YouTubeFor months, YouTube users have been encountering an abundance of extreme and sexualized ads which, despite reporting them, continue to plague the Google-owned platform.
YouTube’s ads have come under a lot of criticism, primarily for how frequently ads appear, sometimes even for users who pay for Premium.
In addition to implementing pause screen ads, the platform has also waged war against ad blockers, hitting users with hour-long unskippable commercials in the process.
While the total number of ads have been controversial, their content has also come under fire with reports of sexualized ads popping up for users, yet the reports seem to have done little to quell the problem.
PexelsYouTube has a major sexualized ad problem
On Reddit’s r/YouTube and r/YouTubeADS, there is a constant stream of posts reporting an ad featuring sexual content.
The inappropriate ads range from full videos to anime-style cartoons and comics, but regardless of the material, users are all saying the same thing.
Threads titled, “How on earth is this allowed on Youtube?”, “Why are these ads allowed on YouTube” and “Why is this ad allowed on YouTube” have all popped up in the past week.
It’s become so commonplace, that many aren’t even shocked by the content anymore and instead are tired of the posts complaining about it.
“Normally I do not mind trends, but this has been going on for months now and these posts are just gross. Just report the ad and move on with your day,” one recommended.
Others have suggested that YouTube introduce a “quality standard for ads” to tackle both the sexual content and advertisements that are made with AI.
However, with the reports continuing for months now, it doesn’t appear that YouTube has done much to address the problem head-on.
The site revealed a cheaper version of Premium dubbed Premium Lite would be available in the United States, giving subscribers fewer ads on most content.
Meanwhile, YouTube has been making a killing off its ads, reportedly earning $36B in 2024 alone.
