Youtube ‘won’t let scary videos reach children’

YOUTUBE is to clamp down on videos that show popular children’s TV characters in violent and frightening scenes after it emerged that hundreds of disturbing videos featured on the website.

The online video service, owned by Google, said “inappropriate use of family entertainment characters” on Youtube and Youtube Kids, its children-only app, would be restricted to adults when reported by users.

Bizarre videos, all of which are unauthorised by the character rights owners, included Peppa Pig drinking

‘The Youtube team is made up of parents who are committed to improving our apps and getting this right’

bleach or getting teeth pulled out, Elsa from Disney’s Frozen and Spider-man, with some being sexually suggestive.

“Earlier this year, we updated our policies to make content featuring inappropriate use of family entertainment characters ineligible for monetisation,” said Juniper Downs, Youtube’s director of policy.

“We’re in the process of implementing a new policy that age-restricts this content in the Youtube main app when flagged. Age-restricted content is automatically not allowed in Youtube Kids. The Youtube team is made up of parents who are committed to improving our apps and getting this right.”

It already filters out inappropriate content, but the automated process has seen some videos slip through the net. Now it will rely more on moderators and viewers to flag such videos.