YouTube bans comments on all videos of children • Hacker News Board

Re: YouTube bans comments on all videos of children

#141

Post by djsumdog » Thu, Feb 28, 2019, 9:01 PM UTC

cmroanirgo wrote: post #116

It seems to me that yt could've implemented the perfect honey trap for pedos. Make an inappropriate remark on children and (being Google), track you down using a variety of fingerprinting techniques and report you directly to the appropriate authorities of that country. The latter part could probably even be automated. And yet, they've taken this stance: one that puts the onus on the content creators themselves to mo…

They already do this and so does Microsoft. Many companies have shared image finger-prints (hashes of images that can deal with resizing) and special people granted permission by the Dept of Justice to report such images. It's a small number of people, leading to at least one Microsoft employee filing a lawsuit for the PTSD he got having to verify and report illegal images.

As far as these YouTube videos, Google does get rid of all content with clear abuse and reports it to the authorities in the US and possibly the origin country. For this particular case, none of these videos have illegal content. Most of them are videos of teens filming themselves. It's others who go through and place them into a creepy context by grouping all of them together in playlists and via comment-chain links.

Creating any type of honeypot is most likely unethical and illegal. Just look at what happened to the FBI in the Playpen case.

Re: YouTube bans comments on all videos of children

#142

Post by dragonwriter » Thu, Feb 28, 2019, 9:01 PM UTC

goshx wrote: post #120

dragonwriter wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Sadly, you are probably right. Are you sad that viewing the content in question isn't harmful? Or that it isn't illegal? Or that YouTube—Google, IOW—can’t unilaterally imprison people whose behavior it disapproves of?

Both of your statements. It's probably out of their legal authority and the act of watching a video is obviously not illegal nor harmful to anyone. But that's is a very simplistic view of the situation.

> It's probably out of their legal authority

Probably? Is there an actual question about YouTube’s authority to order imprisonment? Because it seems to me that should be a bigger story than them cutting off comments on videos with kids in them.

Re: YouTube bans comments on all videos of children

#143

Post by baybal2 » Thu, Feb 28, 2019, 9:01 PM UTC

zaroth wrote: post #12

The fact that Google is ceding the fight against toxic comments on YouTube is actually pretty shocking. In a company that knows more about you than you can possibly imagine, and more about automated sentiment analysis than anyone in the world, they couldn’t algorithmically determine who should be allowed to post on certain subsets of videos, or devise a system they thought was worth deploying to ensure comments meet…

> The fact that Google is ceding the fight against toxic comments on YouTube is actually pretty shocking.

Not shocking at all, it's like a typical "welcome to Internet" thing that somebody outside of "computer people culture" gets.

Internet is the future of ads, Internet is also the end of ads.

Ads are made and used by rich, well fed people, and in their majority targeted at people on other side of social ladder.

The TV was perfect for that, it was one sided.

Now, the "reflux" that comes back from the Internet culture is hurting them. When some random nobody can pour dirt and bile on videos of pierre cardin toating, avocado munching "successful people" it destroys that image.

Google really should do it that way: you either agree to have your ads run on every type of scatalogic content, and your image covered by a metre of dirt, or you don't advertise at all.

They can do that.

Re: YouTube bans comments on all videos of children

#144

Post by gm3dmo » Thu, Feb 28, 2019, 9:02 PM UTC

They've missed a trick: Make adding a comment only available to subscribers.

Re: YouTube bans comments on all videos of children

#145

Post by eeeeeeeeeeeee » Thu, Feb 28, 2019, 9:02 PM UTC

ceejayoz wrote: post #15

zaroth wrote: post #12

The fact that Google is ceding the fight against toxic comments on YouTube is actually pretty shocking. In a company that knows more about you than you can possibly imagine, and more about automated sentiment analysis than anyone in the world, they couldn’t algorithmically determine who should be allowed to post on certain subsets of videos, or devise a system they thought was worth deploying to ensure comments meet…

I can't think of having ever seen a comment on YouTube that made the commenting feature seem worthwhile.

It’s rare, but they do happen. I’d say less than 1% are insightful and 1/2 of those are more just snark.

Re: YouTube bans comments on all videos of children

#146

Post by chillacy » Thu, Feb 28, 2019, 9:03 PM UTC

theNJR wrote: post #97

jumpman500 wrote: post #59

I think the time is ripe for a YouTube competitor to take chunk of its market share. YouTube has an impossible task of making a video hosting platform for everybody. Kids definitely need a particularly safe space to upload and to have supervision of some sort. Even adults don't necessarily want to be subject to the weirdness of the internet. Others really want a completely free, wild and weird platform. It doesn't ma…

My conclusion, after writing and thinking about this a lot lately, is that the three mega platforms are unwise, but unavoidable, due to network effects. We are going to have to make a concerted effort to somehow fix this. Hyper-niched communities, like Hacker News, work so well because we are united around shared passions and goals. Mega platforms contain many ideologies which are at odds with each other, constantly…

Maybe an analogy can be drawn from two tribes being integrated into an empire. Usually the empire changes both tribes into its form, but some new gods get added to the pantheon.

Re: YouTube bans comments on all videos of children

#147

Post by goshx » Thu, Feb 28, 2019, 9:03 PM UTC

saagarjha wrote: post #40

goshx wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That doesn't mean they can't or shouldn't be investigated.

For what? They haven't done anything illegal.

I just believe there should be no tolerance for pedophiles.

If someone is behaving as a sexual predator online, you ought to suspect that's what they actually are.

Re: YouTube bans comments on all videos of children

#148

Post by pgrote » Thu, Feb 28, 2019, 9:04 PM UTC

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.

The most useful comments I've found on youtube are for home improvement or repair. People chime in with other ideas or better ways of doing things.

Re: YouTube bans comments on all videos of children

#149

Post by dragonwriter » Thu, Feb 28, 2019, 9:05 PM UTC

theNJR wrote: post #85

_wmd wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ramifications of this are profound, at least: - shake the money stick at them and they will dance (thanks, of all people, Nestle!) - they've admitted a serious problem exists that they were unwilling to deal with until external pressure forced them to (i.e. they can't be trusted to self regulate) - they've all but admitted they can't fix this in reasonable time, if at all This is the first time I can think of whe…

I, for one, do not want Google deciding what is true.

I have no problem with Google deciding what Google will say is true on Google-owned platforms.

Re: YouTube bans comments on all videos of children

#150

Post by eeeeeeeeeeeee » Thu, Feb 28, 2019, 9:06 PM UTC

Sargos wrote: post #25

What a ham fisted reaction to the controversy. Now all content creators have to ensure that no kids are ever in their videos, which includes background footage and movie clips. I think this is a major problem with our current centralized model of the internet where giant corporations make all the rules. Large corporations have no ability to rationally judge situations or inject nuance into discussions. They simply ta…

Agreed about the problem of centralization on the internet, but this problem is what happens. Ignored problems are amplified, but this is Google’s responsibility to police and fix.