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" Nestlé, Epic Games and other major brands said on Wednesday that they had stopped buying advertisements on YouTube after their ads appeared on children's videos where pedophiles had infiltrated the comment sections. The companies acted after a YouTube user posted a video this week to point out this behavior. For the most part, the videos targeted by pedophiles did not violate YouTube's rules and were innocent enough - young girls doing gymnastics, playing Twister or stretching - but the videos became overrun with suggestive remarks directed at the children."

"A feminist parody of Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines" - a song that has been accused of blurring the lines between consensual sex and rape - was briefly removed from YouTube yesterday, leaving its creators mystified. "Defined Lines", created by a bunch of University of Auckland law students, features three fully dressed women responding to the attentions of scantily clad men as they sing about sexism. The video, which has been watched more than 450,000 times since it was posted three days ago, was removed from YouTube yesterday having been flagged by users as containing "inappropriate content", but has now been restored."

". Social media turned mobile phones into personal televisions, not just because Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and even Twitter provided more and more videos, but because they created a highly emotive space where sensationalism would win over rationality. Think about how these platforms shamelessly optimize their content to encourage more engagement, how they push users to do live personal broadcasts and visual personal diaries - their "Stories" - and display them in the form of traditional television with names like Instagram Television (IGTV). That's in addition to YouTube TV and Facebook Watch, which feature professionally produced video or live television feeds. Now there are fewer and fewer people watching traditional television, but more and more are spending their time on social media. The Wall Street Journal reported in February 2017 that "YouTube viewers worldwide are now watching more than 1 billion hours of videos a day, threatening to eclipse U.S. television viewership." I think of this as neo-television, because much of the internet today has become something you watch instead of read."

Ever since YouTube became a place where anyone could realistically become a celebrity, brands have been trying to figure out how and what makes a viral video. What's significant about this year's top-viewed ads is the fact that they have more of a web presence on YouTube than on TV.

"To celebrate 2013, we invited some YouTubers to star in a mashup of popular moments this year. Can you spot all the references? WATCH THE TOP VIDEOS OF 2013:"

"Kids like weird things: Yellow sponge-boys, talking doe-eyed ponies, ruddy-cheeked rodents that say only "pika pika," and, especially in the past few years, unboxing videos. Kids' unboxing videos are YouTube series in which children, or in some cases just disembodied hands, take toys out of their packaging and play with them as uplifting music plays in the background. One particularly popular video shows a small boy unwrapping and then assembling a child-size electric car, using plastic tools that would surely fall apart in less practiced hands. He then drives the car down the sidewalk through an eerily empty neighborhood to a playground that is also completely empty, where he plays by himself, presumably because all the other neighborhood children are busy watching YouTube. The video has 267 million views."

"YouTube stars are being paid to sell academic cheating, a BBC investigation has found. More than 250 channels are promoting EduBirdie, based in Ukraine, which allows students to buy essays, rather than doing the work themselves. YouTube said it would help creators understand they cannot promote dishonest behaviour."

"One by one, original YouTube creators have found themselves pivoting away from the limelight to more traditional career paths. Here's why."

"Google is reportedly readying its entry into the online TV industry with a YouTube service by the name of "Unplugged," which would feature a skinny bundle of TV channels."

"Bails and Godwin are riding that wave of popularity to build their followings and cash in on an accessible kind of fame they dreamed about as children, influenced not by movies or television but by YouTube stars. Fame on TikTok is a full-time job. The money Bails makes from his TikTok videos pays for the apartment he'd just moved into a few days before in the artsy, up-and-coming neighborhood of North Hollywood. Bails and Godwin said a combination of sponsorships, YouTube revenue and donations from fans watching livestreams on TikTok have given them the financial independence to afford their Instagram-worthy lifestyle."

"We've compiled a mage-list of 40 viral videos (in no particular order) that summarize life on the Internet in 2013. And even though some of the year's most watched YouTube videos were ads (Dove, WestJet, Kmart and Volvo) or music videos like Miley Cyrus' Wrecking Ball, we left those off to make room for some classics from the everyday man."

"In this hour, TED speakers explore the art of storytelling - and how good stories have the power to transform our perceptions of the world."

"The brain-tingling feeling was a hard-to-describe psychological oddity. Until, suddenly, it was a YouTube phenomenon."

"Logan Paul's controversial dead body video is a watershed moment in YouTube's effort to grapple with a vast content moderation problem."

"An analysis of every video posted by high-subscriber channels in the first week of 2019 finds that children's content - as well as content featuring children - received more views than other videos"

"Psychologist Tim Kasser discusses how America's culture of consumerism undermines our well-being. When people buy into the ever-present marketing messages that "the good life" is "the goods life," they not only use up Earth's limited resources, but they are less happy and less inclined toward helping others. The animation both lays out the problems of excess materialism and points toward solutions that promise a healthier, more just, and more sustainable life."

"A tear-jerking viral video, called "2012: What Brought Us Together," is making the rounds online. Posted to YouTube on Tuesday, the six-minute video is a montage of major moments over the past year, from silly to serious. Set to the music of This Will Destroy You's "The Mighty Rio Grande," It includes clips about Hurricane Sandy, KONY 2012, the Costa Concordia disaster and the suicide of Amanda Todd."

"A leading advocate for spotlighting how the mainstream media contributes to the underrepresentation of women in positions of power and influence in America, Caroline Heldman offers straight talk and an often-startling look at the objectification of women in our society. She illustrates how it has escalated, how we have become inured to its damaging effects and what we can do individually and collectively to demolish the paradigms that keep us from a better world."

"20-year broadcasting veteran Tim Burt describes the first essential building block of all effective advertising: Psychology"

the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), currently making its way through the House of Representatives, and its sister legislation in the Senate, the Protect IP Act (PIPA), which are supposedly intended to combat copyright violations on the Internet. Unfortunately, these bills are written so broadly so as to not only eliminate Internet piracy but replace the innovative and democratic aspects of the Internet with a tangled bureaucratic mess regulated by the government and corporations.While holding companies accountable for their role in copyright infringement is important, this legislation threatens to turn the whole Internet on its head, disrupting innovation in business and technology and muting democratic dialogue, by allowing copyright holders to unilaterally impose sanctions on companies accused of copyright infringement without due process. Based solely on an accusation (not a conviction, mind you) of a copyright violation, the U.S. Attorney General, and sometimes the copyright holding companies themselves, will be able to block access to and business transactions with websites accused of such violations. Financial institutions will be forced to stop transferring legal funds to accused websites, search engines will be forced to block accused websites, and advertisers will be forced to stop placing ads on accused websites. Moreover, the bill is written so broadly as to override the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which allows social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter to operate freely. Unfortunately, under SOPA, if a user on YouTube or Facebook were to mistakenly or unintentionally upload copyrighted material to the sites, those websites could also be shut down