Google wants more humans to help solve the problem of child exploitation on YouTube

In announcing plans to hire many more human moderators to flag disturbing and extremist content this week, YouTube has become the latest Silicon Valley giant to acknowledge that software alone won't solve the many of the problems plaguing the industry. YouTube, which is owned by Google, said Monday night it would significantly increase the number of people monitoring such content across the company next year. By 2018, Google will employ roughly 10,000 content moderators and other professionals tasked with addressing violations of its content policies. The search giant would not disclose the number of employees currently performing such jobs, but a person familiar with the company's operations said the hiring represents a 25 percent increase from where Google is now. The move follows a series of reports last month in which YouTube videos surfaced showing children in disturbing and potentially exploitative situations, including being duct-taped to walls, mock-abducted, and forced into washing machines, according to a BuzzFeed report. Google said it removed 150,000 violent extremist videos since June.