The popular channel was pulled off line as soon as it was discovered that videos featuring the iconic Sesame Street characters had been replaced with sex tapes.
One message posted beside some of the adult videos said: “Who doesn’t like porn kids?” according to a BBC report.
San Francisco‘s KGO-TV reported one of the sex tapes lasted eight minutes and none of them included the Sesame Street characters.
The YouTube channel, aimed specifically at very young children and their parents, has more than 140,000 subscribers and their videos have been viewed nearly half a billion times. Google, which owns YouTube, removed the content as soon as they became aware of its inappropriate nature.
Hackers posted a message naming two YouTube users as being responsible for the incident, CNN reported. One of the pornographic posts was allegedly by someone with the username “Mredxwx” but that YouTube user posted a video denying involvement.
“I did not hack Sesame Street. I am an honest youtuber,”he said in an 18-second video.
The Sesame Street YouTube channel is back online with Elmo, Big Bird and all their friends. The channel now includes this apology to viewers:
“We apologize for any inconvenience our audience may have experienced yesterday on our Sesame Street YouTube channel. Our channel was temporarily compromised, but we have since restored our original line-up of the best classic Sesame Street video clips featuring Cookie Monster, Big Bird, Grover, Oscar the Grouch, and the rest of the fuzzy, feathered, and googly-eyed friends you remember from childhood.
If you’re watching videos with your preschooler and would like to do so in a safe, child-friendly environment, please join us at https://www.sesamestreet.org
