YouTube censors health videos, deeming them 'potentially offensive'

Katherine Hannaford writes...

Sorry to sound like your mother here, but in this day and age, where kids are falling pregnant at the age of 13, stealing their grandmothers' purses, and getting smacked with ASBOs left right and centre, surely YouTube's recent decision to ban an educational health video is a trifle confusing? After all, in this country, sex-education starts in junior school at around the age of 11, and part of the learning process is identifying any foreign lumps and bumps in your lady/man-goods. I think we all know well enough by now just how fast the whippersnappers mature, when they're facing such adult situations like pregnancy and drug addictions, so surely I'm not the only one completely baffled by this turn of events?

As a country, we pump millions and millions each year into the NHS, yet one ninth of all women in the UK will be affected with breast cancer, and 2,000 men will develop testicular cancer at some point in their lives. Surely Google, who now own YouTube, feel this is a worthy subject which should be broadcasted to as many people as possible? Surely several of the high and mighty decision makers who voted to rate Dr. Chris Steele's videos on how to self-inspect for possible cancerous lumps have lost someone close to them due to breast or testicular cancer? Their argument, according to the Register, is that they're 'potentially offensive' to children, hence the over-18 rating.

As the Register mentions, this seems ludicrous, when contrasted with the fact that there are numerous videos available on YouTube showing gang warfare between Mexican drug gangs - not to mention the Saddam Hussein execution videos! Does anyone else remember videos popping up from the war in Iraq, of American soldiers being killed by Iraqi insurgents? So why is it then that a little bit of clinical nudity is deemed so 'offensive', then?

Surely internet users are intelligent enough to understand the context in which these videos were produced, that anyone able to switch on a computer, fire up a browser, type in 'www.youtube.com' has enough brain cells to avoid feeling the familiar stirrings deep within their loin? Back when I was studying sex-ed in school, I don't recall anyone having a fondle in the back row of seats while watching videos of babies being born, or other similarly nude scenes. Maybe I am giving the average YouTube user too much credit - after all, how many videos have you seen with idiotic 'man taht is d ballz' comments, but perhaps the popular online video site should try giving users a chance to display their maturity. Who knows - one of these videos may just save one of your lives.

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