BEING AN ONLINE CONTENT CREATOR FOR “KIDS” IN YOUTUBE APPARENTLY IS NOT A GOOD IDEA.

Read if you want to know more WHY WE QUIT OUR YOUTUBE CHANNELS. 

"Being an online content creator for 'KIDS' in YouTube apparently is not a good idea." This is according to a good friend of ours who just told us about the implications of this “COPPA” rule (applicable to US companies like Facebook, Google, YouTube, etc). We’re unaware about this until it was recently mentioned to us.

To those who don’t know “COPPA or the “U.S. Children's Online Privacy Protection Act” by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) of the United States, you may read more about it here. YouTube has been fined by FTC amounting to $170M USD because of violations of COPPA. Content creators who fail to properly identify any child-directed content on the platform will be fined a maximum of $42,000 USD per video.

HOW COPPA APPLIES TO CHANNEL OWNERS?

So how does COPPA apply to channel owners who upload their content to YouTube or another third-party platform? COPPA applies in the same way it would if the channel owner had its own website or app. If a channel owner uploads content to a platform like YouTube, the channel might meet the definition of a “website or online service” covered by COPPA, depending on the nature of the content and the information collected. If the content is directed to children and if the channel owner, or someone on its behalf (for example, an ad network), collects personal information from viewers of that content (for example, through a persistent identifier that tracks a user to serve interest-based ads), the channel is covered by COPPA. Once COPPA applies, the operator must provide notice, obtain verifiable parental consent, and meet COPPA’s other requirements (Source: ftc.gov).

HOW DOES COPPA AFFECT US?

We recently started a new YouTube channel (Kids AudEbook World) that features books converted to an audiobook and ebook format in one video; thus, the term “AudEbook” was formed. The primary goal of the channel was basically to provide educational content for kids (of all ages), and to give opportunities for the kids to learn while watching videos. We believe that educational videos are helpful to child’s development and provide an alternative option to their learning. Kids should not only spend their free time playing online games and watching cartoons, animations, etc. The idea came up because we’re at home for several weeks/months due to the pandemic and since school doesn’t open yet, it is good to do something worthwhile to keep us busy.

All videos uploaded in our YouTube channel were set to “Made for Kids” to comply with COPPA. Unfortunately, when we tried searching for the name of channel, video and even any tag associated with the channel in the “YouTube Kids” (YTK) app, the results returned was none. Which means our channel and videos were nowhere to be found!

WHY???

They are not even searchable! Worst is only channels picked and curated by YouTube are VIEWABLE. Small channels are unlikely to be seen (unfortunately, no action nor statement from YouTube regarding this). So, the purpose of creating the videos intended for kids becomes pointless! Since, no opportunity for the videos to reach the targeted audience — who are kids. In addition, channels who are included in the YTK app couldn’t be monetized. Would you spend time, money and effort in creating content for FREE?

In this regard, we decided NOT to continue creating any more videos for kids in our YouTube channel. Since, eventually YOUTUBE WILL NEVER BE ALLOWED FOR KIDS (under 13 years of age) anyway. And probably someday, channels and videos intended for kids will be removed from YouTube. So, what will happen to all our efforts? It will be useless.

YOUTUBE IS ONLY INTENDED FOR ADULTS, NOT KIDS. In order to create an account, a person of legal age must sign up and with that the information is collected. So, if a minor considered under 13 years of age signed up without parental concern, it is against COPPA. Considering that this issue only surfaced recently, we can say that it is getting serious this time. With the several law suits filed, we cannot guarantee that YouTube will retain the kid-appropriate videos. YouTube creators will not make and upload videos anymore. Another platform can be considered, but it would not be the same as again. This will limit children’s chance of sharing their creativity to other kids. This will also allow kids do their work alone. We’re not saying that we support kids to stay online whole day everyday. But, from our experience, YouTube has helped us a lot by providing a wide-range of educational and learning videos. It is FREE and we don’t need to pay for membership subscriptions that are being offered by other educational websites.

This is saddening but we must follow the law and we must support it since it is for the benefit  and protection of the kids especially now that we are in the digital era.

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We will still continue to update our Facebook Page for our family and friends. And personal blogs can be accessed in our blogsite (aleynahlittlestar.blogpost.com). But, we won’t be uploading anymore content in YouTube (maybe until Aleynah reached 13).

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There are so much more to say but we limit the discussion here. We don’t usually do this. The intention of this post was for information purposes only. If this post is not intended to you, no need to react on this. Please share this to those you think could benefit from this post.

Thank you very much for reading.

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