YouTube has just launched a new Abuse And Safety Center meant to help make the site as safe as possible for families (YouTube is only meant for ages 13+, but kids still flock to the site in droves). While the site has previously offered safety guidelines, they used to be bundled in the same section as product help and had far less information. The new section offers tips from organizations including the Anti-Defamation League, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and the National Crime Prevention Council.
After entering the Abuse and Safety Center, users are presented with a list of common issues, including Privacy Concerns, Cyberbullying, and Hateful Content. After selecting one of these items, the site displays a list of tips and guidelines from the aforementioned expert agencies, as well as a video guides in some cases. Most of the topics are directly related to YouTube, but they are also relevant to the web as a whole.
The new Center also offers a Help and Safety tool that makes it easier to manage irritating or malicious comments and also gives users more control over who can contact them through private messages. Users can now search for all comments left by a given user across their entire channel, allowing them to see if any commentors are making a habit of repeatedly harassing them on their videos. From there, it’s a simple process to delete multiple comments at once or ban that user entirely from the channel.