paidContent.org - Google Has A Comment-Filtering System In The Works For YouTube

Google continues to try to make YouTube more acceptable to paying customers?be they content providers, advertisers or viewers?but its latest clean-up effort is aimed at keeping the Federal Communications Commission and groups like the Parents Television Council off its back, too. Google is currently testing a comment-filtering system for the video site, one that's designed to "give users and families greater control to moderate their YouTube experience," according to Ars Technica, citing a statement the company recently filed with the FCC.

Viewers will be able to choose whether to see all comments, no comments or filtered comments, though the filing doesn't offer specifics on the technology or when there will be a widespread roll out; Google (NSDQ: GOOG) wrote that it's one of "a number of initiatives" around moderating content that it has in the works.

Google isn't facing any imminent legislation from the FCC over YouTube's comments, but the Commission is looking into the way that Google, Microsoft and other digital media companies are handling content filtering and moderation. The research will be used in an upcoming FCC report on the various options parents have for controlling children's exposure to violent and sexual content. Google (and Microsoft, for that matter) maintains that the FCC's formal Notice of Inquiry should be relegated to "traditional television programming"?not web-based content?and that it already has sufficient moderation tools in place. But groups like the Parents Television Council have argued that "the site isn't doing enough to protect kids."