Telugu YouTubers profit from exposing minors to obscene content; here’s a list

Hyderabad: Sexual content, child abuse, alcohol consumption, harassment, cyberbullying and moral policing are the preferred content for many Telugu YouTube vloggers who have garnered a lot of viewer base over the years using such topics.

One such creator is Telugu YouTuber Praneeth Hanumantu, against whom the Telangana Cyber Security Bureau registered a complaint on June 7 due to online outrage that followed his sexually inappropriate remarks about a girl child passed off as casual ‘dark humour’.

He runs a channel under his name @phanumantu, with 182K subscribers, and his intro reads, ‘Alter ego of Praneeth Hanumantu. Unapologetically crowd-pleasing content to satisfy the attention whore in me.’

In his latest video, Praneeth and a few others made inappropriate and offensive comments, sexualising a father-daughter relationship under the pretence of humour, which was part of the ‘roast’ comedy.

What is roast comedy?

A majority of the content that Praneeth Hanumantu and others who operate such YouTube channels put out is dubbed under ‘roasting’ – the term used for creating humorous content by making fun of others, mostly in ways that can be deemed inappropriate.

They select content from social media platforms created by other users and engage in verbal abuse, cyberbullying and body shaming of the users in an online meeting that they livestream for the public.

It is important to note that these live streams are accessible by people of all ages including minors.

An FIR was registered by the Telangana Police after chief minister A Revanth Reddy and his deputy Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka on Sunday said appropriate action will be taken on the issue of child abuse on social media, which was highlighted by Telugu actor Sai Dharam Tej.

NewsMeter lists a few such creators to bring attention to the authorities regarding their obscene and inappropriate content.

Vinay Kuyya

The channel Vinay Kuyya, with over 508K subscribers, does scripted ‘dares’ involving private stalking of individuals’ personal lives. They also engage in moral policing of individuals over their relationships. One person they stalked reportedly committed suicide over an alleged ‘illegal affair’.

Shockingly, they continue to produce similar content. Not only that, they feature sexual content and alcohol consumption.

Vijay Goud

The channel Vijay Goud claims to run a show with over 457K subscribers. It features so-called ‘YouTube stars’ heavily under the influence of alcohol and allegedly mentally ill. They promote highly obscene sexual content and abuse towards women under the guise of ‘fun and comedy’.

Pareshan Boys

The channel Pareshan boys exploits adolescents with ‘dare’ content, involving the abuse of children. They upload videos focusing on a school-going kid, his ‘relationships’, and perform dangerous stunts on roads.

Arif The Entertainment

The channel ‘Arif The Entertainment’ pranks rural individuals by offering them a lift in his car and then threatens them with stories of harm.

After they are horrified, he justifies these pranks as ‘raising awareness’ about theft and discouraging the use of ‘private transport’.

The list doesn’t end; numerous other channels are involved in the trend of creating such obscene content with subscribers running into millions. Unfortunately, they often evade YouTube’s strict guidelines and continue to gain views, more importantly, monetise their videos and even collaborate with Telugu film stars for promotion.

YouTube action on bad content

However, YouTube, in its latest report, stated it has removed 8,295,304 videos from January to March 2024, with 2,618,760 videos deleted from India alone for violating community guidelines flagged mostly by YouTube’s automated flagging systems. Forty-three per cent of these total videos were removed for child safety reasons.

Due to YouTube’s failure to strictly prohibit content as outlined in their community guidelines, adolescents are at risk because such content is easily accessible on an open platform. It is high time for governments and YouTube to intervene and address the obscene content that often masquerades under the guise of ‘fun and humour’.