Policy shift follows NYT report on YouTube recommendation algorithm pushing kids' videos to pedophiles

A mom in Brazil became concerned as she watched the viewing numbers on innocent backyard clip her daughter posted to YouTube suddenly climb hundreds of thousands of views. The child posted a video of herself and a friend playing in the family pool. YouTube's recommendation engine had been suggesting the video as recommended content to viewers who'd just watched other videos that contained sexually oriented video content. YouTube's AI sexualized her kid and pushed her image to pedophiles. This happens a lot, apparently. Read the rest

U.S. attorney’s office to seek 11-year prison sentence for Jones, 26, on Friday May 3.

“YouTube is disabling all comments on videos featuring young children as it attempts to head off an organised ring of paedophiles who were using its site to trade clips of young girls in states of undress,” says the Guardian's Alex Hern. Read the rest

"Until Google can protect our brand from offensive content of any kind, we are removing all advertising from YouTube," an AT&T spokesperson told CNBC.

Today is R. Kelly's birthday. Today, news is breaking that the singer is under investigation in Georgia.

R. Kelly has been accused of abuse, predatory behavior, and pedophilia for decades. A new investigation has launched into charges he committed crimes against girls in Fulton County. Dream Hampton, executive producer of 'Surviving R. Kelly,' said it best. Read the rest

A German 48-year old citizen and her 39-year old partner have been sentenced to 12 years in prison after being found guilty of repeatedly raping her son. If that’s not enough, the filth also sold the boy to pedophiles she found on the Dark Net, who further abused the child and filmed it, over a two-year period. It goes without saying that Germany, and most anyone else that’s heard about it, has been horrified by the case.

From The Guardian:

In Tuesday’s verdict, the couple was ordered to pay €42,500 (£38,000) in compensation to the boy and another victim, a young girl.

Local authorities have been accused of failing to protect the boy, who now lives with a foster family. The mother’s partner was supposed to be banned from having contact with children. Officials removed the boy from the family in March last year, but a local court sent him back weeks later.

According to The Telegraph, six others were jailed for their involvement in the sexual abuse of the boy. Because of the way that Germany handles criminal cases that involve rape, none of the parties responsible can be named by the media.

I can’t even begin to imagine the life-long harm that’s been done to those kids in the name of self-fulfillment and greed, nor can I understand the how a system designed to protect society’s most vulnerable failed them them so completely.

Image via Flickr, courtesy of Blogtrepreneur Read the rest

On The Dr. Oz Show Thursday Nov. 2, former child actor Corey Feldman publicly outed Jon Grissom as molesting him in the 1980s. During the show, he called LAPD to turn in his abusers.

In the interview, he stated, "This guy -- on his ­MySpace page and his Facebook page -- has got pictures of me and Corey Haim. He still taunts it, and flaunts it.”

Grissom appeared in two films that Feldman starred in, License to Drive (1988) and Dream a Little Dream (1989).

Feldman is currently crowdfunding a film that would tell the story of his life:

People have long awaited a response from Corey as to what exactly happened in his childhood. In his book, Coreyography, Corey describes what happened but it isn't clear who exactly the predators are. The best way, he feels, in order to tell the whole story, is for Corey to come forward in the form of a film about his life. We are embarking on a dangerous and exciting journey to get to the bottom of the truth. However in doing so there are great security risks.

Previously: Barbara Walters tells Corey Feldman "you're damaging an entire industry" when he warns of Hollywood abuse Read the rest

I expect more than one cable news channel to devote mega time over the next 24 hours to "The Pedophile's Guide to Love and Pleasure," a Kindle download which purports to be a HOWTO guidebook for "pedosexuals."

Oh, there you go, just as I'm composing this, Anderson Cooper tweets that Dr. Phil will be on tonight for that very purpose.

From the product description, such as it is:

This is my attempt to make pedophile situations safer for those juveniles that find themselves involved in them, by establishing certian rules for these adults to follow. I hope to achieve this by appealing to the better nature of pedosexuals, with hope that their doing so will result in less hatred and perhaps liter sentences should they ever be caught.

Liter sentences!

Presumably, Apple's digital bookstore would never allow this to happen, or so the sales pitch goes. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? (When) will Amazon remove the book from sale, and/or should they?

Amazon said in a statement that it "believes it is censorship not to sell certain books simply because we or others believe their message is objectionable." Discuss.

Update: Welp, now folks are loading /b/-type images to the product page. One screengrab below... Read the rest