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YouTube bans comments on all videos of children

bbc.co.uk

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Re: YouTube bans comments on all videos of children

#131

Post by ceejayoz »

jerf wrote: post #73
_skel wrote: post #11

Social media scandals like this one are a reminder that there are larger numbers of closet pedophiles, racists, Nazi sympathizers, and conspiracy theorists in our societies than many people realized. Social media gives them a means to discover each other and collaborate, but they were always there. I agree with Youtube’s move here, but the root cause of the problem is that our societies are worse than we thought they…

"Social media scandals like this one are a reminder that there are larger numbers of closet pedophiles, racists, Nazi sympathizers, and conspiracy theorists in our societies than many people realized." No, they really don't. Unless you thought there were zero or something. You have no evidence that would allow you to place a number on those categories just from reading these stories, other than a lower bound somewher…

It is likely, however, that the Internet and modern social media makes it easier for these folks to (relatively) safely find like-minded others, and to recruit others into their particular blends of extremism.

Re: YouTube bans comments on all videos of children

#132

Post by proc0 »

40acres wrote: post #122

Does YouTube even need comments? I can't remember any meaningful discussion happening in the comments, it's mostly meme type stuff. Long term I can see this being the final resolution for toxic comments.

Yes I read comments a lot in videos I watch. They tend to be more infotainment, so comments are filled with discussions surrounding the videos. Utopias don't exist. It's either we put up with toxicity, or live under a censorhip/dictatorship. Seems those are only two options in the long run.

Re: YouTube bans comments on all videos of children

#133

Post by rossdavidh »

mrweasel wrote: post #125

How is it possible that it's easier for YouTube to identify children (people under the age of 18) in videos, compared to identifying certain types of comments and automatically moderate those? Or is it some law regarding censorship that's the issue?

Children's appearance is not likely to change, in ever more sophisticated ways, so as to still appear like children to humans but not to the algorithm. Thus, while not intrinsically harder than text analysis, it could very easily be the case that it is easier to flag videos as having children (and thus turn off comments) than it is to automatically police comments.

Note that they said it won't apply to videos of teenagers; my guess is that this is because it would be more difficult to automatically distinguish between teenagers and young (or just young-looking) adults.

Re: YouTube bans comments on all videos of children

#134

Post by benologist »

tclancy wrote: post #63
wutbrodo wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The common theme in every discussion about moderation is that Google, Facebook et al have a division of literal wizards who can wave magic wands to enforce arbitrarily nuanced moderation policies at scale. This just isn't in touch with reality, but public opinion and pressure has no incentive to be rational, so blunt, restrictive policies like this one are the only path left open to these companies.

I feel like this cart before the horse vision is the problem. If you are going to suck up as much data about the world and monetize it, you have an obligation to spend some of that dough on a coven of wizards who can make the place you have created safe for people. Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, et al have proven to be a disease vector over the past decade and if they want to be rich, they have a responsibility to bleac…

I think they are shining examples of privatizing the profits and socializing the costs. In Google's case they have accrued over $100 billion in savings, and the Chinese government moderates content more effectively and from more disparate sources. A handful of companies provide phone support to over 100 million customers and Google provides automated emails.

Re: YouTube bans comments on all videos of children

#135

Post by defertoreptar »

40acres wrote: post #122

Does YouTube even need comments? I can't remember any meaningful discussion happening in the comments, it's mostly meme type stuff. Long term I can see this being the final resolution for toxic comments.

Probably. Comments provide feedback for content creators, which improves quality. That helps engagement, as so does being able to interact with the content creator and comment in general. That means viewers have a better experience and are likely to spend more time watching ads.

Re: YouTube bans comments on all videos of children

#136

Post by raldi »

Here's another signal their abuse team could be looking into: On videos where a lot of people are following links to a specific timestamp, grab a couple frames starting at that point and run them through the AI to see if they contain children, and if so, put them on a review queue that's sorted by "popularity".

Re: YouTube bans comments on all videos of children

#137

Post by dosshell »

jawns wrote: post #38
flokie wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looks like YT wrote back to that post to say that's not true? "...Channels will not get deleted if you re-enable comments--can you send us the post where you saw that?"

Ah, thanks for pointing that out! It appears that he saw demonetization and mistook that as deletion. That said, for some channels, demonetization means effectively shutting down the channel.

Limited Monitization

Video that include minors and are at risk of predatory comments may receive limited or no ads (yellow icon). If you think we made a mistake please appeal [link]. We will continue to refine our approach in the coming weeks and months.

Is misstaken as deletion? English is not my first language, but I have a hard time reading this as "we may delete your channel".

Re: YouTube bans comments on all videos of children

#139

Post by groby_b »

mediocrejoker wrote: post #124
brentonator wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

God forbid they put a link to Wikipedia under flat earth videos, huh?

You only think that's a good idea because you don't believe in flat earth. They could equally put a link to flat earth sites under NASA/SpaceX videos. Do you really want to decree that whatever they link is "true" just because you agree with them in this particular instance?

Yes. Because obvious idiocy should not be rewarded.

There are many things that are debatable, but flat earth? That falls under verifiable facts, and we shouldn't equivocate about those.

Re: YouTube bans comments on all videos of children

#140

Post by post_break »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #111
post_break wrote: post #52

I'd like them to take a look at predatory selling of merchandise to children next.

You know they're an advertising company? Unless you're offering ways to improve their predation on consumers I can't imagine they'd care to hear what you have to say.

No I'm talking about Jake Paul and the likes telling kids they literally won't be cool unless they buy his merch or attend his "events".
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