Sesame Street’s YouTube channel hit by porn video hack

Sesame Street's YouTube channel has been hit by hackers who uploaded hardcore porn videos to the normally child-friendly page.

The Sesame Street channel was taken offline Sunday afternoon, reportedly within 20 minutes of the porn hack being spotted, BBC News says.

CNN quipped that Sesame Street's YouTube page had been reprogrammed "with content brought to you by the letter 'X'."

The long-running American children's TV show has more than 140,000 subscribers to its YouTube page, and its videos have been watched almost 500 million times, the BBC says.

According to the BBC, a message posted alongside the explicit sex videos said: "Who doesn't like porn kids?"

Sesame Workshop, the non-profit organization behind Sesame Street, apologized Sunday for the hacking incident.

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

Google, which owns YouTube, said in a statement:

"YouTube's Community Guidelines prohibit graphic content. As always, we remove inappropriate material as soon as we are made aware of it."

YouTube was previously targeted in a "Porn Day" attack, the Telegraph reports. Hundreds of videos were uploaded that had adult content hidden within children's TV programs and music videos, including ones by the Jonas Brothers and Hannah Montana.

Under one such video, titled Jonas Brother Live On Stage, a user had posted a comment saying, "I'm 12 years old and what is this?"

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