · Score: 1

      This is not about the self-harm clips in video for kids, this is about pedophiles watching normal videos of kids and leaving comments pointing out the parts they found most interesting

      TFS says it's about pesos, then links to an article about self harm videos. I assume that the dumbass used the wrong link, but as it stands, nothing in the article or summary actually shows any pedo problem.

    8. Re:I am confused by jetkust · · Score: 1

      And where is the problem with that? Does them looking at some videos suddenly turn these videos "bad"?

      The advertisers realized their ads were not reaching who they thought they were reaching, and pulled the ads. That's the problem.

    9. Re: I am confused by gweihir · · Score: 2

      Ah. Hence the confusion. These are separate issues. The self harm is an older and decidedly serious problem, the "pedo rings on youtube commenting on videos" issue is a panic just a few days old.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    10. Re:I am confused by spitzak · · Score: 1

      Why can't they just disable the searching?

  9. YouTube comments cover a spectrum by TJHook3r · · Score: 3, Interesting

    And spectrum is quite an apt word when discussing these comments on a public message board. For technical videos though, like coding, comments are frequently useful. For tech/gadget reviews - also useful. Game review comments - getting less useful. Would be useful to have an aggregate score rather than hundreds of inane comments. Comedy clip comments - the worst! It's ironic that some of the most excruciatingly unfunny comments should follow a comedy clip but there you go.

  10. "Profit" by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 3, Insightful

    >> Nothing is more important to us than

    If the next world from a company isn't "profit" then the statement is probably a lie.

  11. A good idea... by MindPrison · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ...not only because of your "regular" suspects.

    But one of the major problems kids face today, is the endless onslaught of their peers who often will ridicule them, stalk them - too many times leading to possible suicide, because a kid can't handle snide comments as well as adults, will often hide this from their parents, and suffer in silence, shamed by their anonymous schoolmates and cyberbullies who also are kids, and don't quite understand how serious this is before suicide threats become real.

    Personally, I think there should be an age-restriction on video uploads. And commenting should be something that could be in closed circuits only, like family and "approved" friends. Then it would be okay, much like a family album online with keys that only invited parties can get.

    --
    What this world is coming to - is for you and me to decide.
    1. Re:A good idea... by sinij · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You identified problem that kids are unable to cope with adversity and your proposed solution is to further insulate them? How is that going to result in them growing up to become well-adjusted adults capable of coping with life? Kids eventually grow up and have to face adult life that is at best indifferent to your problems, and at worst cruel, mean, and full of unnecessary suffering.

    2. Re:A good idea... by MindPrison · · Score: 2

      Fuck you and your rules, you goddamned spineless pussy.

      ...said Anonymous Coward.

      --
      What this world is coming to - is for you and me to decide.
    3. Re:A good idea... by MindPrison · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You identified problem that kids are unable to cope with adversity and your proposed solution is to further insulate them? How is that going to result in them growing up to become well-adjusted adults capable of coping with life? Kids eventually grow up and have to face adult life that is at best indifferent to your problems, and at worst cruel, mean, and full of unnecessary suffering.

      Good parenting is the key. It's not our job to raise peoples kids, but it IS our job to find ways to project the masses from obvious abuse, it might not be ideal, but this is not a perfect world, and youtube is NOT your or my property. As it is now, it's basically just an entertainment platform made by their content creators, either for profit or for fun.

      I'd like to live in a sensorship free world, that is my dream, yet as I get older, I realize we need some basic rules for things, for example - if we didn't have any kind of police, we'd basically be a society of survival-of-the-fittest and it'd be total anarchy. No, I don't always agree with the lawmakers, and I hate new rules as much as the next person in here.

      But the bullying I've seen of kids, mostly BY other kids - tells me that there's certain media that we're not ready to handle properly yet, and we need some way of regulating it. If YouTube was open source, owned by the public, controlled by the public - it would be a different story, and maybe we'd have better ways of controlling the outcome of this kind of "overwhelming" success.

      YouTube is truly victims of their own success, on one hand - they have massive server fees to pay for, on the other hand - they've got millions of entitled people who thinks that their services should remain free and uncensored. You really can't please them all.

      I miss the "old" uncensored YouTube - but it ain't worth the life of a single kid, or adult for that matter.

      --
      What this world is coming to - is for you and me to decide.
    4. Re:A good idea... by sinij · · Score: 4, Informative

      You are choosing to be willfully ignorant that children today are exposed to orders of magnitude more cruelty, meanness, and unnecessary suffering in social settings than we had to face.

      This is hysterical overreaction and symptomatic helicopter parenting response. Crime is down, every school is on anti-bullying initiative, every teacher and parent is hypervigilant about all kinds of nonsense issues (i.e. stranger danger).

      Children today are insulated to the point that basic coping skills fail to develop due to atrophy. Hence we have trigger warnings and victimhood culture. Just add the numbers, helicopter parenting hysteria started sometime during 80s. Now look at what is going on in Universities and places where most workers are young (startups and tech).

    5. Re:A good idea... by sinij · · Score: 2

      I miss the "old" uncensored YouTube - but it ain't worth the life of a single kid, or adult for that matter.

      It absolutely worth it. We can't protect everyone from everything, and if we try we will end up in either surveillance dystopia or tyranny or both. It is tragic, but some people will die no matter what you do.

  12. As a parent by matthewcharles2006 · · Score: 2

    I wish they would just make YouTube Kids not a useless dumpster filled with trash.

  13. Re:What the hell is a "child predator"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Yes, but only unneutered males.

  14. Re:What the hell is a "child predator"? by Headw1nd · · Score: 1

    You've seen the movie "Predator"? It's like that thing, except a child.

  15. It's Yet Another Stupid Moral Panic by Cinnamon+Beige · · Score: 1

    Are these "coded sexual comments" somehow secretly raping the servers or what? If they are coded you would expect that nobody outside of the know actually notices or cares. This seems to be a panic-reaction at best. Talk about throwing out the [censored] with the bathwater.

    At least some people are of the opinion that the guy who set the ball rolling made most of this up, and basically this is mostly a panic in the grand tradition of such things as the Satanic Child Abuse Panic of a few decades ago...which people are still sorting out the legal fallout of, despite how debunked it is.

    I'd honestly start pushing for YT to start at least considering demonetizing videos that get too heavy into whipping up histerias for views--possibly also disabling the view counts from displaying & the video from being able to use its view metrics to go viral, to discourage the people whose motive isn't ad view money but stroking their ego with view counts. Money and/or attention covers two out of three of what seem to be the major motives for setting off these kinds of dumpster fires. (The third is basically major mental health problems of the kind that tends to include paranoid delusions, and you can't ethically force them to take their meds but cutting off publicity will discourage some of them and certainly help keep down the harm.)

    1. Re:It's Yet Another Stupid Moral Panic by gweihir · · Score: 1

      Makes sense.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
  16. Wasn't one of the biggest channels... by Gabest · · Score: 2

    ... all kid related? Even pewdiepie often features 9 year olds.

  17. Interesting timing by Luckyo · · Score: 1

    This happens around the same time that dissenter add-on for most popular browsers came out:

    https://dissenter.com/

    Should be interesting to see if it manages to become popular enough to replace website implementations for more than just the actual dissenters from mainstream if youtube et al start to clamp down on comment sections that hard.

  18. So what stops..... by mark-t · · Score: 1

    .... the uploader from linking to a website or facebook page where people can contribute their thoughts on the video and some asshat ends up posting shit there instead? Will the video still get demonetized?

  19. Re:Great by the_povinator · · Score: 1

    It seems to me that exaggerated fears about children and sex isn't a specifically SJW phenomenon but more of a generalized American phenomenon (seeping into the rest of the world now, since US culture is so influential).

    --
    The .sig is dead, and I believe I had a hand in killing it.
  20. Make the internet Adults safe, only 15+ yrs old by MonsterMasher · · Score: 1

    "Won't someone think of the children!"
    Guns, internet, Speech silencing excuses.

    #FreedonToHear what you want us to hear, F Censors/excuses.

    You be with the children when on internet, be a good parent.

    1. Re:Make the internet Adults safe, only 15+ yrs old by Megol · · Score: 1

      Helicopter parent != good parent.

  21. Re:Great by Required+Snark · · Score: 1

    Unlike Facebook, which is effectively mandatory in some circumstances.

    --
    Why is Snark Required?
  22. Re:What the hell is a "child predator"? by tehcyder · · Score: 1

    Are they talking about EATING children?! What's with this fucking "predator" bullshit language?

    Astonishingly, some words have more than the one literal meaning.

    --
    To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  23. Re:Great by tehcyder · · Score: 1

    If you don't like YT, you technically don't have to use it.

    Sure I know I don't have to use it, but please show me the alternative that has about just half as many users. Anywhere?

    The right to free speech is not the same thing as the right to the biggest available audience.

    --
    To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  24. gab? by sad_ · · Score: 1

    yesterday's article about gab providing the ability to have comments for every page on the internet in mind, it doesn't matter anymore if your site allows comments or not. except ofcourse, that youtube can now wash their hands in denial as it's no longer their problem.

    --
    On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.
  25. As long as it's not Google by DrYak · · Score: 1

    Wonder how long it'll take the pedos to move their discussions over to {...somewhere else...}

    As long as that moving destination isn't hosted by Google, it's find by them: They can claim that they have done their side of the work to avoid becoming the home base of {...latest scarecrow..}, and get all the precious advertising money back.

    Dealing with the backlash of having become a "discussion enabler" for {...latest scarecrow...} and potentially losing ad money revenue (if that's the way they finance themselves) is the destination platform's problem. Not youtubes.

    --
    "Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]