Recently a young person reached out to me for some help in understanding a flag they had received. This person was puzzled about why they got a video flagged and removed by YouTube. When it comes down to it, the only logical conclusion is the age of the person doing the video.
Allow me to explain. Video dares and challenges are big on YouTube, especially with the younger people. While most dares and challenges are innocent some are designed solely for sexual gratification. While many adults can and do post some pretty explicit stuff here on YouTube, usually it only gets age restricted. YouTube is far less forgiving when it comes to children.
The exact same video done by an adult can stay up, while a child doing it would get removed. This comes from the YouTube Community Guidelines which say:
Don't post videos which encourage others to do things that may cause them to get badly hurt, especially kids
Things like predatory behavior, ...and inciting others ... to violate the Terms of Use are taken very seriously.
Essentially if YouTube determines the only way to protect the child is to remove the video and or channel, they will do it. The banhammer knows no mercy.
There are countless challenges and dares that encourage children to do all sorts of things that they may not find sexual at all, but the people requesting these videos certainly do. There are people that request gymnastic videos because of the sexual poses involved. There are people who request children to kiss the mirror, show their belly button, and a slew of other things.
The young people feel excited about the high view counts they get when they do these videos. Now if a child wants to do these type of dares and challenges I guess that is fine, but I would suggest they run the idea past their parents first. Just be aware why people are requesting these videos.
Finally, to the young people, it is your channel. Nobody can force you into doing anything you don't want to do. This is why it is important to never disclose where you live. If someone does try to pressure you into doing a video you feel uncomfortable doing, then that is what the block button is for. It also doesn't hurt to tell your parents.
Final word to parents. Young children should not have access to the internet unsupervised. It is because of your failure to properly care for your children and keep them safe that these type of videos exist on YouTube. You may find my harsh tone towards you upsetting, but all I have to say is Pet the Cat. (Quote from The True Pooka)
