Video-sharing website YouTube announced on Thursday that it has decided to ban comments on videos featuring minors to combat the possibility of predatory behaviour. YouTube said it had already disabled comments from tens of millions of videos during the past week, as they could be at risk of attracting predatory behaviour against minors.
However, some creators will be able to keep comments enabled on these videos, YouTube said. “These channels will be required to actively moderate their comments, beyond just using our moderation tools, and demonstrate a low risk of predatory behaviour,” YouTube said. “We will work with them directly and our goal is to grow this number over time as our ability to catch violative comments continues to improve.”
YouTube also said it has launched a new and more efficient comments classifier, which will remove twice the number of individual comments.
The service also said it has shut down some channels that endanger the safety of children. “Videos encouraging harmful and dangerous challenges targeting any audience are also clearly against our policies,” the website added.
YouTube had announced last week that videos that feature minors or may be at risk for predatory behaviour are likely to receive limited or no advertisements. It had also disabled comments on tens of millions of videos.
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