Are you confused about YouTube's new Terms of Service that requires you to designate
your content as made for kids or not made for kids? Otherwise, you'll get fined by the
FTC? Yes, I'm worried. Could you give me some more clarification? In this video, I'll answer
the top 10 most frequently asked questions regarding FTC, COPPA and YouTube and how it'll
affect your channel, videos, and revenue. Keep in mind, I'm not a lawyer, but I'm just
giving the answers from YouTube and FTC to the best of my ability. Hi, my name's Herman
Drost. If you want to grow your audience on YouTube
and generate traffic, leads and sales on autopilot, hit the subscribe button and click the bell
notification icon so you get notified whenever I upload new videos. Number one, what happens
if you set your content as made for kids? If you set your individual video or live stream
as made for kids, these features won't be available.
Personal advertising, comments, channel branding watermark, donate button, cards and end screens,
live chat or live chat donations, notification bell, playback in the mini-player, super chat
or super stickers, saved playlists. What happens if I set my channel as made for kids? The
features I just mentioned for individual videos also apply to your channel as well as stories,
community posts, channel memberships, as well as saved to watch later or saved to a playlist.
Thirsty desert asks, "Okay, wondering if they have anything to say about private videos.
They're not public right so they should leave them alone the way I see it. What do you think?"
Advertisers can't advertise on private videos so they're not going to be affected. But you'll
still have to designate them as made for kids or not made for kids. Number two, what happens
if I set my audience incorrectly? YouTube says, "You may face compliance issues with
the FTC and may have to take action on your YouTube account." What the heck does that
mean? The FTC says, "The rule allows for civil penalties
of up to $42,530 per violation, but the FTC considers a number of factors in determining
the appropriate amount, including a company's financial condition and the impact a penalty
could have on its ability to stay in its business." So, if you have a small channel like myself
that doesn't earn much revenue from ads, they're not taking into account my financial condition.
It's not going to be $42,000 so I just don't have it lying around. The bottom line is,
choose your settings accurately. Number three, how do you determine if your content is made
for kids or not? These are factors that YouTube and FTC give
us to determine if your content is made for kids. Subject matter of the video, whether
children are your intended or actual audience for the video, whether the video includes
child actors or models, whether the video includes characters, celebrities or toys that
appeal to children, including animated characters or cartoon figures, whether the language of
the video is intended for children to understand, whether the video includes activities that
appeal to children, such as play-acting, simple songs, games, or early education, whether
the video includes songs, stories, or poems for children.
In this document from the Federal Trade Commission, they added competent and reliable empirical
evidence about the age of the audience. One of the ways to see the age group or the people
that are watching your videos is to go YouTube Analytics. Just go to YouTube studio, click
on the Analytics then click on audience. My top age group is between 18 and 34 so definitely
my content is not directed towards kids. Number four, how old is a kid? The age of a kid in
the United States is anyone that is under 13 years old but it can be higher in different
countries. It means, if you're under 13, you can't set up a YouTube channel but you could
do you under your parent's account. Alternatively, you can just install YouTube
Kids app which is free. Number five, is animated content considered made for kids? According
to the FTC, "Just because your video shows bright colors or animated characters, it's
not covered under COPPA." Number six, what do I do if YouTube says my account is made
for kids, but I disagree? If you haven't set your video's audience yet, YouTube may do
it for you. YouTube says they'll use machine learning to identify the videos that are directed
towards kids. They further go on to say that you shouldn't rely upon their systems to set
the audience for you. I totally agree with that because many times,
YouTubers incorrectly demonetize my videos or give me a strike. So, don't rely upon YouTube
choosing the settings for you. Number seven, what if my content appeals to a wide audience,
not just kids? YouTube says, "It is your responsibility to comply with COPPA and designate your content
accurately." That sounds pretty vague. Can you give me more clarification? Here's a video
clip from Jeremy who's a lawyer and a YouTuber with five kids about adding a mixed audience
designation. Jeremy: The mixed audience exception is when
your content may fall under the factors that they layout. When I'm talking about the factors,
I'm talking about subject matter, the visual content, animated characters like that list
of things where YouTube and the FTC are saying, "This is child-directed, or appealing to children,"
you could fall under those factors but still not have children as your primary target audience.
I want people to be able to see the specific language from the FTC.
Herman: I'll place a link to this interview and Jeremy's channel in the description below
this video. I'll also include a mixed content document in the description. Number eight,
will my channel get deleted if it's not commercially viable for YouTube? Well, this section has
got a lot of content creators worried, is a section on the accounts and suspensions.
It says, "YouTube might terminate your access or your Google account's access to all or
part of the service. If YouTube believes in its sole discretion,
that provision of the service to you is no longer commercially viable." Here is YouTube's
response. "To clarify, there are no new rights in our Terms of Service to terminate an account
because it's not making money. As before, we may discontinue certain YouTube features
or parts of the service, or parts of the service, for example, if they're outdated or have low
usage. This does not impact creators/viewers in any new ways." Number nine, how can you
prepare for these changes? One, make sure you designate your content
correctly as made for kids or not made for kids. If you can't decide, look in your demographics
and YouTube Analytics. Two, look for other ways to monetize your content besides ads.
Click the link in the card for 21 ways to monetize your YouTube content without AdSense
ads. Number three, sign a petition. Creators on YouTube are signing this petition asking
the FTC to clarify and reconsider copy regulations they say will punish family-friendly content.
Over 700,000 have already signed the petition. Let's make it one million. I'll place a link
to this petition on the description below this video. Number ten, don't delete your
channel. It's easy to get upset with these new Terms of Service and react emotionally
by deleting your channel. Instead, do your best to designate your content correctly as
made for kids or not made for kids. There’ll be more clarification coming from
YouTube and the FTC, as they get more feedback from YouTube creators. If you have any more
questions about these new Terms of Service, post them on the comments below. I'll do my
best to answer them even though I'm not a lawyer. If you want to learn more about COPPA
and how to change the settings on the individual videos and channel, watch my next video. Thanks
for watching and we'll see you in the next video.