This -- people need to differentiate between "I think this is disgusting, but there is nothing illegal about this" and "this is illegal". You can't have your cake and eat it, in that you can't have a (relatively) free society with freedom of speech and freedom of the press, and not cater to pedofiles in some way. This is the (totally worth it) price we pay for not having systematic state censorship.
I think that our demonization of pedophilia will been seen by future generations as one of our cultural failings. It pushes people into secrecy and hiding. This isolation and alienation can keep borderline criminals from seeking and receiving the help they need before they abuse children.
We should also be careful about removing free speech from minors to alleviate our own sense of disgust.
However, YouTube has created, monetized and helped spread a network of people encouraging sexual exploitation and abuse of minors. That is incredibly messed up and people at YouTube should face criminal charges for this.
>You can't have your cake and eat it, in that you can't have a (relatively) free society with freedom of speech and freedom of the press, and not cater to pedofiles in some way.
Maybe, but you can still criticize a platform for a monetization algorithm that optimizes for pedophiles, collecting the cash and looking the other way. Although I think that, in doing so, we shouldn't absolve parents of their own responsibility, since often adults are pimping their children out for the views.
Youtube basically lost the monetization battle when it legitimized the view that advertisers should have any sort of say in what content gets shown next to their ads. 10-15 years ago, that concept didn't exist in the online advertising space, publishers were first class citizens, and advertisers didn't get any say in anything and would get banned more often than publishers for not meeting advertiser standards (which I don't even think are a thing anymore). Now it's completely switched. Catering to advertisers is rapidly killing youtube, and a large portion of the web as a viable platform for free expression.
You are right, but by criticizing said platform, you are giving advertisers more leverage and basically helping to even further whitewash an already heavily censored internet.
It's not just children. Look at the comments on any video and you'll see all kinds of abusive/sexual-harrassment comments. It has always been like this, and it will always be like this unless you want an algorithm to detect the "offensiveness" of your comments, which will result in certain topics being completely banned unintentionally (think China's handling of the term"tiananmen square massacre" if you want a working example of this). And the worst part is, it's essentially advertisers that get to decide what content is OK for you to view. I'd rather take the lack of censorship any day and pay a subscription, thank you.
