The government has been accused of showing a “shocking lack of understanding of technology” after its YouTube videos were targeted by spam accounts appearing to promote pornography.

Comments posted under videos on the official Department for Education YouTube page were seen to be sharing time stamps alongside links such as “hotsisters.xyz” and “hot18girls-dating.online” last night.

And one of these videos, which has had more than 2,000 views, was still displaying a comment with a time stamp and the link “sweety-girls.com” more than 15 hours after the DfE was alerted to the problem.

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Sharing screenshots of the comments on social media yesterday evening, teacher and author Sue Cowley pointed the DfE to the “highly inappropriate links”, and advised the department to “check the spam filter” on its content.

Hi @educationgovuk you might want to check the spam filter on your YouTube account. There are highly inappropriate links under all the new maths videos. ?? pic.twitter.com/5IqykmT1xE

- Sue Cowley (@Sue_Cowley) July 6, 2020

She added: “I didn’t share the worst one because it appeared to be a safeguarding breach.”

In response, teacher Samuel George said: “Why have they not just disabled comments! Shocking lack of understanding of technology.”

Why have they not just disabled comments! Shocking lack of understanding of technology.

- Dr Samuel George (@DrSam_George) July 6, 2020

One primary teacher said time stamps are sometimes used by paedophiles commenting on videos.

Ms Cowley said shortly before 9am this morning that the DfE “seem to have seen this overnight and removed the inappropriate links”.

DfE warned over links on YouTube

However, Tes found a comment under one of the videos at 10am today - more than 15 hours after Ms Cowley first flagged the issue to the DfE.

Ms Cowley added: “This definitely shouldn’t have happened in the first place @educationgovuk. You seriously need to tighten your systems.”

This series of videos targeted by the spam accounts was intended to accompany the DfE’s key stage 1 and 2 maths guidance.

The videos are still available to view, but the inappropriate comments have now been removed.

A DfE spokesperson said: “We have reported these inappropriate links to YouTube.

“Our social media platforms should be positive and safe spaces for everyone. That is why we will always take swift action to report and remove any inappropriate content.

“We will also take additional measures by adding a further approval process, on top of our existing filters.”