Mother's Google account is frozen because her 7-year-old son uploaded a 'butt video' without permission

It's no longer unusual for children to upload videos to YouTube, but Jennifer Watkins from New South Wales, Australia, had her Google account suspended after she uploaded a video of her child showing off her mischievous spirit. I have had to end up being exposed to this.

How Your Child's Online Mistake Can Ruin Your Digital Life - The New York Times

Watkins is a family of four with her husband Bruce and twins Ben and Flynn. Ben and Flynn used a tablet device that was logged into Watkins' Google account to watch children's content and upload playful dance videos to YouTube.

The number of views of the videos uploaded by the twins was mostly in the single digits, but things took a big turn when they uploaded a ``video of naked buttocks'' in September 2023.

YouTube's video checking system determined that the uploaded video was ``suspected child abuse'' within minutes.

When Watkins noticed, he was locked out not only from YouTube but from all Google services, and was unable to check his work schedule or bank statements.

The login page displayed a message that said, ``Your account will eventually be deleted, but you can appeal,'' and Watkins replied, ``My 7-year-old sons uploaded that because they thought ``butts are funny.'' 'It is a thing,' he filed an objection.

However, Google continued to reject Watkins' appeal to reinstate his account for more than a month. Since Mr. Watkins was a paid account user, he was able to contact the support person directly, but the support person told Mr. Watkins, ``Even if the act was done by a child without realizing it, the company will not take action.'' It's against policy.' This content was later confirmed by The New York Times, which received information.

After a month of no progress, Watkins contacted The New York Times. When The New York Times contacted Google to confirm the facts, Watkins' account was restored the next day. Google did not respond to a reporter's question, ``Is there any other way to resolve the objection rejection other than contacting The New York Times?''

In addition, when we conducted a survey on a small number of users who were picked up on Facebook for ``sharing inappropriate images of children'', 75% of them were cases of teenagers in romantic relationships or cases of children sharing inappropriate images. The New Yrok Times notes that there have been cases where data scientists have determined that there was no malicious intent, such as cases where people shared videos of animals biting their genitals because they thought it was funny.