Sesame Street smiles again after porn hack

Oct 18, 2011, 11:24 GMT

San Francisco - Sesame Street's You Tube channel was back to its smiling self Monday after unidentified hackers substituted videos of Elmo and the gang with X-rated pornography.

The hacking of the world-famous children's education site lasted only about 20 minutes Sunday before YouTube pulled the plug on the channel for 'repeated or severe violations of community guidelines.'

'We apologize for any inconvenience our audience may have experienced yesterday on our Sesame Street YouTube channel,' read a message on the channel's restored home page 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.'

A message written on the site's profile page by the hackers claimed responsibility for the tasteless prank in the name of two YouTube contributors by the names of MrEdxwx and MrSuicider9, though the former of these denied any connection to the act.

Graham Cluley of the internet security firm Sophos said in a blog posting that 'precisely how Sesame Street's YouTube channel got hacked is presently a mystery - but it's natural to assume that they were sloppy with their password security.'