(Image source: The Mary Sue)

BY BRICE SANDER

Sesame Street is brought to you by the letter X. Triple X, to be more accurate. Here’s HLN.

“Kids and parents who went to Sesame Street’s YouTube page yesterday saw explicit sex videos instead of Muppets. The group who runs Sesame Street apologized and took down the website. YouTube says explicit content is forbidden and they’re working on getting the Sesame Street back online.”

Gawker sets the scene of the site before YouTube took it down Sunday.

“Beneath the familiar Sesame Street logo, the page's banner read, ‘I'TS [sic] WHERE PORN LIVES.’ The page featured a 7-minute clip of an adult film … The channel's profile description, meanwhile, claimed responsibility for the hack on behalf of two YouTube users...”

One of those users denied responsibility for the take-over, while the other hasn’t said a thing. Whoever did it, a Sophos blogger wants to know why.

“What would Bert and Ernie say? …You have to wonder what was going through the mind of whoever hacked Sesame Street's YouTube page.”

But as BBC explains, this isn’t the first time kiddie content has been corrupted.

“In May 2010 the site removed hundreds of videos which mixed adult material with footage of children's TV [programs] and music videos. The Jonas Brothers and Hannah Montana were among those whose videos were replaced.”

And a blogger for LimeLife argues, if anything, this should serve as a lesson in online safety.

“Considering that more than 140,000 children subscribe to the site, this is pretty scandalous stuff, and we must wonder what kind of penalty the culprits will receive, if any? In the future, Sesame Street should probably consider using a slightly stronger password than cookiemonster1.”

Sesame Street’s YouTube page is back up. Still no official comment from Big Bird and friends on the scandal.