YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki says company takes kids’ safety seriously

Patrick T. Fallon | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Susan Wojcicki, chief executive officer of YouTube Inc., introduces the company’s new television subscription service at the YouTube Space LA venue in Los Angeles, California, U.S., on Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2017.

YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki on Friday said “We takes kids’ safety incredibly seriously” in her first public remarks since the company was embroiled in a scandal involving a network of pedophiles on the video service.

“I’m a mom,” Wojcicki said at the Lesbians Who Tech + Allies Summit in San Francisco. “I understand kids. As a parent, I understand it and really want to do the right thing.”

Wojcicki’s comments come days after a number major brands, including Disney and Nestle, pulled their ads from Google-owned YouTube after news report that pedophiles were using the video service to leave comments directing one another to videos of young children.

“We removed comments off of tens of millions of videos almost instantly just out of an abundance of caution to make sure we were able to stop it,” Wojcicki said.

As a result of the scandal, YouTube turned off comments on videos featuring minors as well as older children engaged in risky behavior, Wojcicki said, adding that YouTube is 100 percent committed to solving the problems on its service.

“I think there are going to be many young people out there who are going to be upset because they’re going to feel like they’re posting videos and they no longer have the ability to use comments in the way that other creators can,” she said. “In the end that was a trade off that we made because we felt like we wanted to make sure that protecting children was our number-one priority.”

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