After writing about fetish videos involving kids on YouTube two years ago, the problem has only got worse, writes David Farrier. Way worse. When will Google do something about it?
Editor’s note: While we have endeavoured to protect the identities of the children involved, we recognise that by publishing this story their privacy may be compromised. It is our opinion that privacy concerns, while valid, are outweighed by the issues raised by this story, including the responsibility of Google and YouTube to protect their most vulnerable users.
For information on helping children stay safe online, visit netsafe.org.nz.
When you look at this YouTube video, you notice a few key things:
And no, I’m not going to link to it, because this account does not need any more clicks.
First up, it has a giant WARNING at the beginning. Bit weird. Secondly, the video has 2.8 million views. The channel has 162,000 subscribers. Thirdly, this is a verified account. It’s monetised. The user is making money. And so is YouTube.
Finally, let’s look at a typical comment on said video. This one is from Aaron Richard:
This comment has 28 thumbs up. 28 people agreeing with this one user.
The content of the account? It’s a woman, kneeling down. We can often see up her skirt. And then she starts to breastfeed.
This is not a cute account documenting a “single mom”. Click around the account and it’s all the same pattern.
This is someone’s pornography. And it’s not subtle.
I first encountered this sort of “fetish” content on YouTube two years ago, when I found a growing trend in adults soliciting sexual content from underage children, under the guise of a “challenge”.
After my piece was published, YouTube deleted the accounts. At the time, I reached out for comment on why they deleted them, but I got no response.
I noted that YouTube deleting the accounts didn’t actually achieve very much, because the videos themselves still existed – all the accounts did was collect and curate them all into one place.
Over the last two years, the problem has only gotten worse, and YouTube appears to be doing nothing serious about.
Since writing about Ally and Maddie I’ve had many concerned parents and users get in touch about other inappropriate videos they’ve found on YouTube, often videos they found their kids watching or commenting on.
I found this this latest example – “Single Mom” – after watching a video posted by popular Twitch user PaymoneyWubby. He’d stumbled on a channel that lead him down a rabbit hole of other channels, all featuring the same woman.
She is usually demonstrating various household activities (from cleaning, to cooking, to playing with children), which all end in her crouching down so the camera can look up her skirt.
Thousands of comments under the video were of a sexual nature.
And you know what YouTube’s money-grabbing algorithm throws in your face while you look at this stuff? Links to other channels like “Breastfeeding” and “Baby of Mom”.
As you can see in the bottom of the screen, viewers also get direct links to less subtlety named videos like “Full HD Sex Video!!!”
Like with Ally and Maddie, this stuff was all in plain sight, on YouTube, earning revenue for Google.
And like Ally and Maddie, there were underage kids in all of them.
Why people are accessing YouTube videos like this instead of going to adult sites I do not know. Maybe they can’t access pornographic websites in their own country, or on their network. Maybe they’re repressed, telling themselves this isn’t real porn because it’s on YouTube. That it’s OK to view kids in this context because this isn’t really porn, it’s a cute YouTube account.
The reasons don’t matter. The videos existing do.
This stuff has reached a point where I feel extremely uneasy watching this content for the sake of pointing it out. Some of these kids are infants, and they’re sitting there the whole time while an adult creates a sexual video to elicit a sexual response in someone else.
The fact is, if we were living in the old internet days when you downloaded videos onto your hard drive, and I had to download these videos to write this story… I wouldn’t have wanted the police to search my computer.
And yet they’re on YouTube. Google has approved them with a great big tick. And the tech giant is making money while people – people like “Jack Hook” here – watch them:
As I finished this article, someone on Twitter just DMd me another video, because I’d just tweeted my disgust at YouTube. The video I’d been seen had been viewed 5.5 million views.
I didn’t open it. I’m done.
This should not be the same attitude taken by YouTube and its giant, careless parent Google.
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