Harmful Content Released Without Age Restrictions
Evading Review Through Ambiguous Expressions
Limitations of Complete Bans on Overseas Platforms
#Recently, Kim (45), a parent of a 5th-grade elementary school son, decided to confiscate his child's cellphone for two weeks. This was after witnessing the child watching a talk show featuring adult actors on YouTube. Kim had to engage in a minor scuffle with his child during the confiscation process. He raised his voice, saying, "It's shocking that children can watch such videos without adult verification," and added, "I can't completely take away the phone because of academy schedules, and it really worries me."
A video of an AI lookbook featuring a virtual AI model dressed in provocative clothing has been uploaded on YouTube. [Image source=YouTube capture]
Recently, provocative videos such as lookbook videos with excessive exposure have been appearing on YouTube without age restrictions, raising concerns that they may instill incorrect perceptions of sexuality in adolescents. Regulatory authorities have been demanding corrective measures such as access blocking from YouTube, but due to YouTube being an overseas platform, there are limitations in enforcement.
On the 14th, searching for 'adult lookbook' on YouTube revealed hundreds of videos featuring women dressed in revealing clothes posing provocatively. Lookbooks are fashion content where models try on various types of clothing, but some YouTubers have started posting videos wearing underwear, turning them into a kind of adult content.
Moreover, recently, so-called 'AI lookbook' videos have been spreading, where virtual models wear provocative outfits instead of real people. These videos are all generated by generative AI and do not have age restrictions, allowing adolescents to watch them. One YouTuber gathered nearly one million subscribers solely from provocative AI lookbook videos.
'Circumventing Depictions' Evade YouTube Age Restriction Regulations
Obscene content that cleverly avoids video review standards is also a problem. Currently, talk shows or interview content featuring adult actors and entertainment industry workers are gaining popularity on YouTube. These videos mainly consist of stories about past experiences working in entertainment establishments and anecdotes from filming adult movies, and they are publicly available to all age groups, garnering hundreds of thousands of views.
This content is ambiguous under YouTube's review standards for classification as pornography or age-restricted content. They evade review by partially pixelating words related to entertainment establishments or depicting them indirectly.
According to YouTube's own guidelines, videos with excessive exposure or collected for sexual gratification are classified as sexual content and are subject to deletion. If sexual content is included but not described explicitly with language, age restriction regulations are applied instead of deletion. Thanks to these standards, such videos are openly available to adolescents without separate age restrictions or deletion.
'Access Blocking' Instead of 'Deletion'... Limitations in Managing Overseas Platforms
In response, the Korea Communications Standards Commission (KCSC) has been demanding corrective actions from YouTube. From early this year until last month, the KCSC issued a total of 171 corrective demands related to obscene, prostitution, or youth-harmful information on YouTube. This is 7.1 times higher than the 24 demands made during the same period last year.
However, due to YouTube being an overseas platform, there are limitations in fully deleting videos. A KCSC official said, "Domestic platforms can have deletion requests, but since YouTube is an overseas platform operator, we respond with access blocking," adding, "We are requesting voluntary measures from Google at the international cooperation level so that corrective demands are accepted and deletions can be made."
It is also common that some reported videos do not meet the standards for obscenity or youth-harmful content under the Information and Communications Network Act, resulting in no corrective demands. Among the YouTube obscene and prostitution reports received last year, the KCSC issued corrective demands for 24 cases and marked 385 cases as 'not applicable.'
A KCSC official explained, "A significant portion of the information reported on YouTube does not meet the standards for obscene or prostitution information under relevant laws, resulting in a relatively low rate of corrective demands," and added, "We thoroughly verify parts of videos that imply prostitution, but it is practically difficult because we have to consider the overall context and the channel's operational purpose."
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