Spark suspends advertising on YouTube due to inappropriate kids' content

February 26, 2019

Spark has pulled all of its advertising from YouTube over concerns the site is facilitating comments from paedophiles and that Spark's ads are being shown on related videos.

The issue was first raised by vlogger Matt Watson on February 17 , with him describing the situation as a "wormhole".

Mr Watson gave several examples of videos of innocent content created by children where paedophiles had shared links to child porn, time-stamped inappropriate moments in the videos, or made lewd comments.

Additionally, YouTube's algorithm was demonstrated to also continue showing people viewing these videos, other videos where the same unsavoury behaviour was taking place.

Some of the videos were monetised, and were showing advertisements over top, some of which may have included Spark ads.

YouTube has said it is addressing the issue, but Spark said in a statement today that they are pulling all their advertising off the platform until that has been done.

"Spark has chosen to suspend our advertising on YouTube while issues around unsavoury and illegal content appearing in innocent searches and comment sections persist," the company said.

"We are working closely with YouTube to understand what measures they are taking in response."

YouTube said in a statement that "Any content - including comments - that endangers minors is abhorrent and we have clear policies prohibiting this on YouTube.

"We took immediate action by deleting accounts and channels, reporting illegal activity to authorities and disabling comments on tens of millions of videos that include minors. There's more to be done, and we continue to work to improve and catch abuse more quickly."

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