YouTube has confirmed it will switch off comments on almost all videos featuring under-18s, in an attempt to “better protect children and families”.

A number of brands stopped advertising on YouTube after discovering that paedophiles and groomers were leaving predatory comments on videos featuring children.

The Google-owned platform had originally disabled comments on videos that were attracting unsavoury comments, but it will now disable comments on almost all videos of minors by default. Videos of older children and teenagers will typically not have the comments disabled, unless a specific video is likely to attract predatory attention. YouTube told the BBC it would use algorithms to detect which videos contained children.

It said the change would take effect over the next few months.

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