YouTube investigating 'disturbing' auto-fill search results

  • 29/11/2017
The current auto-fill results for "how to have"
The current auto-fill results for "how to have" Photo credit: Youtube

YouTube is investigating its search auto-fill function, after it began providing combinations related to paedophilia. 

The BBC reports users found, after entering the words "how to have", variations of the phase "s*x with your kids" (asterisk included) popped up. 

Similar searches also prompted disturbing results containing the censored word "s*x".

There was speculation the results were due to an attempt to "troll" YouTube's search algorithm after the 'Elsagate' phenomenon.

Elsagate is the name given to the rise of disturbing videos posted on the website, themed around child-friendly content such as Frozen, Spider-Man or Peppa Pig

Once it became aware of the search results, YouTube quickly resolved the issue. 

"Earlier today, our teams were alerted to this profoundly disturbing autocomplete result and we worked to quickly remove it as soon as we were made aware," a spokeswoman told the BBC.

"We are investigating this matter to determine what was behind the appearance of this auto completion."

No explanation was given about how the phrases appeared so suddenly in the first place.

Search results for "how to have" are now producing regular results.

Newshub.