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YouTube has responded to criticism of its decision not to take down singer Austin Jones' channel.

The American musician pleaded guilty to child pornography charges on Friday 1 February - admitting to asking teenage girls to share naked images with him.

Many of his other social media pages have been removed but his YouTube channel still exists.

In a statement the social media platform insists it takes claims of sexual misconduct "very seriously."

Austin Jones, who's 26, has more than half a million YouTube subscribers and is best known for performing covers of famous songs.

The site says it does have a policy of removing content when a person is convicted of a crime "in some cases" - but only if the content is closely related to the crime committed.

It doesn't specify if any of Jones's videos have been taken down, although none of his clips are available on the site after March 2017.

The social media platform also says it stopped the monetisation of the singer's channel in the same year.

Monetisation is when contributors are able to make money from their content through advertising and other means.

Court appearance

Austin Jones pleaded guilty on Friday, admitting that between 2010 and 2017 he exchanged sexually explicit images and videos with underage girls.

He admitted in a 27-page plea agreement he had online conversations with six 14 and 15-year-old girls.

In one conversation, he is said to have told one of the teenagers "that she needed to prove that she was his biggest fan" by sending videos of herself.

Prosecutors asked for him to be taken immediately into custody, but the judge allowed him to remain free on bail so he can go for psychiatric counselling.

Austin Jones' lawyer said the star has only recently begun dealing with traumatic events in his life. He is due to be sentenced in May.

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