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Pornography videos appear on Twitter-owned Vine app

Twitter-owned video sharing app Vine is making headlines over explicit videos that are appearing in searches.

Sexually explicit videos can be found on Vine by searching hashtags like #porn and #nsfw, among others. According to CNET, New York Times columnist Nick Bilton was among the first to note the pornographic videos.

CNET notes that Vine's terms of service does not forbid sexually explicit content. However, Vine's parent company Twitter encourages users to exercise good judgment.

A spokesperson for Twitter told CBS News that users can flag videos that they find inappropriate. The company will then add a warning message that must be acknowledged before the material is viewed.

Twitter released this statement to CBS News via email:

"Users can report videos as inappropriate within the product if they believe the content to be sensitive or inappropriate (e.g. nudity, violence, or medical procedures). Videos that have been reported as inappropriate have a warning message that a viewer must click through before viewing the video.

Uploaded videos that are reported and determined to violate our guidelines will be removed from the site, and the user account that posted the video may be terminated. Please review the Vine Rules (vine.co/terms) for more information on these violations."

Vine's terms of service states that a violation of guidelines includes: "content that might be offensive, harmful, inaccurate or otherwise inappropriate, or in some cases, postings that have been mislabeled or are otherwise deceptive."

Business Insider reports that "hardcore pornographic video" appeared as an Editor's Pick Monday morning, but was quickly taken down. According to Mashable, a spokesperson for Twitter apologized for the oversight and said that the mistake was human error.

Vine was acquired by Twitter in 2012 before it was launched. The micro-blogging service announced the official release of Vine last Thursday.

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