Cadbury, Smirnoff pull YouTube ads over clips of scantily clad children

Lidl, Cadbury maker Mondelez, Diageo and other big companies have pulledadvertising from YouTube after the Times newspaper found thevideo sharing site was showing clips of scantily clad childrenalongside the ads of major brands.

Comments from hundreds of pedophiles were posted alongsidethe images, which appeared to have been uploaded by the childrenthemselves, according to a Times investigation. One video of apre-teenage girl in a nightie drew 6.5 million views.

The paper said YouTube, a unit of Alphabet subsidiary Google, had allowed sexualized imagery of children to beeasily searchable and not lived up to promises to better monitorand police its services to protect children.

In response, a YouTube spokesman said: "There shouldn't beany ads running on this content and we are working urgently tofix this".

German discount retailer Lidl, Diageo the maker ofSmirnoff vodka and Johnnie Walker whiskey and Cadburychocolate maker Mondelez confirmed they had pulled advertisingcampaigns from YouTube.

"We have suspended all of our YouTube advertising withimmediate effect," the UK arm of Lidl said in a statement inresponse to the Times investigation.

"It is completely unacceptable that this content isavailable to view, and it is, therefore, clear that the strictpolicies which Google has assured us were in place to tackleoffensive content are ineffective," a Lidl spokeswoman said.

Urgent investigation

Diageo said it was deeply concerned and had begun an urgentinvestigation. "We are enforcing an immediate stop of allYouTube advertising until we are confident the appropriatesafeguards are in place," the company said.

The Times investigation alleged that YouTube does notpro-actively check for inappropriate images of children butinstead relies on software algorithms, external non-governmentorganisations and police forces to flag such content.

On Wednesday, YouTube announced a crackdown on sexualized orviolent content aimed at "family friendly" sections of YouTube.

Johanna Wright, YouTube's vice president of productmanagement, promised tougher application of its user guidelines,removing inappropriate ads targeting families, blockinginappropriate comments on videos featuring minors and providingfurther guidance for creators of family-friendly content.

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