YouTube cracking down on child endangerment videos

Video-streaming giant YouTube is moving to crack down on videos that depict children in disturbing situations.

In a blog post on its website on Wednesday, Johanna Wright, YouTube’s vice president of product management, said the streaming service has removed 50 channels from its website in the past week. Those channels, she said, including content “featuring minors that may be endangering a child.”

Wright also said that YouTube is working to implement new guidelines removing videos that show children in potentially abusive situations.

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“Across the board we have scaled up resources to ensure that thousands of people are working around the clock to monitor, review and make the right decisions across our ads and content policies,” she wrote in the blog post.

“These latest enforcement changes will take shape over the weeks and months ahead as we work to tackle this evolving challenge,” the post continued.

The new guidelines come on the heels of a BuzzFeed News report exposing videos on YouTube – some with millions of views – that depict children in “disturbing and abusive situations.” According to that report, many of the videos originate in Eastern Europe, and are posted to YouTube verified accounts.

As part of the crackdown, YouTube will remove “inappropriate sexual or predatory comments” on videos featuring minors, and will continue to work to take down advertisements on “content depicting family entertainment characters engaged in violent, offensive, or otherwise inappropriate behavior, even if done for comedic or satirical purposes.”