NY- After weeks of discussions with Google executives, New York State on Tuesday published an official warning to its residents about the content available on Google Video, the search king’s freewheeling site for user-generated videos.
The New York State Consumer Protection Board called on parents to restrict their children’s access to Google Video, which because the actual content of videos is not searchable, can circumvent parental blocking technology.
Since the videos are user-contributed, it is up to the users to submit tags that classify the videos. As a result, videos of questionable taste such as Hot Girl Shows How to Take Tip, which was No. 2 among Google’s most popular videos, are easily available on Google Video’s main page.
It is the lack of reliable content classification that has New York state officials steamed.
“They allow the uploaders to define the videos based on metatags, but without Google screening the videos, it is just not enough,” said Jon Sorenson, a spokesperson for the New York State Consumer Protection Board. “If Google does not police its own content, it makes the job of parents even more difficult.”
According to Mr. Sorenson, the state agency asked Google to fix its system, which allowed videos that included content that was unsuitable for children to be highlighted on its video home page in its popular, recent, and featured categories.
Google instituted a family-friendly filter of some sort, said Mr. Sorenson, but it proved inadequate.
“After we thought they had solved the problem and most of the offensive stuff was removed from the highlighted categories, we would check back only to find that they had returned,” he said.
The technology used by Google to measure the popularity of its videos is primarily mathematical. The rankings change by the minute as users view the videos, so a simple browser refresh could dramatically alter the popularity rankings.
A call to Google for comment was not returned by press time. The company does warn video creators about obscene and copyright material but obviously has no way at this time of filtering for either.
Google executives told the New York agency that the company is working on installing a filter called Safe Search that would block minors from accessing videos determined to be objectionable or unsuitable.
“This is a peculiar market,” said Todd Chanko, an analyst with JupiterResearch. “Someone has to be making some kind of basic decision as to what videos are made available to the public and which are not.
“But it is an unstable business model that makes the assumption that there is an unlimited source of people willing to produce video on their own time and on their own coin for your benefit,” he added.
The New York state agency also pointed out that it was aware of the fact that Google is not the only site that features objectionable content. The market for short-form video is growing rapidly, according to comScore Networks (see Yahoo Widens Video Focus).
On average, over 7 million people visit IFILM, one of the more popular video sites, each month (see FILM on World Cup Video Kick).
The composition of the overall audience is about 52 percent male and 48 percent female, according to comScore. The male audience consumes nearly two hours of online videos per month, while women consume one hour and 20 minutes.