YouTube Removed Over 120,000 Sexually Explicit Videos With Kids in First 6 Months of 2021

YouTube revealed more than 120,000 videos containing sexually explicit content involving children were removed in the first half of 2021, Variety reports. 

In a Senate subcommittee hearing regarding “Protecting Kids Online,” YouTube VP of government affairs and public policy Leslie Miller submitted a written testimony outlining the company’s dedication to ensuring the safety and well-being of children online. The aforementioned figure represents less than 1 percent of the 15.8 million videos YouTube pulled for policy violations during that same span. 

Miller said YouTube “invested extensively in industry-leading machine learning technologies that identify potential harms quickly and at scale,” adding, “Some speculate that we hesitate to address problematic content or ignore the well-being of youth online because it benefits our business; this is simply not true.” 

Of the 1.87 million videos removed in the second quarter of 2021, 85 percent were removed before reaching 10 views. 

Miller argued that YouTube “long had policies that prohibit content that endangers the emotional and physical well-being of minors,” and any video found violating its child safety policy is reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

The subcommittee hearing comes as YouTube continues to curtail illegal or dangerous content on the platform. The company announced last month that videos with misinformation regarding vaccines would be blocked. 

“We’re now at a point where it’s more important than ever to expand the work we started with COVID-19 to other vaccines,” its statement reads. “This would include content that falsely says that approved vaccines cause autism, cancer or infertility, or that substances in vaccines can track those who receive them.”