Reports have spread recently that YouTube, a Google subsidiary, allegedly considered having all of its content posted on YouTube Kids screened. However, the said proposal is said to have been rejected. The report of video content screen took place after YouTube was charged with $170 million fine by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) this year. However, it was not the amount that hurt, as indicated in an online article. According to the content posted on engadget.com, the "reputation took a massive blow for violating the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).
As earlier mentioned, YouTube shelled out an amount of $170 million earlier this year for violation of COPPA. As to how it is stated in the same article, "it remains a very expensive stain on its reputation." Moreover, things got even worse for the popular video streaming platform when it occurred in kids in 2018, that the site allegedly considered individual screening for each video YouTube Kids video. YouTube had purportedly formed a team of 40 employees who are given the code name, "Crosswalk, in reference to several risky content 'streets' on the site."
The Proposed Screening
One of the proposals was the screening of every video for kids below eight years old to guarantee that no improper and inappropriate video content would go through. For instance, last year, reporters discovered disturbing videos containing violence, particularly suicide, featuring knock-off editions of their favorite cartoon such as Peppa Pig and Mickey Mouse, among others.
The proposal mentioned advanced to the point that a media release was drafted. However, at the last minute, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki had the plan discarded. Bloomberg sources disseminated this information. Seemingly, such moderation would turn the site into something like a media outfit. That, in turn, "could open it up to the similar accountability which news publishers are facing over threats, copyright and hate speech, among others.
YouTube Taking Stronger Action on Content for Kids
Earlier on, YouTube vowed to take stronger initiative on video content for kids and started by having the comments on multi-million clips disabled. The company has managed to lessen the views of videos violating its policies by up to 80% while adding viewership on videos from influential news publishers by approximately 60%. Nevertheless, YouTube has stopped taking more remarkable steps. In one of her interviews, Wojcicki said, if they were held accountable for each piece of content they recommended, they would need to review it. More so, the company official added, it is almost impossible for YouTube to deal with the scale of content, with more than 500 hours of footage being uploaded every minute.
Finally, as reported by Bloomberg, there is no single episode in 2019 that typified the arduous search of YouTube for the middle ground, more than the incident involving a gay journalist and YouTube creator, Carlos Maza, who accused Steven Crowder, a conservative YouTuber, of alleged repeated harassment. The said journalist, a reporter of Vox, put together a montage of clips from the YouTube channel of Crowder, to emphasize what Maza said were said to be "racist insults and homophobic."
