Mars cancels ads on Youtube over paedophile links
MARS and other major brands have withdrawn advertising from Youtube and Google after they failed to police comments by paedophiles on videos of children.
Despite reports that sex offenders were posting inappropriate comments, the internet giants were said to have failed to take adequate action over the problem.
Some of the comments are said to be sexually explicit, while others reportedly encourage children posting the videos to perform sexual acts.
As well as trusted flaggers, Youtube also uses algorithms to identify inappropriate sexual or predatory comments. However, the system is said to fall short of confronting the issue and paedophiles are continuing to comment on material.
Some videos are posted by paedophiles and many are innocently posted by youngsters.
Brands, including Mars and Lidl, have stopped advertising on Youtube after they were alerted that their names were appearing with the offensive material.
According to investigations by BBC News and The Times, there are estimated to be tens of thousands of predatory accounts leaving indecent comments on videos of children.
Some of the volunteer moderators used by Youtube told the BBC there could be “between 50,000 to 100,000 active predatory accounts still on the platform” while another told The Times there are “at least 50,000 active predators” on the site.
According to The Times, adverts for several major international brands, including a global sportswear firm and food and drink giants, appear alongside the videos, raising concerns that they could be indirectly funding child abuse.
Mars said: “We are shocked and appalled to see that our adverts have appeared alongside such exploitative and inappropriate content.
“Until we have confidence that appropriate safeguards are in place, we will not advertise on Youtube and Google.”
Lidl said it has suspended all its Youtube advertising with “immediate effect”.
A spokesman added: “We are extremely shocked and disturbed by the findings of this investigation and are grateful to have been informed about this.
“It is completely unacceptable that this content is available to view, and it is, therefore, clear that the strict policies which Google has assured us were in place to tackle offensive content are ineffective.”
Youtube said it had noticed a growing trend around material “that attempts to pass as family-friendly, but is clearly not” in recent months and announced new ways it was “toughening our approach”.