YouTube is once again responding to the NSFW ad problem

YouTube has been struggling with NSFW ad-related issues for a while, but the problem seems never-ending. Late last year, there were several reports of YouTube users spotting NSFW ads on the platform, to which Google responded with an official statement. The company subsequently said it had eventually removed such ads and taken appropriate action against the accounts of the related advertisers.

Although the tech giant insists that YouTube’s strict moderation policies have been in place for years to prevent such ads, users have reported seeing them occasionally. Just yesterday, a Redditor reported coming across NSFW ads on YouTube. With the news spreading like wildfire, YouTube was once again quick to respond to these ads.

YouTube is responding to NSFW ad-related issues on the platform after a complaint from a Redditor

The news comes via Android Authority, which reported that a Redditor (@Academic_Yak2513) came across two NSFW ads for a hentai game on YouTube while browsing Shorts. The user notes that both ads uploaded by the advertiser contain cropped porn. One of the Redditors who commented on the post thread said that the images used in the specific NSFW ads were from one of the porn games.

When news of the NSFW ad hit the spotlight, so did YouTube react fast to publication. One of the streaming platform’s spokespersons stated: “We have a strict policy against ads with sexually explicit content. If we find ads that violate this policy, we will remove them.”

YouTube uses LLM to tackle vague ads

The company pointed out that it was blocking or removing as many as 5.5 billion ads in 2023. Notably, this number is slightly higher than in 2022. In the same year, YouTube also suspended more than 12.7 million advertiser accounts, nearly doubling from 2022. In 2023 alone, it blocked or removed more than 94.6 million ads containing NSFW content. The company also says that large language models (LLM) have helped it in the fight against NSFW ads.

Combating NSFW ads is no walk in the park, especially when bad actors have the idea to circumvent YouTube’s moderation policies. But YouTube is trying, and doing its best. However, you can’t deny that YouTube needs to step up its content moderation game, given its billions of user base, much of which is made up of underage audiences.