YouTube Suffers “Porn Attack”
People need to be aware that as of Friday, May 22, YouTube was filled with user uploads of pornography.
Most outlets are calling the attack a “prank,” but given that the uploaded pornography was specifically labeled with child-friendly tags like “Jonas Brothers,” I’m not so sure that really falls into “prank” territory. To me, a prank is something funny and pulled on a peer. I’m sure the users who uploaded porn to YouTube saw some humor in their actions, but forgive me if I can’t find the humor in trying to trick a 10-year old girl into viewing hardcore pornography.
Not surprisingly, the forum members of 4chan, responsible for the Time Magazine’s Most Influential Person “hack” which resulted in the election of the site’s founder, moot, have claimed responisbility. Dubbed “Operation Porn Day,” the attack employed videos with non-pornographic content for the first minute or so before the pornography started.
This little episode teaches us a few things:
- People are still woefully ignorant of the harm inflicted on young minds by early and unexpected exposure to pornography. Studies have shown that early exposure to pornography can scar young minds, especially when children try to process what they have seen alone. Certain studies have also shown correlations between repeated early exposure to pornography and perpetrators of sexual assault. Throw in the fact that pornography elicits the same neurochemical reactions as many addictive drugs, and this little prank quickly becomes analogous to spiking the 4th-grade kool-aid with cocaine. Ha ha.
- Parents need to prepare their kids for pornography before they think they need to, and make sure their kids are confident that they can talk to them about things that make them uncomfortable.
- The user influence on today’s internet means that no sites, even ones owned and controlled by Google, is immune to being hacked or violated in such a way.
Filed under: Internet Safety News
