ASMR Channel Bans- Is YouTube Cracking Down on External Links to Adult Sites?

Anyone else hearing about the ASMR channel bans as of late on YouTube? Creators such as Rose ASMR, Slight Sounds ASMR, LunaRexx ASMR and others have all been terminated -

and from a creator who is concerned:

Theres quite a lot of discussion around it in the comments and on Reddit etc. Apparently the bans are YouTube enforcing their policy about external links to link pages like beacons.ai etc featuring "fans" sites such as OF and Fansly etc and their way of ensuring ASMR channels and possibly other genres are not funnelling people to their adult sites.

What are your thoughts on this? Is it a good thing or wrong of YouTube to ban without issuing warnings to correct?

I believe that YouTube should give warnings first to let creators remove these things as I am sure they would all comply and stop using the platform as a funnel once warned. It would give people a chance. On the other hand I see that creators are ignoring the policies about linking to these sites. What are your thoughts?

Do you think YouTube should warn creators before terminating their channels for this or is immediate enforcement justified when the policy has already been published in the community guidelines etc?

Quote from Symph

I don't know about the warning thing, maybe they should be warned first, but from a gut reaction standpoint, this behavior is just so unbelievably shameless and predatory I don't have much sympathy for them getting banned with no warning. If they posted actual porn to youtube I don't think we'd be arguing they should be given a warning and this isn't that far removed from doing that.

100%, it is quite sad seeing people use a niche that helps people with sleep and MH to grow an adult content fanbase. I hope that it has an effect on the niche where others take note and hopefully allow other creators who dont make "spicy videos" to shine some more as they will be getting a LOT of eyeballs.

Quote from Queen P

I think its a good thing as children using youtube and can click onto the adult pages from the channel page but maybe should give a warning first or remove the links on the channels doing it. I dont want my children finding these things so easily even by mistake if I let them use youtube on my phone. If its in the policy then it is fair but can be handled better

Yeah I think so too, I do believe parents should be keeping their kids off the platform for as long as possible but a 14 year old with a phone is harder to monitor for stuff like this. Even just seeing the links and clicking through they will be more aware of how to access these womens sexual content and many are inspired by these creators to make OF themselves.