Thanks for the super-informative reply! Although...I mean, if all that is the case, you'd really think YouTube would be leading the charge in trying to protest these ridiculous regulations, instead of caving to them...it sounds like they're being forced to choose between getting sued or basically self-destructing.
But then, I've heard YT isn't exactly profitable, so maybe they don't have any other options... =/
Its also really telling that Youtube just recently (in the last couple days) changed policy to pass the blame on to creators. It is tiring to see YT destroying creators for the companies mistakes.
They sadly seem to be doing it often for every single little setback and flack youtube gets. I understand that the content on Youtube is (mostly) made by creators, but there are a lot of people who are using the platform as they should and not creating hateful content, but are punished severely or impacted negatively for things that are REALLY beyond their control.
It kinda makes me wanna avoid youtube. I don't do anything art related on youtube, but my husband and I do Warhammer 40k battle reports and he posts them on youtube. We're small time schmucks not making money at all. Still worries me.
What more, from what I understand, if you mark your content "For kids", even if you didn't plan on monetizing, your videos won't have comments enabled, you won't be able to use the community posts, people won't be notified of said videos and it might not even be searchable. So like what's the point of uploading anymore? Art vids and anything in the gray area could potentially disappear altogether.
Yup. I would like to say that youtube is shooting itself in the foot...
BUT I am not sure of other video posting alternatives that have the same platform base and globally known name. Perhaps Twitch? For art streaming there is Picarto, but I am not sure. I admit that I am unfamiliar with the impact of COPPA.
Pretty dumb, You make your content for adults, "swearing, or horror(especially horror), nah demonetized think of the children. Now you make your stuff for kids(or some can think its for kids) and nah you cant do that, think of the kids. Youtube kids is a thing you know...this just make youtube nonviable to everyone, except big companies who will never take the hard hit(see so many sexualised music vids). Mixture was competition for twitch and the only competition for youtube I can see is bitchute, but most of the content there is just far-right political videos.
I think the most threatening thing is where to draw the line to define what exactly is for kids. Especially when it concerns properties that appeal to both adults and minors, like anything Nintendo pushes out. And context is a really big factor, but bots sniffing out offending vids can't detect it.
If the FTC wants to be vague then I played along with them. I labeled everything...and I mean everything I have up for gaming as made for kids including my Resident Evil 7 let's plays because....well screw the system.
There is actually a very interesting and informative video about this kerfluffle:
Essentally...COPPA has been around for a while (since 1998).
Youtube/Google were the ones who fucked up first and the creators are being punished as a result.
Lovely.
Well the biggest issue is creators don't get to decide what content is "made for kids," and YouTube doesn't get to decide, the FTC does.
So just for example, a video discussing how Steven Universe depicts metal illness and abuse is obviously not made for kids... but that video is about a kids' show, it probably has characters from that show in the thumbnail, so the FTC can look at the thumbnail and go "for kids."
So I think they're going to end up with a lot of content marked (not by the creators) as "made for kids" that's full of mature themes and it's going to be another Elsagate.
Also, while it's going to hurt established children's content creators, it's going to make it pretty much impossible to grow a children's channel.
Edit: one more additional prediction, this is probably going to disproportionately affect female creators.
Apparently adults should only like the color grey, the news, and working office jobs.
I'm concerned about what happens on other sites as well. There's only news about how it'll affect YouTube. Kids are on Instagram, FB, etc. too. Some talk about jumping ship to Vimeo, Daily Motion, and Twitch and I've even dabbled in the idea of starting a video sharing site for artists. But since this is a law thing, nowhere's safe.
I'm also a bit iffy on signing petitions. I heard they're generally ignored.
Children Channels will be impossible all around. They are taking 60-90% of revnue away as well on top of the other restrictions. They even said gaming channels will be considered under the "for kids" investigations.
What worries me the most is that since this is a government thing, it might spread across all the internet, including Twitch, Dailymotion, etc. and affect comics app, even of they are tagged mature/ pg13, because, ya know, if it has colorful drawings, it must be for kids
Dailymotion has their head office in Paris, it'll be difficult to get them to comply. They will probably still try.
Youtubers can't gather data and the ftc know this, it's becoming clearer that they are interested in making money and if this doesn't work they'll just find another excuse. Even workers inside the ftc who pointed out that they can't legally do this have been silenced on social media. I wouldn't be surprised if they eventually try using sneezing while watching yt as an excuse to be fined.
Yes! This will be awesome for companies like Disney, tho, who can pay the fines without major worries. As you said, they just want the money.
When I saw the news about the changes and how ridiculously harsh they are, my first thought was, "I'd be amazed if Disney + and Netflix, or traditional TV channels didn't make a big push for this behind the scenes."
Because of course, subscription services like theirs want... well, subs! And their main competitor is Youtube, which in a huge number of non English speaking countries is the number 1 video platform by a wide margin, and in English speaking ones is just behind Netflix. How do you defeat Youtube? Make it impossible for creators, or even the platform to profit from children's content there, since Youtube relies on ads, so creators stop making content for that platform, so parents sub to Netflix or go back to oldskool TV.
What I predict will happen is Youtube will start pushing their subscription service more, and commissioning content for their children's platform or striking deals with channels like Cartoon Network etc. Basically adult Youtube will stay more or less the same, but with something more like Netflix attached to it for kids.
Most people love big brands like Disney. YT isn't taking away from that, the difference is price. People who aren't watching tv, do so for 3 main reasons. 1 price, can't afford it, especially multiple channel packages or streaming services. yt is free and has a premium but not needed to watch. I've never had a nexflix account because they don't allow me to see what's available in my country and I know we have a lot of licencing issues. I usually don't get to watch a movie until it shows on tv because we have a small renting window and after you can only buy so if you missed the time between purchase - rent - purchase again you're stuck waiting for it to either be rent-able again or price drops by which time they show it on tv in 2 languages. 2 schedule issues, people want to watch when they want not when they're told to. we have limited replay times if that works at all. I know it's different in other countries. 3. content availability, a lot of the time my fav shows aren't available, sometimes due to licencing issues and when they do pick up again they're seasons apart and not advertised so you didn't know it was airing again. American Shows get cancelled because rating drops in usa despite gaining popularity in the rest of the world. posting on yt means no broadcast fees, which means more money for productions. It's not that I don't think they're meddling, they probably are it's that I don't see it as a good move. Pushing out other creators won't drive more people to watch tv or tv yt channels. It'll just make less people watch because they're not fixing the main problems. More people may be able to watch their favs shows if it's not blocked in their area. But the reason people like yt will just send them looking for it on other platforms thus leading to yt dying out.
Even if this is a government thing this isn't time to start spreading fear and panic. This kind of thing happened in the late 90's early 2000's with Napster and Limewire. At first the big labels went after the people downloading off P2P platforms but when they started suing children and grandparents that didn't even understand what those platforms truly were judges began to refuse to follow through and dismissed cases. The public outcry was also so loud it forced the lawsuits to be laid on the platforms instead.
It is important right now to do what you must to protect yourself on youtube because the FTC was happy enough going after the platform however....the FTC now coming after the content creators as well is Google's fault! This is part of the settlement between YT/Google and the FTC that they can go after the content creators.
If anyone is truly worried then now is the time to go on the FTC website and voice your opinion civilly on the new COPPA revisions. In honesty I think like others that the revisions are too aggressive. And also remember that these revisions happen every ten years so keep up on the laws as well. There is also a petition:
COPPA Comments submissions are extended until Dec 9 so keep that in mind:
https://www.regulations.gov/comment?D=FTC-2019-0054-00011
Change.org petition:
J House Law this is a youtuber with family content that also has a law degree and background. When this began he went to Youtube and the FTC to get a better understanding of what is going on and is now lobbying for the rights of content creators.
This kinda makes me feel better, but at the same time...as you described in that situation, someone has to be the sacrificial lamb. And a lot of competent people are going to get targeted by this unjust law before we get to the people who 'didn't know any better'. A lot of things are going to get shut down and destroyed while we wait; things that can't just be gotten back as soon as it's 'safe to come out'. And the longer it takes, the more irreversible the damage will be.
All that is to say, if a little pre-emptive fear and panic and overreaction could contribute even a little to making this not happen in the first place, I'm all for it.
