When a channel aimed entirely at young children is hacked to show wall-to-wall porn something has gone seriously awry. And I can’t help thinking this Sesame Street hacking incident will upset more than just concerned parents.
Sesame Street Hacked
What was once a YouTube channel filled with videos of Muppets entertaining and educating kids at the same time became, for a brief period at the weekend, a YouTube channel filled with hardcore pornography. Which is an embarrassment for all concerned. Apart from the hackers responsible, and fans of porn, I guess.
The hacking of Sesame Street’s YouTube channel occurred on Sunday, with porn visible for around 20 minutes before being suspended for “repeated or severe violations of our Community Guidelines.”
The hackers uploaded several hardcore porn videos to the site and changed the profile description to one naming two people as being responsible. Needless to say it’s unlikely either of those named actually are involved.
Recovery/Response
returned to normal on Monday, with the offensive content purged and a new profile description making it clear this was a mere blip. Interestingly the admin responsible calls out YouTube as a non-“safe, child-friendly environment.”
We apologize for any inconvenience our audience may have experienced yesterday on our Sesame Street YouTube channel. Our channel was temporarily compromised, but we have since restored our original line-up of the best classic Sesame Street video clips featuring Cookie Monster, Big Bird, Grover, Oscar the Grouch, and the rest of the fuzzy, feathered, and googly-eyed friends you remember from childhood.
If you’re watching videos with your preschooler and would like to do so in a safe, child-friendly environment, please join us at http://www.sesamestreet.org
In other words we cannot guarantee this won’t happen again, so to ensure your kids remains innocent visit the official site instead.
Conclusions
This hacking is a reminder that YouTube is a third-party site with third-party security. Brands need be aware of this fact when using the Google-owned site to host content and draw eyeballs.
The Sesame Street channel may now be back to normal but I can’t help wondering whether Sesame Workshop’s confidence in the site has been shot to pieces, hence the desire to move everyone over to the official website. And that may have a knock-on effect on other companies.
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