Exploitative Child Videos Finally Targeted By YouTube: Report

NEW YORK, NY — YouTube is cracking down on deeply disturbing and cruel videos that exploit children on its platform — many of which garnered tens of millions of views, generating revenue for their producers — after a revealing BuzzFeed report found the site to be rife with abusive or degrading content.

In a piece written by reporter Charlie Warzel, BuzzFeed found extremely popular videos "aimed at and starring children in compromising, predatory, or creepy situations" on verified channels. It said that these videos existed on the site largely unmoderated until very recently. Many of the videos, Warzel writes, appear to come from eastern Europe.

"Over the last week I personally watched dozens of HORRIBLE child exploitation videos from verified accounts that were monetized," Warzel tweeted Wednesday. "Last night we sent them to YouTube. They're all purged now."

According to BuzzFeed, some of the unsettling themes frequent in these videos include:

• Injections
• Eating feces
• Needles
• "Kidnapping"
• Being tied up
• "Playing doctor" with adults

In a blog post Wednesday morning, YouTube announced that it is working to address this troubling trend.

"In recent months, we've noticed a growing trend around content on YouTube that attempts to pass as family-friendly, but is clearly not," YouTube said. "While some of these videos may be suitable for adults, others are completely unacceptable, so we are working to remove them from YouTube."

It continues: "We have always had strict policies against child endangerment, and we partner closely with regional authorities and experts to help us enforce these policies and report to law enforcement through NCMEC. In the last couple of weeks we expanded our enforcement guidelines around removing content featuring minors that may be endangering a child, even if that was not the uploader’s intent."

"One has to question how YouTube allowed this to go on for so long," Warzel wrote. "These videos were AWFUL."

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