YouTube Research

YouTube is a video sharing website that is accessible worldwide -

• YouTube was launched in 2005
• There is a user-upload limit of 15 minutes per video
• Users with a good track record, and verified account, however, can upload videos of up to 12 hours in length
• “Charlie Bit My Finger” is the most viewed user-generated video, as of 2012
• Time Magazine wrote in 2006, “YouTube is to video browsing what Wal-mart Supercenter is to shopping; everything is there, and all you have to do is walk through the door”
• YouTube often makes it into mainstream media, and is important to modern media as a whole
• YouTube sparks debates and raises important questions within the videos it shares
• YouTube allows/helps videos go ‘viral’ to gain more viewers and reach a larger audience
• YouTube was awarded a ‘2008 Peabody Award’ and was cited for being “a Speakers’ Corner” that both embodies and promotes democracy

YouTube allows and encourages –

• Having fun on the website
• Being creative – making and posting videos
• Watching videos – for entertainment and education
• Comment
• Rate
• Subscribe
• Communicate
• Make friends
• Make video responses
• Flag inappropriate videos to maintain the site

YouTube does not allow –

• Pornography or sexually explicit content
• Animal abuse
• Human abuse
• Drug abuse
• Bomb making
• Violence
• Shocks, i.e. accidents, dead bodies, etc.
• Copyrighted material
• Hate speech based on

-         Race

-         Ethic origin

-         Religion

-         Disability

-         Gender

-         Age

-         Veteran status

-         Sexual orientation

-         Gender identity

• Predatory behaviour

-         Stalking

-         Threats

-         Harassment

-         Invading an individual’s privacy

-         Revealing personal information

• Spam (mislabelled videos, misleading tags etc.)

All this information was gathered or taken directly from YouTube.com, for research purposes.