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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JzXiSkoFKw

Watch this video to understand what’s whappening, but as a general TLDR, if The Children’s online privacy protection act is inforced on Youtube, youtube content as we know it will change forever.

If you don’t have time to watch the video let me summarize it (and other videos on the topic) for you

One of the things COPPA prohibits is the use of personalized ads (Ads based on your location, age, sex, gender, interests, basically all the data that is collected through use of the internet) for children under the age of 13. For this, Youtube was fined and now they’re making changes to the way the platform works. 

One of these changes is making creators mark their content as “Meant for kids” or not. However there are a wide range of items that, on youtube’s eyes, classifies as children media. 

So basically if your video contains something that falls under any of these categories, even if its just one, and a minor thing, youtube can flag it as kids video and apply the new restrictions to this video or even your channel as a whole. And if youtube’s automated system finds any of these things in a video NOT catered for children, it can penalize you both by applying these restrictions anyways, striking you, or fining you for breaking the law

This is a snippet of a complaint made to be submitted to COPPAS’ feedback page, since they saw how problematic this act and laws can be. The whole complaint was written by a mexican youtube channel called Alfrely, and it reads:

YouTube viewers and creators petition the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to clarify and reconsider the new Children’s Online Privacy Protection (COPPA Rule) regulations on YouTube creators. Shutting off personalized ads on creators’ content will cause more harm than good, especially for children. Quality family-friendly content will shrink, while more mature content will grow — yet kids will still be watching.   The FTC should not expand COPPA regulations for content creators. Broadening the definition of “child-directed” to include “child-attractive” would force many more creators to turn off personalized ads. As a result, even more quality content will dry up, and more mature and extreme content will fill the platform. The free YouTube Kids app is a better solution than regulation targeting family-friendly creators. YouTube Kids removes privacy concerns around personalized ads. Parents buy devices and allow their children to watch YouTube Main. Many parents prefer to use YouTube Main because it has more features and less barriers. Creators should not be punished when parents choose not to use YouTube Kids. COPPA is about putting parents in control of protecting their children’s personal information online. The FTC should not use COPPA to remove parents from the process in regulating content and online advertising. While large corporations will survive these changes, small business creators face terminating employees, changing their business model, or shutting down production altogether. These regulations will particularly hurt young underserved audiences who participate in YouTube communities on topics like special needs, faith, and minority groups. Limiting quality free content for kids expands the digital divide. Turning off personalized ads on kids’ content also encourages increased product placement and brand deals within kids’ content. Creators face COPPA fines up to $42,530 per video, yet the regulation and definition of “child-directed” is vague. The FTC needs to provide creators with enforcement clarity.  We ask the FTC to: 1. Provide an enforcement statement for creators 2. Clarify the definition of “child-directed,” and not expand it to cover “child-attractive” content  3. Delay enforcement against creators until the FTC concludes its review of COPPA 4. Allow parents to use YouTube Kids or YouTube Main, without forcing creators to turn off personalized ads when parents choose to use YouTube Main 

Now onto another point:

The woman from the video replies

“We will start limiting the data we collect from ‘Made for kids content’ to comply with the law.”

The changes that will be applied to these videos are:

Comments

Personalized ads

Info cards

End screens

Stories

Community tab

Notification bell

Ability to “Save to watch later” or add to playlists, just to name the ones listed.

You basically get stripped of everything that makes youtube, youtube.

This change basically encourages content creators that live off the platform to create content that DOESN’T cater to children, creating more mature content that is already frowned upon on youtube and by advertisers, and will inevitaly make kids continue to consume media that is not for them

Not to mention that things like cartoons and videogames will be among the things that people won’t talk about.

Big corporations will always find a way to make this work, and the people who depend on youtube for a living may also find a way to make this work, but at the end of the day, it will ruin the careers and possibly the lives of many many creators, maybe even creators that you enjoy.

PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD ABOUT THIS. THE MORE PEOPLE SUBMITTING FEEDBACK TO THE FTC, THE MORE CHANCES TO SAVE THIS WE HAVE. DON’T SLEEP ON THIS.

Adults on the internet shouldn't have to walk on eggshells cause u cant be damn to make sure ur child is watching kid appropriate stuff and staying on apps/websites designed for children.