YouTube removes child-friendly videos with characters from children’s series

YouTube has removed 50 channels and thousands of videos in the past week that appear to be intended for children but are actually child-unfriendly. Many other such videos require users to be at least 18 years old and YouTube has turned off ads.

After this week’s cleanup, YouTube will continue to remove such videos, the video service writes. Many of the videos feature children’s familiar characters such as Teletubbies or Peppa Pig, as well as shocking images. The videos appear to be intended for children, but the site considers them only suitable for adults. This may also involve films that are intended as satire.

Since June, Google’s video service has turned off ads on three million videos with such content. In addition, half a million videos have been added showing violence in videos featuring characters from children’s TV shows.

YouTube is thus responding to recent fuss about the much-discussed children’s videos. These were on YouTube Kids, an app that is intended to only show videos suitable for children, as it turned out earlier. Children came across or come across those videos by clicking through to them from an appropriate video via related content.

According to YouTube, there is room for such satire on the site, but according to the site there is a minimum age associated with it. Due to the age restriction, those videos can no longer show ads, making them unappealing to be made for the purpose of making money.