Youtube Controversy By:Kelly Zukowski

Something huge happened on February 28, 2019! Youtube will be banning comments from videos that have any person under the age of 18. There will be small exceptions, of course, which consists of a FEW Youtube stars and family video-bloggers not experiencing this change.  Furthermore, Youtube said they were doing this to protect families and children from people like pedophiles. Andy Burrows from the NSPCC (child protection charity) says offenders are even using Youtube as a way to connect with other predators.

However, this also has cons to the non-pedophiles (most of the Youtube community). For creators, this can mean that they are missing an important factor that helps them build their channel and connect with their viewers. For the average Youtube watcher, this can mean losing a connection with the person they are watching or with others watching the same video for non-predator desires.

What does Youtube have to gain in other ways from doing this? Advertisers like AT&T, Nestle and Hasbro might come back if there is less predatory activity and Youtube gains money for showing the advertisements (F.Y.I. BBC was the first one to report the explicit comments being made by pedophiles in 2017). Going back to a point I made earlier, is that only a few Youtube stars and family video-bloggers won’t be affected. As a result, those video makers will receive a lot more money and influence while on the website.  Hence, it may be seen as a ploy for Youtube and certain people to gain more money.

This is not the first time Youtube has done something questionable regarding their website (especially in the past month). For example, their trending section does not always contain the most trendy videos and they sometimes try to delete bots, but when in actuality they accidentally delete a HUGE amount of subscribers. However, Youtube is the biggest (and free) American video-sharing website, and it has become a necessity for some people (two examples being that Youtube creates jobs and money for many people around the world).  Therefore, Youtube should look at this problem from a different perspective. Maybe allowing the channel creator to decide if their comments should be turned on/off, targeting singular comments made by pedophiles, and making an algorithm (a better one since the one they have in place now has had circumstances where it actually promoted the exploitation of children) to target comments or videos that could be made by pedophiles. Giving power to the people who create content on Youtube.

(Above, is a person, named PewDiePie, that has one of the highest amount of subscribers on Youtube: over 88,000,000 subscribers. Will he be affected by this policy? I do not believe so, unless in the comments there are pedophiles exploiting children. However, if we look at the highest paid Youtuber it would be Ryan ToysReview, which is a 7-year old that reviews toys. He gets paid $22 million! Will he be affected by this policy? I do believe so.)

Here is two sources that broadly explains the situation: ---https://www.infoplease.com/february-2019-current-events-science-technology-news#YouTube%20Facing%20Many%20Issues%20on%20Children%E2%80%99s%20Videos

---https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-47408969