Google tips FCC about new YouTube comment filtering system

Google has told the Federal Communications Commission that the search engine giant is working on a new filtering mechanism for YouTube. The site's engineers are developing "a number of initiatives designed to give users and families greater control to moderate their YouTube experience, including the ability to filter video comments they find inappropriate," Google wrote to the FCC on April 16.

"This new feature, which is currently being tested in the United States, gives users control to set their own comment preferences by enabling them to choose whether to see all video comments, no comments, or filtered comments," Google added.

"As a leading site for online video, YouTube has a special responsibility to protect kids," the advocacy group declared. "While these measures represent an important step in protecting children from inappropriate content online, they don’t go far enough. YouTube's new policies also need to extend to user comments, links, and InVideo advertisements. These new policies should be further augmented by formulating and adopting a thorough, accurate and transparent content rating system which would allow a parent to block a child from viewing age-inappropriate material."