YouTube deleted 150,000 kids videos that were targeted by child predators

YouTube has a problem with child predators, and the video platform finally revealed concrete ways it's addressing the problem.

YouTube has deleted 150,000 videos that had become targets for comments by child predators, the site confirmed to Vice. The company also deleted 270 accounts and turned off comments for 625,000 videos.

YouTube also removed ads from another 2 million videos and 50,000 channels to stop those channels from profiting from disturbing content.

“Over the past week we removed ads from nearly 2 million videos and over 50,000 channels masquerading as family-friendly content,” YouTube told Vice. “Content that endangers children is abhorrent and unacceptable to us.”

YouTube's controversy over violent, predatory videos masquerading as videos for children started about a month ago when reporters and YouTube users started noticing the similarities between kids' entertainment on YouTube and seriously upsetting videos that snuck by alongside the normal ones. Brands were putting advertisements on videos that sexualized children, accompanied by predatory comments. Many brands, including HP, Adidis, and Deutsche Bank, pulled their advertisements when the news was revealed.

At first, YouTube promised to add more human oversight to help detect inappropriate content. A report by BuzzFeed then showed that the problem extended beyond content and advertising to YouTube's autofill feature, which prompted users to search for "how to have s*x with your kids."

YouTube said it has addressed the autofill issue, and now it's deleting 150,000 videos. YouTube didn't respond to request for comment from Mashable.