Telstra Reins In Smut On Video Site

Sydney Morning Herald

Thursday December 6, 2007

Asher Moses

TELSTRA'S mobile video sharing site went into "emergency maintenance" yesterday morning following revelations it had become overridden by smutty clips.

WotNext.com.au, started in January, lets people upload amateur clips and sell them to mobile phone users for $1 each, of which Telstra gets 50 cents. It is billed as a mobile competitor to YouTube.

Telstra gave assurances at the launch that all clips would be checked by moderators before they were published, but most of the popular clips are clearly designed for sexual gratification.

The clips, which anyone, regardless of age, can buy featured topless women, women in bikinis and an shot up the skirt of a woman doing the dishes.

A Telstra spokesman, Peter Taylor, said the questionable videos and descriptions on the site were an unintended consequence of it being built around user-generated content. He said similar challenges were faced by sites such as YouTube and MySpace. But YouTube allows users to flag objectionable content and videos are quickly reviewed and taken down if they breach guidelines, which prohibit sexually explicit material. There does not appear to be a similar system on WotNext.

"Because Telstra is at the heart of everything in Australia, we obviously need to be held to a higher standard so we are reviewing even stricter content guidelines than those popular sites," Mr Taylor said.

© 2007 Sydney Morning Herald

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