It’s the end of the world for YouTube.
Again.
The internet’s most volatile platform is facing yet another doomsday in the form of
the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, which states that it’s illegal to collect
personal data on internet users under the age of thirteen.
It’s understandable that Google has been caught unawares by this, as this relatively
recent law only came into force nineteen years ago.
YouTubers are a superstitious and cowardly lot, so when something goes wrong on the platform,
which it seems to do every week, we get nervous.
A lot of creators are worried about whether their content counts as Made for Kids, and
whether they’re in danger of a 40 thousand dollar fine for inaccurately labelling their
content.
This, though, isn’t the real problem with the legislation.
There’s a big elephant in the room that nobody at the Financial Trading Commission
or YouTube seem willing to discuss.
First, a brief history lesson.
In the Wild West days of the internet, before governments and advertisers really noticed
that it was a thing, creators could post pretty much anything online without causing much
fuss.
It was only as the platform became more popular that parents started to worry that children
were being tracked online by nefarious unknown entities.
So, in 1998, when Google was just barely getting off the ground, the Financial Trading Commission
introduced the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA, which essentially
said that it was illegal to collect data on minors.
Unanimously, every major company on the internet, including Google, reacted to this by…ignoring
it.
So, over the past two decades, the FTC have been getting more aggressive in policing the
internet.
COPPA was reviewed and refreshed in 2013, and the FTC targeted big offenders with ligitation,
going after such underhanded deviants as Mrs Fields Cookies.
Mrs Fields, you see, had a birthday club on its website.
Children could enter their birthday and receive coupons for free cookies or pretzels.
This seemingly benign act was collecting data on minors, so they were fined a hundred thousand
dollars.
Thank goodness the FTC was there to stop this clear and present threat to child safety.
Pearl-clutching mothers can rest assured that their kids are no longer receiving free cookies
on their birthday.
Nevertheless, big companies continued to collect data on children for the sake of tricking
them into buying stuff, and the FTC continued to get more aggressive.
In February of 2019, the video platform TikTok received the largest fine to date, a whopping
5.7 million dollars, for failure to comply with COPPA.
Then, in September, Google was fined 170 million dollars, a fine that was 30 times larger than
TikTok’s.
It’s hard to argue with the decision, as YouTube has absolutely been in violation of
the law, and it hasn’t even been giving out free pretzels.
In the face of this fine, YouTube essentially passed the buck, as the FTC announced plans
to go after individual creators who don’t mark their content as Made for Kids.
This despite the fact that it is YouTube, rather than creators, who collect data on
viewers.
But herein lies the major problem that the FTC has thus far ignored: the question of
enforcement.
According to Google, video creators upload 500 hours of content to YouTube every single
minute.
If you were to watch every second of new content uploaded in a single day, it would take you
eighty years.
Policing the internet is really, really hard.
While all countries attempt to curb illegal activity to a certain extent, nobody manages
it better than China, who employ thousands upon thousands of people to scour the internet
constantly, flagging anything that’s critical of the state or that references protests.
The FTC simply does not have these resources.
It would be impossible to fairly, evenly police YouTube and fine all creators who fail to
mark their content as Made for Kids.
So, the FTC has two choices.
It can either go after the biggest, most noteworthy offenders, those who feature child actors
in videos singing about baby sharks.
Doo doo do doo do doo.
Or, it can send out blanket fines to every video that looks even vaguely appropriate
for children.
The vague wording of the FTC’s guidelines seem tailor made to give them as much wiggle
room as they need.
Which way will the FTC lean in enforcing the law?
It’s hard to say, but remembering the Mrs Fields example, it’s clear that the higher
ups within the organization would rather take down a big, noteworthy target than actually
dig into the details of finding more insidious offenders.
All of this leaves many channels unsure of what to do.
If we mark our videos as Made for Kids, we’re safe from litigation, but we lose visibility
on the platform and a lot of advertising revenue.
If we assume that the FTC won’t be able to find us because it’s busy attacking larger
channels, running the risk of incurring a fine because our content simply looks appealing
to a child.
What’s frustrating about all this is that it could easily be solved by looking at YouTube’s
existing data.
Google absolutely knows which videos are being watched by kids, because building consumer
profiles on minors is the whole reason the company got in trouble.
Just a quick look at our own audience breakdown stats shows that we’re more popular with
adult men than any other category of viewer.
If you’re watching this, you’re more likely to be over 35 than under 18.
YouTube has this information, but whether it’ll actually be useful with the ongoing
litigation storm remains to be seen.
Amid the growing panic surrounding this issue, it’s important that we keep the blame focused
where it belongs.
No matter what the FTC and YouTube might claim, individual creators are not at fault.
This is Google’s mess, and the company really needs to take a more proactive role in protecting
its creators from the fallout.
But, then, when did YouTube ever show actual genuine interest in meeting its creators’
needs?
Honestly, our biggest concern here isn’t for our own safety.
Our daughter’s favourite YouTube channel is EllieV Toys, who reviews lego sets.
If the FTC attempts to slap an Australian citizen with a 40,000 US dollar fine and she
has to shut up shop, we don’t want to have to explain this whole mess to a grieving four
year old.
It’s simply a price we’re not willing to pay.