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‘Sesame Street’ YouTube channel restored after porn hack

By Dylan Stableford | The Cutline – Mon, Oct 17, 2011

(Sesame Street)

Hackers broke into the official YouTube channel for "Sesame Street," inserting pornographic videos in place of clips from the children's show.

Google pulled the channel offline within 20 minutes of the apparent hack, the Next Web noted--though that interval was long enough for some videos to be indexed in search results for Sesame Street on YouTube.

"Our channel was compromised and we are presently working with YouTube/Google to restore our original content," Sesame Workshop said in a statement. "We always strive to provide age-appropriate content for our viewers and hope to resolve this problem quickly."

By Monday afternoon, the program's YouTube channel--which has more than 150,000 subscribers--was restored.

A YouTube user suspected of being behind the hack, "MrEdxwx," denied responsibility. "I did not hack 'Sesame Street,'" the user wrote in a video statement posted on his own channel. "I work hard to make quality gameplay videos, and most important I respect the community guidelines."

"YouTube's community guidelines prohibit graphic content," a YouTube spokesperson told ABC News. "As always, we remove inappropriate material as soon as we are made aware of it."

It's not the first time "Sesame Street" has made media news on The Cutline. In August, the show released a statement asserting Bert and Ernie were not gay in response to an online campaign calling for the pair to be married.

"Bert and Ernie are best friends," the statement posted on Sesame Street's Facebook page read. "They were created to teach preschoolers that people can be good friends with those who are very different from themselves."

The statement continued: "Even though they are identified as male characters and possess many human traits and characteristics (as most Sesame Street Muppets™ do), they remain puppets, and do not have a sexual orientation."

Below, a suitable-for-work screengrab of "Sesame Street's" hacked YouTube page:

Sesame Street's hacked page. (The Next Web)

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30 comments

Syntax Error • 7 mths ago
My Yahoo name says it all. Absolutely disgusting. I wonder how many young children accidentally stumbled upon that. Throw the A-Holes in jail !!
- bjm 7 mths ago
  I don't think the problem was the adding of porn, its just some people are unethical to do modifications to someone else work to attack their character.
Keith • 7 mths ago
They should work to figure out how many children were exposed and then charge the hacker with one count of exposing a child to harmul materials for each viewer. That should put someone behind bars for quite a while...
D • 7 mths ago
Great-a new high in just how low some people are. I hope they catch the guilty party and jail the creep.
who • 7 mths ago
What a vile, nasty cowardly thing to do. Typical of some hackers, don't care who they hurt so long as they're hurting someone. Would be good if the tables were turned...
goldn rule • 7 mths ago
How sick!!!!!
missy j • 7 mths ago
Sick comments!
dimsum-capcay • 7 mths ago
How could someone think hacking an educational website such as Sesame Street and leave porn is a funny prank? It's is sick and disgusting. Wonder if you have children.
Robert S • 7 mths ago
This was not funny but very sad that someone thinks that this would be humorous. It takes a very disturbed person to do something as juvenile as this.
Richard F • 7 mths ago
I hope that they hack up a fur ball.
Lobo • 7 mths ago
#$%$ bags. hope they get caught.
tooyoungtobesmartasyou • 7 mths ago
Has any hacker contributed anything positive to the greater good yet? Besides, you don't need a hacker to remove Sesame Street. Republicans like Jim DeMint wish to cut funding to it because of the way it "indoctrinates" the young. You know, horribly progressive liberal ideas like adding and subtraction, and respect for differences. Today's post brought to you by the letters F and U.
- Tom 7 mths ago
  WikiLeaks is a positive thing.
- Erik 7 mths ago
  Google "the jargon file" (aka the hacker's dictionary). It isn't what you think it is. And it might give you some insight into the minds of the sort of folks who wrote the web, Windows and Yahoo.
- Jonathan 7 mths ago
  The nuclear reactors in Iran were hacked by a military grade hack which set back their program months if not years.
  
  Hackers are also commonly hired to find security loop holes so that they can be closed.
  
  I'm not saying they're all fun and sunshine, but they're also not all bad - just mostly lol.
Edelweissflower • 7 mths ago
It was not a gentile.........is what I heard
OmelasNation • 7 mths ago
Ted Haggard working to bring down Sesame Street for the conservative GOP...?
Hurt me soul • 7 mths ago
I'm just trying to envision what kind of person would do such a thing.
A Yahoo! User • 7 mths ago
Breitbart and O'keefe at their adventuresome best. Blame it on Obie.
Tom • 7 mths ago
Today's episode brought to you by the number 69.
adrian • 7 mths ago
Horny day....Can't keep the porn away...........
Chris • 7 mths ago
Now I know why they call him Big Bird.
ajeffrey7 • 7 mths ago
What is this world coming too....Can't you let kids have their childhood and give them their innocence they deserve?
VIET VET 942 • 7 mths ago
I think we can narrow this attack down to either Larry Flynt or Sarah Palin. Either a dead banger or a tea bagger, take your pick. By the way, what did Santa Clause and MJ have in common? They both left little boys rooms with empty sacks.

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