"Will Use This Investigation": YouTube Removes Channels After NDTV Probe Into Explicit AI Songs

YouTube says it will use the investigation to "strengthen and improve" its systems, but does not explain how the songs reached accounts set up for children.

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NDTV found several channels serving adult content to accounts for children.
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Summary is AI-generated, newsroom-reviewed
  • YouTube removed hundreds of AI-generated explicit songs after NDTV's investigation
  • Channels publishing such content were terminated for violating sexual content policies
  • Explicit songs in Hindi, Bhojpuri, and Punjabi were accessible to child accounts
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New Delhi:

YouTube has removed hundreds of AI-generated graphic sexual songs and the channels publishing them after an NDTV investigation found such songs were available to accounts set up for children. "We've terminated these channels for violating our Nudity & Sexual content policy, which applies to all content including Gen AI content," a YouTube spokesperson told NDTV.

"We've taken action and will use this investigation to strengthen and improve our systems," the spokesperson further said.

Read The Investigation Here | 153 Songs In 30 Days: AI Makes Explicit Songs, YouTube Serves Them To Minors

Nearly two dozen channels that NDTV documented in its investigation were no longer active, as of November 5. Hundreds of explicit songs were published on these channels. YouTube also removed many channels and algorithm-created explicit song topics after NDTV shared samples of its findings.

However, many similar channels, carrying the same kind of songs, were still available on YouTube.

NDTV's investigation found songs in Hindi, Bhojpuri and Punjabi describing graphic sexual acts, incest and the sexualisation of schoolchildren. None was age-restricted. On a supervised kid account that a parent had set to YouTube's strictest setting, "Older kids" (9+), searches for "18+ songs" and "non-veg songs" returned such songs. YouTube then offered playlists of similar tracks it had compiled itself.

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YouTube's statement does not address why the songs were not age-restricted, how they passed its parental controls, or why its own systems recommended them.

Delhi-based advocate Aditya Joshi had earlier told NDTV that YouTube's content moderation struggles to identify problematic keywords in regional languages, and that its AI-based detection is immature.

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