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YouTube Co-Founder Opposes Ratings System

Chad Hurley, co-founder of YouTube, doesn’t want the responsibility of babysitting other people’s children online. Asked by the Times of London about the lack of "prior warning" small children receive before potentially accessing violent or sexual content, Hurley argued that it’s up to the community to filter out inappropriate content. "I have two small children […]

HurleyburlyChad Hurley, co-founder of YouTube, doesn't want the responsibility of babysitting other people's children online.

Asked by the Times of London about the lack of "prior warning" small children receive before potentially accessing violent or sexual content, Hurley argued that it's up to the community to filter out inappropriate content.

"I have two small children as well; we have clear policies and clear guidelines, and we have given tools to the community so they can flag or notify inappropriate content," said Hurley.

And when the Times kept pushing, Hurley explicitly denied that it was YouTube's problem.

With so much video being uploaded, Mr Hurley offers no hope that YouTube will ever concede any kind of rating system and so users must place faith in the ban on "sexually explicit content," "gratuitous violence" plus "gross-out videos of accidents" and "bad stuff like animal abuse, drug abuse or bomb making." . . .

"I'm not sure it is our job to solve the world's problems," he says . . . "I'm not trying to hide from responsibility but we also have to respect freedom of speech."

*Photo: *Flickr/World Economic Forum