COPPA Law Changes with YouTube - If you don't know, you better find out

Northwood Mediaworks · Nov 18, 2019

Howdy, if you are a content creator like I am, you need to do a few things on your channel really soon. There are new rules which are aimed at protecting children, and if your channel remotely looks like its made for children (you need to study this, trust me) then you seriously need to pay attention. Even if you think yours does not, you need to let youtube know in your settings that your channel is not for kids. Have a look at this ....

Protecting Children's Privacy Under COPPA

The official website of the Federal Trade Commission, protecting America’s consumers for over 100 years.

www.ftc.gov

There is a lot of anxiety about this whole thing. Just passing this along as I enjoy all your channels.... dont be caught off guard... the fines are brutal.

As drones may appeal to some children, there is some concern among some droners I know.

Ugghhh

I may move all my content to a different platform. Its not about monetization for me...

Dragonfly Joe · Nov 18, 2019

Things are so ambiguous right now. If you use youtube to host video's with your grandchildren in them does that constitute a kids video? If I host a family Christmas party with adults and children and put a video of it on youtube, kids video or not. We need sharper lines drawn. I'm guessing if your not in it for profit or subscribers you could just make the channel a kids channel, or would it then even matter?

Northwood Mediaworks · Nov 18, 2019

Dragonfly Joe said:
Things are so ambiguous right now. If you use youtube to host video's with your grandchildren in them does that constitute a kids video? If I host a family Christmas party with adults and children and put a video of it on youtube, kids video or not. We need sharper lines drawn. I'm guessing if your not in it for profit or subscribers you could just make the channel a kids channel, or would it then even matter?

Good point. I dont put any family stuff up, I have my own website, so if that were something I needed to do I would put it there. I am almost thinking I might scrap my YT channel and use some other conveyance, or my website, just posting the latest flight. As for other content creators there are many areas in which this will be crazy ambiguous, its a real shame. It remains to be seen how they pursue this in terms of enforcement. It is not clear to me if you get a warning if you are seen to be out of compliance or do they just whack you with a fine right away? I'm not against the protection of the kids, but if its that easy to get a huge fine, I will stand further off the road, so to speak. I see many other videos today from content creators saying similar things.

Between this and the other post I made today about DJI's new app coming in 2020 which gives anyone the ability to track you and your drone, I am feeling like it might be pointless continuing in this hobby. Thats a real bummer. All I want to do is share my nature videos FFS.

As an aside, I cant find anything which says the FTC or Youtube can legally fine someone outside of the USA. So might be okay.. but it sucks for my 'Merican cousins.

Dragonfly Joe · Nov 18, 2019

I read your other thread on drone tracking also Robin. I agree that this hobby is getting tougher all the time. We strive to obey the rules and make ourselves legal and responsible but it is not us that makes the news and forces new laws.
I've mentioned it here before but I sold my entire Phantom 4 pro+ kit and went to the Spark and one of the biggest reasons was the attention the Phantom would draw every time I flew, along with the negativity of the larger drone. People who see the Spark see it as a toy and feel unthreatened. I appreciate your heads up on both of these matters, cousin.

Luno · Nov 18, 2019

I think they could word it better but surely it simply means is your target audience children. If your target audience isn’t children then that’s fine. I mean how many channels from an adult even without something you would consider “adult content”
Be directed at children?

I do understand the confusion of it all, I feel like the standard rating system g,ph,ma,r would be a much better idea. That system has been used relatively well and without too many issues for television and movies so why not just transfer it to online media

Smibo · Nov 20, 2019

Hi all. I've been lurking here for several months since I got my Spark, never did a "new pilot check-in" (sorry), so this is my first comment, from an unknown person coming out of nowhere. I feel compelled to chime in here though, because looking at this issue I have a couple of thoughts that I haven't seen brought up either here or elsewhere. So here goes.

Easy one first; I've seen some comments where people talk about dropping YouTube and going to some other platform. But COPPA is a USA regulation, and chances are the other platforms (like Vimeo, for example) are also USA-based, and will have to comply with COPPA as well.

My second thought is a question, perhaps born of ignorance (I am neither an attorney nor a YT uploader); is there some advantage or disadvantage to labeling your content audience as being either "for kids" or "not for kids?" Couldn't you simply declare that your content is not for kids, and thereby be COPPA compliant, regardless of your content? I mean sure, many kids are fascinated by drones, but does that alone automatically make your videos "for kids?" Kids are interested in almost everything except eating their asparagus; does that mean all non-asparagus-related content automatically needs to be COPPA compliant with regard to the nature of the content?

I'm probably missing something here; please feel free to tell me what it may be, because the apparent answer seems too simple, given all the controversy surrounding this topic.

* The target audience of this comment is "not for kids." If you're a 10-year-old kid reading this, then no offense kid, but I'm not here for your advice about (for example) what kind of ND filter to use in a particular setting, you know? Now eat your asparagus, then go finish your homework.

Tentoes · Nov 21, 2019

Well, in the interest of "protecting children," if you mark a video, or your channel as "for children" you loose most of your add revenue as there won't be "personalized ads," there won't be notify button, comments and lots of other features.

It has everybody paranoid, but our drone footage probably doesn't qualify as "for children," even if children sometimes watch it, or even if we include children in the videos.

"Ryan's Toy Review" is likely killed. Hope they invested some of their money in something else.

I B Spectre · Nov 21, 2019

I don't have a YT account, but from what I've read, they've made it increasingly difficult to monetize videos. Even before, it seemed to take a gazillion views/subscriptions to make any money from it. Is this a trend with Google owned enterprises? Could be some entrepreneur may launch a competing service in the future. Remember MySpace? A lot of internet products came and went.