Hackers Post Porn to Sesame Street Page
Show's YouTube channel was temporarily shuttered after Big Bird and co. were replaced by distinctly less child-friendly stars.
| Posted Monday, Oct. 17, 2011, at 3:26 PM ET
Photo by Matthew Peyton/Getty Images.
Visitors to Sesame Street's YouTube channel on Sunday got an education of a more adult variety.
The PBS children show's page was compromised over the weekend, with hackers reportedly posting a number of pornographic clips to the video-sharing website. Instead of videos of Big Bird and Cookie Monster, parents and children found a handful of adult videos, one apparently that was as long as eight minutes long.
As San Francisco's ABC affiliate felt it necessary to point out, none of the porn videos starred any of the beloved Muppets. (Which is a good thing because, as we all know, the puppets don't have a sexual orientation – gay, straight or otherwise – which would have made making such a video rather difficult.)
The page was back up and running Monday. "We apologize for any inconvenience our audience may have experienced yesterday on our Sesame Street YouTube channel," the show said in a statement Monday. "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."
CNN reports that a message posted to the Sesame page before the content was removed claimed responsibility for the hack in the names of two YouTube users -- but at least one was quick to deny involvement in a statement on his own page.
"I did not hack Sesame Street. I am an honest YouTuber," the user, with the screenname "MrEdxwx," posted to his account. "I work hard to make quality gameplay videos, and most important I respect the community guidelines."
