YouTube Tightens Policies Against AI-Generated Content Simulating Victims of Crimes

The update targets a disturbing trend in true crime content and imposes strict penalties for violations, including potential channel removal.

YouTube is updating its harassment and cyberbullying policies to prohibit content that uses AI to realistically simulate deceased minors or victims of crimes describing their own deaths.
The policy change targets a disturbing trend in true crime content, where AI-generated voices, often childlike, are used to describe gruesome acts of violence in high-profile cases.
Under the updated policy, any content that violates these guidelines will result in a strike against the creator’s channel, leading to the removal of the offending content and imposing temporary restrictions on the user’s ability to interact with the platform.
Repeated violations within a 90-day period could lead to harsher penalties, including the potential removal of the channel from YouTube.
The policy update comes as platforms like YouTube introduce AI-driven creation tools, necessitating new guidelines around synthetic content that could mislead or harm users.