You may have noticed a newer feature on YouTube, right at the top of the homepage, called “Videos being watched right now….” If you were checking out that feature around 11:00 this morning, you would have noticed people were watching porn.
The “Videos being watched right now” feature presents five thumbnails of what people are watching and cycles through several sets. This isn’t content that is searched for specifically, just there on the homepage.
I wasn’t on the homepage myself. I was following a Valleywag link to where NBC’s YouTube channel used to be. Below the “This channel not available” notice, and above the “Promoted Videos” thumbs, I was flashed.
A still shot of fellatio-in-progress. Copious side-boob that brought up a soft-core Skinamax scene. And another round of fellatio, this time (lucky fella) with two girls at the, um, helm. Let’s not leave out an ad for MilfHunters.com, either.
Not that porn is unheard of on the Internet, especially at video-sharing sites, but it was a bit shocking to see it just presented to me like a pop-up ad on YouTube, which purports to have a strict family-friendly content approach. The YouTube community usually takes care of it.
Except for hot girls making out or stripping – so long as not too much skin is showing. The community in charge of flagging content will designate those, like this one, as potentially inappropriate and slap an age-restriction on it. (It works like all other age-restriction buttons on the Internet – an honor system, as if.)
But the community, apparently, isn’t in fast enough to flag inappropriate or obscene content before it reaches the “Videos being watched right now” section.
When asked about this morning’s peep show, a YouTube spokesperson told murdok that the community “effectively polices the site for inappropriate material” and that once said material is flagged, it is reviewed by staff and “removed from the system within minutes.”
And if they upload it again?
“We also disable the accounts of repeat offenders,” said the spokesperson.
The incident is the latest example of YouTube’s struggle with the very concept that made it a cultural phenomenon; the crowd may be diligent, but the crowd is too slow for automated features, too quick to upload offending material, whether erotic or copyrighted, again.
Parent company Google also had a few indecent images “sneak in” to the Google News page. Nude images are also against Google News’s policy.
YouTube recently announced a new content filter to better combat users who upload copyrighted material. But go ahead, search for any musician and see if you can find their music video. Bet it’s easy.
But not as easy as passively watching current videos scroll unfiltered at the top of the homepage.
