YouTube Showed A 7-Year-Old A Sexual Ad, To No One’s Surprise

YouTube has become a bit of a joke when it comes to being an advertising platform. Several years ago, the company fell out of favor with a ton of advertisers. Now, it’s attracting plentiful advertisers, however, these advertisers confused YouTube with Porn Hub. YouTube is under fire for showing a seven-year-old a sexual ad.

This story shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. YouTube makes frequent appearances on the Bad Ads community on Reddit. We’re used to seeing ads on YouTube that aren’t quite savory. Who WOULDN’T like to see a woman pleasuring herself before watching an MKBHD video?

YouTube is far from the only culprit, as pretty much all platforms have an ad problem. Companies either post videos showing false gameplay, fake money-making promises, fetish-fueled gameplay, and straight-up porn. Companies will need to think of something before sweeping lawsuits start to flow in.

One disgruntled aunt got a bit of a shock when her seven-year-old nephew approached her with a question. The aunt is a Redditor going by u/Vegetable_Lion_1978. She had put Loserfruit, a Fortnite streamer, on YouTube for her nephew to watch. Afterward, an ad came up showing a woman… let’s just say “showing the goods”. Granted, all sensitive body parts were off-screen. This still doesn’t make this right, however.

u/Vegetable_Lion_1978’s nephew then asked her what Loserfruit was doing when he saw the ad. When she saw the ad, you can guess that she was NOT happy. The seven-year-old was rather confused and thought that the woman in the advertisement was Loserfruit herself, as there were some visual similarities.

In any case, whatever algorithm YouTube uses to block certain ads needs work, as this is only one example of many. A quick glance at the Bad Ads Reddit community shows numerous ads like this. Several of those ads are more graphic than the one our unlucky seven-year-old saw.

This isn’t only evident with its approach to inappropriate ads. There was a period of time when YouTube showed ads advertising adblockers…. for YouTube! Clearly, the company has some work to do. If anything, this will drive more people to sign up for YouTube Premium just to avoid them.