Online ads fund paedophile habits
Some of the world’s biggest brands are advertising on YouTube videos showing scantily clad children that have attracted comments from hundreds of paedophiles.
BT, Adidas, Deutsche Bank, eBay, Amazon, Mars and Diageo are among dozens of brands whose advertisements appear on the videos, which are published on the Google-owned platform. Many have gained millions of views by showing young girls videoing themselves in their underwear, doing the splits, brushing their teeth or rolling around in bed.
Most appear to have been posted by innocent children. Paedophiles flock to such content, however, by searching for certain keywords in Russian that can bring up hundreds of young Slavic
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girls. YouTube’s algorithms then suggest similar videos - including one showing naked toddlers in a bath.
The videos’ comment sections are used by paedophiles to exchange links to child abuse and to make lewd comments. In some cases, they directly encourage the children posting the videos to perform sexual acts.
One video with 6.5 million views shows a prepubescent girl in a nightie. It includes ads from companies including confectionery company Cadbury. One of the less explicit comments states: ‘‘I would like to be your stepfather to grope you very well every night mmmm.’’
Another, with 4.1 million views and carrying ads from Amazon, Stella McCartney, Dolmio and Enfield council in north London, shows a girl wearing pants and a vest on a bed filled with cuddly toys. At one point she pulls her knees up to touch her head. ‘‘I would like to kiss your fragrant panties,’’ one commentator wrote.
By advertising on a video, the brands may have funded the content’s creator, who would typically receive 55 per cent of all revenue, with the rest going to YouTube. A creator gets up to US$7 (NZ$10) for every 1000 views.
‘‘Sexualised images of children in swimwear or underwear is popular among paedophiles because it isn’t always illegal; they can go on mainstream platforms and get their fix,’’ said Einar Otto Stangvik, a Norwegian security
"Yet again, it appears that YouTube's rhetoric about taking child safeguarding seriously nowhere matches its actions."
Tim Loughton, British parliament home affairs select committee
expert. ‘‘There is a risk that these videos will end up on the dark web or in abuse-related discussion groups.’’
Yesterday, brands including Adidas, Mars, Diageo, Cadbury and Deutsche Bank pulled their ad campaigns from YouTube on the eve of Black Friday, one of the biggest online shopping days of the year.
Adidas said the situation was ‘‘completely unacceptable’’. Mars said that until safeguards were in place, ‘‘we will not advertise on YouTube’’. Diageo said it was enforcing an ‘‘immediate stop’’. Enfield council also withdrew.
‘‘Yet again, it appears that YouTube’s rhetoric about taking child safeguarding seriously nowhere matches its actions,’’ said Tim Loughton, a Tory member of the British parliament’s home affairs select committee. ‘‘Their platforms are in danger of being used as a sweet shop for paedophiles.’’
Many of the videos remained on the site despite previously being reported to YouTube.
One member of Google’s ‘‘trusted flagger’’ programme, a group with the task of identifying inappropriate content, claimed that just three unpaid volunteers were responsible for rooting out child-inappropriate content.
‘‘Since August this year, we’ve reported over 12,000 predators to YouTube,’’ he said. ‘‘There is far too much for a few volunteers to handle - there are at least 50,000 active predators [on the site]. YouTube know the scale, and their inaction is resulting in the sexual exploitation of more children every day.’’
YouTube is understood not to proactively check for inappropriate content, instead relying on its technology, third-party nongovernmental organisations, and police forces to flag it. YouTube said it worked closely with the Internet Watch Foundation, the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children and others to prevent child sexual abuse imagery being uploaded. – The Times