YouTube in trouble again over obscene videos targeting children

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summary

  • YouTube channels are posting inappropriate content with child-oriented thumbnails and titles in an apparent attempt to attract a younger audience.
  • The videos do not have any age restrictions and may be recommended for all audiences, including young children.
  • Channels like X Studio, with their provocative thumbnails, have evolved from harmless content utilizing popular characters such as The Amazing Digital Circus.



YouTube, the Google-owned video streaming platform, has over 2.49 billion monthly active users, with over 238 million YouTube viewers in the United States.

As of last year, around 10% of the streaming platform's user base was thought to be made up of minors (excluding YouTube Kids), highlighting the importance of fighting NSFW advertising, which has long plagued the platform.

Now, the streaming service is once again in the spotlight for hosting animated content aimed at children that often contains veiled (and sometimes explicit) sexually suggestive material.

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Recently, several Reddit users discovered YouTube channels that were supposedly aimed at kids posting videos with adult thumbnails and inappropriate titles (via Android Authority ). The characters in the videos resemble characters from the popular animated web series “The Amazing Digital Circus,” making it clear that these channels are designed to attract a younger YouTube audience.

Some of these channels, with their obscene titles and thumbnails, are still on YouTube today and may be recommended to users, but it should be noted that although these videos are not categorized as made for children, they are not age-restricted either.


Available to everyone, including small children


These videos do not have any age restrictions and, judging by viewing habits, are likely suitable for everyone, especially young children. There are many nefarious channels publishing this content, but the most egregious of them all is Germany-based X Studio, which has around 50,000 subscribers and over 11,530,470 cumulative views.

Most of the video thumbnails on this channel suggest nudity and have titles like “Should JAX Fuck POMNI?”, “Is JAX Too Big for POMNI”, “POMNI DREAMED ABOUT FUCKING JAX”, “HOT POMNI IN BED WITH JAX” and so on. You get the gist. The titles don't use explicit language, but they often contain sexual innuendo, especially when combined with suggestive thumbnails.


What's even more disturbing is the history of this channel. For reference, the first video uploaded to the X Studio channel was about 7 months ago, and all of the videos on the channel at that time were harmless manga and anime content. It was about 3 months ago that the channel started posting offensive titles and thumbnails. So, basically, the channel cultivated a young fanbase, but suddenly after a few months, it started pushing sexually suggestive content.

It's unclear at this point whether YouTube will or can do anything about the situation. Channels such as X Studio exploit popular characters but don't clearly label their content as kid-friendly, making it a grey area for the streaming platform. For now, the onus is on parents to monitor their children's online activity.

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