I want to start off with this, YouTube is taking a turn for the worst. Possibly content that you consume will be fine, but many channels could possibly die. And this is a roundabout way for the government to circumvent Net Neutrality. We fought so hard to keep that!
With COPPA, a sort of regulation is being put up to keep children’s information from being collected over the internet, YouTube has given their creators two choices.
To make content for kids Or to make content not for kids.
Initially it was only to keep information (i.e. E-mail address, location, phone numbers, personalized Ads etc.) of children from being collected. Part of this might actually be from the student google account that many students in America are given to make things easier on them for homework and such. Personally, of my younger siblings only one is under 13 and this seems like a bad idea. Here is a slight problem that lies with this. Actually, it’s a major problem.
YouTube is making this change can change a channel’s choice at will. They can also delete the channel without giving a reason. If they believe a video is marked incorrectly, they will fine the creator $42000 USD for EACH video. How would the video be marked wrong? Well, the criteria very vague. What they consider for kids are animated characters, toys, games, bright colors and things of the like. This means that Markiplier could get his channel removed if a game that he play’s is too brightly colored, channels like Dollightful and other doll customizers can’t produce the content for the audience they want because they want to be “Family-friendly” not just for kids.
Originally this Act states that it does not take the place of the parent or guardian of the child. Now If I’m thinking about this correctly looks like the FTC wants YouTube to take the place of the people who should be monitoring their children.
The other thing is if the YouTuber so decides to mark their channel as for kids, they lose 60-90% of their income because they can no longer run Ads, they lose the comment section, so they don’t get that connection with their community ever again.
Another thing that has been pointed out is that if you were to watch a video on a topic that is considered child content or child-directed you are marked as a child viewer. I hate to see something like that happen as a person who watches videos on “What happened to (Cartoon from 2000s)” or an analysis on a game, or even the occasional walkthrough when playing certain video games. That would be a problem a very big problem. The thing is this kind of bothers me as a person who waited will I was thirteen to make a YouTube account, I had access to an email account at age 11, but I made an account at 13 because I was a straight-laced kind of kid back then.
I personally fail to see how I could craft a well thought out comment to appeal to the FTC, they are willing to learn more about the situation and possibly alter the change that will take place on YouTube in January 2020 otherwise. If we sit here and think that someone else will get them to appeal and change, then nothing will change. YouTube has its hands tied since they were fined $170 million by them. Comments like “please don’t change it” or degrading the people will only create a more negative connotation on the entire situation. Therefore, being polite and making this reflect your personal experience with YouTube will help.
These things are better explained in this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49DpBpVSEYc
I feel like this has been really swept under the rug and that a lot of information is very broad.
And if you rather read an article versus watching videos and ending up in a black hole of videos on this topic here is one that I’ve read:
https://www.theverge.com/2019/11/13/20963459/youtube-google-coppa-ftc-fine-settlement-youtubers-new-rules
My opinion on this entire thing is that something like this shouldn’t be happening. Parents are not properly monitoring their children and blaming people that are just trying to share their passions. How about parents start watching videos with their children? You’re telling the government to basically take up your job, you got lazy and want others to parent your kids. Why are people that are only trying to live their best life being attacked because parents refuse to actually parent their children under 13?
