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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

#81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s important to note they’re ceding a fight they never even seriously attempted to engage in where comments and content are concerned. As with all things Google and YT, if it can’t be badly automated, they’d rather kill it than set the precedent of doing anything useful. The short term result will be attention moving on. The long term is building up pressure that will probably result in major regulation. I wouldn’t…

>a fight they never even seriously attempted to engage in // Google+ started with a requirement for real names didn't it, no adopted identities. They stuck with it for quite some time. IIRC it did largely cure YouTube comments. But, it damaged engagement, so ...

Exactly, they want to have their cake and eat it too. Low overhead, automated everything, anonymous comments, and respectability to draw ad revenue and avoid sanctions. Those are mutually exclusive goals on a large platform, and I don’t look forward to seeing hamhanded legislation with the inevitable cronyism and political infighting “solve” the problem either.

Like the big game companies and their kiddie casino business model, it will eventually be slapped down if they can’t control themselves first.

Re: YouTube bans comments on all videos of children

#82
We are in the midst of an ideological battle. Network effects combined with tribal conflict are unleashing something insane.

I've been writing a longform article about this since Monday, and it seems like twice a day something new comes out like this. Hard to keep up.

Re: YouTube bans comments on all videos of children

#83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s important to note they’re ceding a fight they never even seriously attempted to engage in where comments and content are concerned. As with all things Google and YT, if it can’t be badly automated, they’d rather kill it than set the precedent of doing anything useful. The short term result will be attention moving on. The long term is building up pressure that will probably result in major regulation. I wouldn’t…

>a fight they never even seriously attempted to engage in // Google+ started with a requirement for real names didn't it, no adopted identities. They stuck with it for quite some time. IIRC it did largely cure YouTube comments. But, it damaged engagement, so ...

[deleted]

Re: YouTube bans comments on all videos of children

#84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s important to note they’re ceding a fight they never even seriously attempted to engage in where comments and content are concerned. As with all things Google and YT, if it can’t be badly automated, they’d rather kill it than set the precedent of doing anything useful. The short term result will be attention moving on. The long term is building up pressure that will probably result in major regulation. I wouldn’t…

>a fight they never even seriously attempted to engage in // Google+ started with a requirement for real names didn't it, no adopted identities. They stuck with it for quite some time. IIRC it did largely cure YouTube comments. But, it damaged engagement, so ...

Yeah, this whole "Youtube isn't even trying" is a massive survivor bias/fallacy because it ignores all the failed moderation attempts that aren't visible.

Re: YouTube bans comments on all videos of children

#85
post #14
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 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.

Re: YouTube bans comments on all videos of children

#86
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…

> This is not behavior we want from the few major building blocks of our modern life. It's YouTube. It isn't that important. Also, it is their product, so, yeah, they get to make all the rules.

YouTube is incredibly important to the median young person in modern society. It's where probably a quarter of all my own personal STEM knowledge comes from. In high school it might have as much as half.

Like it or not, products like YouTube, Instagram, and Snapchat have become keystones in the lives of the younger generations.

Re: YouTube bans comments on all videos of children

#87

> YouTube told the BBC it would use algorithms to detect which videos contained children. I guess we will have to see how well this works out. I can foresee someone's legitimate video having its comments suddenly removed causing uproar…

> I can foresee someone's legitimate video having its comments suddenly removed causing uproar…

This is targeting legitimate videos, to start with.

Re: YouTube bans comments on all videos of children

#88
post #16

To ban comments is an important step IMHO, but how about putting the people making the comments behind bars? They will keep watching these videos.

  > how about putting the
  > people making the
  > comments behind bars?

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Emphasis added

Re: YouTube bans comments on all videos of children

#89
post #9

Chris Ulmer, who runs the popular YouTube channel Special Books for Special Kids, said that comments were removed from his channel despite no evidence of unacceptable comments, and YouTube told him that if he turned comments back on, he risked his channel being deleted. [EDIT: Turns out, this is not actually the case. See child comments.] https://twitter.com/chrisulmer/status/1099366622329036801 "Last night I realize…

laowhy86 had all his video comments removed by youtube because his toddler daughter was in a couple of his videos, despite not being the focus of or even in 99% of his videos, and despite the fact that he does curate comments. He received no notice of this from youtube. He found out when one of his twitter followers pointed it out.
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