YouTube Autocomplete suggests paedophiliac and child abuse phrases

YouTube's Autocomplete search term prediction function was found to be returning 'profoundly disturbing' paedophiliac phrases, raising concerns about the channel's safety.

Buzzfeed another other media outlets reported that the video channel's Autocomplete feature made suggestions such as 'how to have s*x with your kids' and 'how to have s*x kids' for searches for 'how to have'.

Because Autocomplete and some other YouTube search algorithms are based on popularity, commentators suggested that a coordinated effort could have caused the searches to appear higher in results than they would organically.

The incident raised questions about the apparent ease with which Google's search-related algorithms could be manipulated.