YouTube must be censored, say MPs

Protect kids from the "dark side of the net"

31 July 2008 11:07 GMT / By Katie Scott

British MPs have singled out YouTube for not doing enough to vet the video content uploaded onto its website.

As part of a new review of internet safety, especially in terms of content that children can access, the Culture, Media and Sport select committee said that YouTube needs to do more to censor its videos.

The Committee has recommended that a new industry body should be set up to protect children from harmful content.

The MPs also argued that it should be "standard practice" for sites hosting user-generated content to review material pro-actively.

YouTube has come under fire for content including footage of crimes being committed and the MPs pointed to one horrific video that showed a gang rape.

Google, which owns YouTube, however says that the video sharing site has strict rules and a system that allowed users to report inappropriate content.

Google, the firm which owns YouTube, said it was confident the video-sharing site was safe for children.

"We have strict rules on what's allowed, and a system that enables anyone who sees inappropriate content to report it to our 24/7 review team and have it dealt with promptly", said a Google spokesman.

"Given the volume of content uploaded on our site, we think this is by far the most effective way to make sure that the tiny minority of videos that break the rules come down quickly", he said.

While the MPs acknowledged that the volume of content on sites such as YouTube - which has 10 hours of videos uploaded every minute - made it unrealistic to watch every video before it went online, it said that the practice of removing clips only after they are flagged up by users was not working either.

Self regulation had resulted in an "unsatisfactory piecemeal approach which lacks consistency and transparency", the committee concluded.

On a wider note - the Commitee added that it was "shocked" that the industry standard for removing child abuse images was 24 hours.

"The internet has transformed our lives and is overwhelmingly a force for good. However there is a dark side and many parents are rightly anxious", concluded committee chairman John Whittingdale.