- If you are watching this video
and you're under the age of 13,
then please stop watching now.
I can guarantee you this video is not targeted at you.
If you're wondering why I just stated this disclaimer
it's to protect our channel and save us
from a fine of over $42,000.
If you have no idea what I'm talking about,
here's everything you need to know
to save your YouTube channel.
- [Male Announcer] VidIQ
- [Female Announcer] VidIQ
- [Whispering Announcer] VidIQ.com
- Hello, I'm Rob and welcome back to VidIQ,
the YouTube tool and channel that aims to educate you
on your YouTube journey.
If you are looking
for the latest YouTube news, tips, tricks and advice,
then make sure to subscribe to the channel
and click on our notification bell
to make sure you don't miss
any of our new content.
Just like this.
(bell ringing)
As always folks, school is now in session.
And if there is one lesson you don't want
to miss this year it is this one.
Let's take a look at what the FTC did to YouTube
which means that it's affected all of you video creators.
In September 2019, the Federal Trade Commission
fined YouTube 180,000,000 US dollars
for mismanaging data they collect on users
under the age of 13.
This violates the children's online privacy protection act,
known as COPPA, a 1998 US law created
to protect the privacy of children under the age of 13.
Under the law, digital entities are restricted
from collecting personal information
from users aged under 13 without the express permission
of their parents or guardians.
Now at this point, you might be thinking,
I make videos from the UK,
why does this affect me?
YouTube is a US company
and anyone in the world can watch YouTube content
including those in the US.
So it affects that privacy policy,
so it affects you.
As part of a settlement with the FTC,
YouTube were given time to get their house in order
to protect children in the future.
And now the head of family partnerships at YouTube
has confirmed how these changes
will affect the upload process,
your existing library of content
and potentially the way you monetize that content.
There is a link to this video on-screen now.
Essentially if you are a video creator on YouTube,
this is a brand new term that you have to get used to.
Made for kids.
To be honest, previously YouTube has done an inadequate job
of determining whether content is suitable
for children or not.
And now, they're enforcing much stricter rules
and placing the onus on you to communicate
to your audience whether that content is appropriate
for children or not.
If you haven't checked this already,
this is your next step you should do now.
Go to the new creator studio
and on the left hand side, click on settings.
Then go to the channel section,
followed by the advanced settings tab.
This is the new channel audience setting
which tells YouTube whether all of your content
is made for kids,
none of your content is made kids
or some of your content is made for kids.
If you select yes, you will see a brief description
of how this impacts your channel
which we will cover in a moment.
Consider this your master setting
that affects all of the content on your channel.
This setting will affect all current videos
on your channel,
and all future content on your channel.
And this is not an opt-in choice,
no matter where you are in the world
as a video creator, you need to check this setting
and determine whether or not your content is made
for kids, or not.
As stated on the setting, regardless of your location,
you're legally required to comply
with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act
and all of the laws.
Now obviously not all of your content may fall
into one bucket of made for kids or not.
So you can adjust audience settings for videos
on an individual basis
by going to the video manager page,
checking videos and then clicking on the edit button
and then going to audience.
From this screen, you'll simply be asked
whether the videos checked are made for kids or not.
Also, when you upload a video, you'll be asked this question
and depending on how you've answered it
on your channel settings,
that default will be used and you can change it if you wish.
So you can't dodge the question.
It's gonna be coming up on your channel settings,
on individual videos.
You must answer whether or not the content is made for kids.
And if you're gonna try and cheat the system and lie,
YouTube have a machine learning in place
trying to detect whether or not your content
is made for kids.
Now given YouTube's history with this type of thing,
unfortunately, that does mean that mistakes
are likely to be made
with content being mislabeled as one or the other.
The question for you is,
if you do fall into the wrong categorization,
what potential penalties are there for you
as the individual video creator?
They're, potentially, quite harsh.
The maximum civil penalty that the FTC may enforce
for each breach could be $42,530.
So in a worst case scenario,
all it would take it is 24 videos
to be mislabeled on your YouTube channel
to wrack up a fine of over $1,000,000.
(cash register chime)
Now there is quite a bit to unpack
from that huge number.
Are the FTC going to fine every single video creator
that amount of money if they misrepresent
their content on YouTube?
And given that there are hundreds of hours
of content uploaded onto YouTube
every single minute,
how is that going to be policed?
And to be honest,
I don't think any of us have the answers
to those questions right now.
What everybody is saying to you right now, quite rightly,
is to air on the side of extreme caution
and make sure that your content is correctly labeled
and you think about the content when you're making it
as to whether or not it is appropriate for kids.
The next big question to consider is,
what is kid's content?
Well these are seven things you should consider.
What is the subject matter of the video?
Whether children are your intended 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.
And whether the video includes songs, stories or poems
that appeal to children.
Now I will appreciate that every single video
on YouTube will garner a slightly different answer
to all of those questions.
And some are more clear cut than others.
Baby Shark for example,
yeah that's pretty much designed for children.
But a full night montage of comical moments,
that's a little bit more of a gray area
and, unfortunately again, we don't have the answers.
The other frustration for video creators
is that YouTube don't necessarily have the answers either.
When no longer in the realm of YouTube community guideline,
their rules, we're now into law
and YouTube said this on their video.
- Ultimately we can't provide legal advice.
So we're unable to confirm whether or not
your content is made for kids.
That decision is up to you taking
into consideration these factors.
But we want to help you follow the law as much as we can.
Check out our help center
and talk to a lawyer if you're still unsure
whether or not your content should be marked
as made for kids.
- There are two things there
that essentially cover YouTube's butt.
In order to avoid, another $180,000,000 fine,
they're making sure that you,
the individual video creator,
are responsible for telling your audience
who that content is appropriate for.
And second of all, YouTube is not going to determine
whether or not content is kids' content.
If it got to that point,
it would be for the law to decide.
And that's why YouTube,
along with everybody else who's covering this topic,
is suggesting you seek legal counsel, if required.
And for many of you, that's probably gonna be unrealistic
but we have to say that.
Now, so far we've talked about the potential impact
if you miscategorize your content on YouTube.
However, if you tell YouTube that your videos are for kids,
you also lose a significant number of YouTube features
that include YouTube comments.
Viewers will not be allowed to engage
in your video in that way.
Personalized ads
and this will cause a significant decrease in revenue.
Info cards in the top right hand corner.
End screens.
YouTube stories.
The community tab.
The notification bell.
People will not receive a notification
when your new video goes live.
And the ability for viewers to save videos,
watch them later
or save to a playlist.
All of these features are rooted in the collection
of personal data which is exactly
what YouTube need to avoid with viewers
under the age of 13.
And I know that for many of you video creators,
this is a huge blow.
It essentially means that you can't directly engage
with your community
because you don't know anything about them.
So far we've focused on channels
that will be impacted by these changes.
Those channels that do make content for children.
But what about all of those other channels
that shouldn't be affected
because they don't create content
for under thirteens.
What if you YouTube makes a mistake
and it categorizes their content as made for kids?
Is there any way they can appeal against that?
Well, kind of.
If you YouTube determines a video is made for kids,
through the video details page you can send feedback.
But what does send feedback mean?
Does that constitute an appeal?
And can you get YouTube
to actually change the decision, once made?
I think it's safe to say that
while this is everything we currently know
about YouTube's changes due to FTC and COPPA,
we don't have enough real world examples
of how this is going to impact channels.
So, whether YouTube will be able to change on appeal
or what type of penalties you may get,
those answers are still up in the air.
What we will continue to do here at VidIQ
is monitor the situation
and give you all of the information
as soon as we have it.
And if you do have any questions,
then pop them in the comments below
because hopefully the comments will be working on this video
because it's not a kid's content video
and we'll maybe do an FAQ
or we'll send these to YouTube
and try and get some answers for you.
Make sure to watch these related videos
on the left hand side here.
Thank you very much for watching
and if you can, enjoy the rest of your video making day.