 for kid-focused content. The most important rule was that 

channels had to be categorized as either ‘Made For Kids’ or suitable for ages 13 and older.


The goal was to make sure children were only watching age-appropriate content on YouTube. Historically, the platform has struggled to filter mature videos and ads, and in response, the Federal Trade Commission 

. After such a hefty penalty, YouTube had to clean its house - hence, the addition of a ‘Made For Kids’ category.

To learn more, watch this video explaining everything you need to know about YouTube, COPPA, and the FTC:

OK, let’s be honest. This is great news for parents. Arguably, fewer children will see questionable content on YouTube. But as great as that sounds, where do these new restrictions leave creators?

One crushing reality of YouTube’s 'Made for Kids' decision is creators could make a lot less money from the platform. Whenever a channel is 

, it’s not eligible to show personalized ads to viewers. That means no matter how old viewers are, those that watch kid-related content won’t be shown the ads they’re most likely to watch or click on. Over time, that results in less money for creators.

Nevertheless, YouTubers with kid-focused channels can still make money from their content. If you’re in that category, take a deep breath, relax, and keep reading to explore all your money-making options.

1: Sell Kid-Friendly Merchandise to Your YouTube Audience

As a Made For Kids channel, you can increase your revenue with brand-specific merchandise. Plenty of YouTubers are doing that right now, and they’re selling a range of products, such as clothing, toys, mugs, and workout equipment.

Unfortunately, Made For Kids creators aren’t allowed to display a carousel of products underneath their videos. This is one of the 

 YouTube is enforcing to comply with the COPPA Act. To work around this, direct your loyal viewers to an off-platform e-commerce site that houses all your products. There are plenty to choose from, such as:

Once you’ve created your wonderful, made-for-kids store, be loud and proud about it! You can start by adding the store link to video descriptions, but don’t stop there. Mention it verbally in your videos and add screenshots that show what the store looks like, what viewers can buy, and the website URL.

Also, don’t forget to mention the value of your products. Plenty of wide-eyed children may want to play with your toys, games, and other merch, but in the end, it’s the parents you’ll have to convince. They hold all the money, so make the purchasing decision easy for them by spelling out the benefits.

As you encourage viewers to leave YouTube and view your digital store, Watch Time on your channel may decrease. If that happens to you, don’t worry - just be a tad more strategic with your in-video marketing. You can always wait until the end of a video to mention your digital store and keep viewers watching.

2: Fund Your Videos With Brand Sponsorships

As a Made For Kids channel, I’m sure you know how popular kid-themed videos are on YouTube. Sometimes it’s shocking how lullabies, animated characters, and toy reviews can rack up millions of views. I mean, seriously! “

,” a video by Pinkfong that has 6.3B views, was inescapable for at least two years.

As you can see, kid-focused creators have a huge advantage online. To harness your full potential and make more money, set your sights on a brand sponsorship.

Think you need millions of subscribers to make it happen? Well, consider this: Channels with less influence are attracting popular brands every day. For example, this video from Moonbug Kids Learning Corner, titled, “

And best of all? Moonbug Kids Learning Corner has less than 100K subscribers.

3: Join Extra Platforms That Pay Kid-Focused Creators

YouTube is a popular platform with children, so don’t abandon it altogether. According to a 2020 Statista 

, 35% of U.S. parents let kids 11 and younger watch YouTube several times a day.

Even still, you have to be realistic about your revenue. If a lack of personalized ads is decreasing your income, it’s time to share your content on additional platforms.

Luckily, a few websites are paying kid-focused creators for their content. Boost your income by joining these kids-only streaming platforms:

You can also try platforms with a range of audiences, such as Amazon’s 

. Both platforms are helping video makers and other creatives get paid for their work.

If you have a Made For Kids channel, don’t give up hope just yet. With some creativity and grit, you can still make money from the amazing content you post on YouTube.

If you want to take your YouTube channel to the next level and 

Join over 1 million other users and use vidIQ to help you research YouTube, analyze videos, audit your own channel, and take actionable steps today!

If you’re really serious about growing your YouTube views and subscribers, sign up for exclusive access to the 

 and learn how to launch a successful YouTube Channel in just 30 days.

To comply with COPPA, YouTube has restricted many of its monetization features for kid-friendly channels. Here’s how to keep making money anyway.

How to Make Money as a 'Made For Kids' YouTube Channel

YouTube creators who publish content specifically for children have already suffered a blow from the 

 the platform rolled out in November 2019. Now those same creators face new restrictions from potential legislation aimed at further limiting the reach of the type of content that can be published on the platform.

The Kid’s Internet Design and Safety (KIDS) Act, has been proposed by United States senators Ed Markey and Richard Blumenthal, with the intent to further protect children aged 16 and under who consume online video on social media sites like YouTube, Snapchat, TikTok, and others.

The KIDS Act: How it May Could Children-Focused Video Creation

If the bill is approved, it would mean new laws would come into force for social media platforms to protect children and young teens. Those sites would need to fundamentally change the way they both deliver, and promote video content to children.

Under the new law, auto-play videos, recommendations, and push notifications would have to be turned off for any content that is made for kids.

Senator Ed Markey was the co-author of the COPPA Act but wants to extend the protection afforded to children with further legislation. In a 

"Today, kids’ faces are increasingly covered in the glow of their screens, and it’s time to face the chilling reality that some websites and apps are built in ways that harm children. Powerful companies push kids to buy products at every turn online, and top platforms are saturated with disturbing content that no kid should ever be exposed to."

The KIDS Act wants to push through the following restrictions designed to protect children:

The ban on ‘auto-playing’ videos - a feature that has the potential to reel children and young teenagers into spending an unhealthy amount of time online

The suppression of push alerts and badges that may encourage children to extend the time they spend on their mobile devices

The bill limits sites from promoting inappropriate, violent, or dangerous content, and will require those sites to set up a feedback system for reporting that content

Banning sites from pushing content around influencer marketing or marketing that includes “embedded interactive elements”

Stopping websites for promoting alcohol or nicotine products to those aged under 16 years of age

One of the stand-out restrictions in the proposed bill calls out unboxing videos in particular. As one of the most popular trends on YouTube, this content has long encouraged the partnership between creators and brands or influencers.

Unboxing videos, like this one below from the SquirrelStampede YouTube channel, are often sponsored, thereby exposing children to a certain toy or confectionery brand under the guise of entertainment.

The KIDS Act isn’t proposing the banning of unboxing videos - because good luck with that - but would prohibit platforms like YouTube from recommending this content to children. It would also make it illegal for social media platforms to recommend any sponsored content to children, impacting an already fragile eco-system, and further limiting the exposure unboxing creators would get on the platform.

The KIDS Act would also make it illegal for platforms to recommend literally any kind of branded or sponsored content to users under the age of 16.

The after effects of COPPA on YouTube creators who publish children’s content has been significant, and the KIDS Act has the very real potential of limiting their visibility to a critical extent. With restrictions on children’s content being recommended, the number of views and Watch Time a kid’s focused YouTube channel will be severely impacted.

We'll keep you up to date with any news on this issue.

 then make sure to download vidIQ. Join over 1 million other users and use vidIQ to help you research YouTube, analyze videos, audit your own channel, and take actionable steps 

And if you’re really serious about growing your YouTube views and subscribers, sign up for exclusive access to the [vidIQ Academy]

After the impact of COPPA, YouTube creators who publish content for children face new limitations from the proposed KIDS Act.

YouTube Children’s Content Creators Face New Woes from KIDS Act

When it comes to the FTC, COPPA, and your YouTube channel, there's nothing to fear but the fear of itself. And of course, the scumbags who prey on that fear.

First of all, let's start with some good news. The 

 have now come into effect on the YouTube platform, and as far as I'm aware, not a single video creator has received a fine, 

As for the bad news, the FTC and COPPA rulings have now come into effect on the YouTube platform, and it's having a massive impact on kids' content creators. Those folks have lost many YouTube tools, including comments, notifications for subscribers, the community tab, and their videos do not have contextualized ads, meaning they're losing a lot of revenue from their videos.

Beware of Scammers Taking Advantage of YouTube COPPA Confusion

This is a slightly reshaped YouTube landscape that we are all still trying to adjust to in 2020. Unfortunately, some unscrupulous types have already adjusted to that new landscape, and are trying to take advantage of your uncertainty over the FTC and COPPA.

If you have been creating YouTube content over the last couple of months, you will have encountered these messages, informing of you of the COPPA laws, and how you need to set your videos appropriately for the correct audience.

However, have you seen one of these? An e-mail from YouTube telling you that if you don't review the latest terms and conditions within a set time period, your channel could be terminated. Thanks to Reddit user 

Looks pretty convincing, doesn't it? And given all of the hype around COPPA and the FTC, it might panic you into trying to fix this as quickly as possible by clicking on that link. Which is exactly what you don't want to do.

How to Identify That This is a Stone Cold Scam

There are two telltale signs that something's wrong with this e-mail. The first is a deadline. YouTube almost never gives you a deadline to resolve an issue. YouTube simply does it first, and then tells you. Anyone who's got a copyright claim, community strike, or had their channel terminated will agree with that.

The second problem is the sender's e-mail address. Eh, yeah, I don't think that's from YouTube. In almost all cases, when you receive information from YouTube, it will be from an @YouTube.com e-mail address. In some rare circumstances, it may come from @Google.com, so if it isn't from any one of them, it's almost definitely a scam e-mail.

YouTube themselves have said that they will share information about your channel over e-mail, such as channel growth and statistics, but they would never ask for personal information, such as your date of birth, PINs, or passwords.

Here's my general advice. If you ever receive an e-mail about your YouTube channel, telling you that you need to do something, don't click on any links in the e-mail itself, always go to YouTube first, and then find what you need through the dashboard. And that could be for copyright claims, community strikes, all of our information is available directly when you are logged into your YouTube account.

We all know how hard this YouTube journey can be, and the FTC and COPPA rulings don't help us with this, but don't make it easy for hackers to fool you and steal your account, and ruin absolutely everything.

And if you’re really serious about growing your YouTube views and subscribers, sign up for exclusive access to the 

Creators beware! There's a phishing email scam about YouTube and COPPA doing the rounds right now so please don't fall for it.

Don't Fall For This YouTube, COPPA, FTC Phishing Scam!

In November 2019, YouTube made platform-shaking changes that affected every channel. Suddenly every creator and publisher had to acknowledge whether their library of videos were 'made for kids' or not.

If you are out of the loop, you can quickly catch up by reading our '

11 Things You Need to Know About COPPA and Kid's Content on YouTube

Part of the announcement was confirmation of the type of video content that YouTube considered made for, and consumed by, children under 13. Creators are now asked to indicate whether their channel or videos are subject to the following guidelines:

What is the subject matter of your 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

Whether the video includes songs, stories, or poems that appeal to children

The 7 Types of 'Made for Kids' Content on YouTube

Although there are many channels who are publishing content that's not necessarily created directly for a young audience, those videos are being watched by a younger audience. That's a fine line that millions of channels are now struggling with. One thing we do know for sure is the kind of content that very clearly 

 fall within the new guidelines. Let's take a look at each of the seven categories with examples.

#1 What is the Subject Matter of the Video?

While education is a life long pursuit, many of us past of the age of 13 know our colors so wouldn't independently watch a video about that - especially if the learning mode was via the medium of ice cream and soccer balls.

Given that this channel is called 'Kid's Camp' and the topic is learning the names of different colors, this is a perfect example of an educational video made especially for younger children.

#2 Whether Children are Your Intended Audience for the Video

While many of us carry our love of fairy tales and other bedtime stories into adulthood, the vast majority of this content on YouTube is aimed at young children.

This video from the 'Fairy Tales and Stories for Kids' YouTube channel uses simple animation to tell the story of Rapunzel, and is also clearly labelled as kid-focused content.

#3 Whether the Video Includes Child Actors or Models

While this one can be a little trickier (there's a lot of TV and movie content on YouTube that includes child actors for example), children themselves are often the main focus of a video clip and that's what the new COPPA rules are picking up on.

Children like to watch other children pretend play or act out stories that they can either join along with or watch passively. We went with a very clear example of a child in front of the camera with the ubiquitous Ryan of Ryan Toy's Review and other franchises.

Ryan has always been the main focus of any video his channel publishes so this is a slam-dunk example of the use of a child in the content.

#4 Whether the Video Includes Characters, Celebrities or Toys That Appeal to Children including Animated Characters or Cartoon Figures

Kids content on YouTube is one of the top 10 most-popular verticals and we've seen hundreds of thousands of channels launch over the past few years that have leveraged the interest in the topic.

With pretend play, unboxing, and even slime videos using characters, celebrities, or toys that appeal to children generating millions of views, it's easy to see why YouTube has confirmed this type of content falls squarely in the 'made for kids' content category.

#5 Whether the Language of the Video is Intended for Children to Understand

Did you know that some American children are 

Whether that's true or not, we know that the language used in the 'Peppa Pig' videos 

 absolutely intended for children to understand. Think about whether your own videos do if you're unsure whether they should be classed as made specifically for children or not.

#6 Whether the Video Includes Activities That Appeal to Children

Of course we were always going to include 'Baby Shark' as an example somewhere, and it actually perfectly illustrates the concept of including activities that appeal to children.

Repeat after me now - "doo doo doo doo doo doo, doo doo doo doo doo doo, doo doo doo doo doo doo, Baby shark!"

#7 Whether the Video Includes Songs, Stories or Poems That Appeal to Children

Nursery rhyme videos are the perfect storm of content that appeals to young kids. With their bouncy mix of music and colorful images, it's hard to imagine a genre that appeals to children more.

We're not saying that the longer-form clips of this type of content have been used to entertain kids for hours on end. But we're not saying that they haven't been either. YouTube and the FTC know that babies and toddlers are lapping this kind of stuff up which is why it's being excluded from the new rules around data collection.

Do you know the 7 very specific types of content that YouTube now considers 'Made for Kids' under the new COPPA rules? We break them down.

The 7 Types of 'Made for Kids' Content on YouTube Under #COPPA

YouTube creators were hit with a bombshell in November 2019 when YouTube announced 

ground-breaking changes to audience setting

"Regardless of your location, we'll require you to tell us whether or not your videos are made for kids. We are making these changes according to an agreement with the US Federal Trade Commission, FTC, to help you comply with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, COPPA, and/or the applicable laws. Failure to set your content appropriately may result in consequences on YouTube or have legal consequences under COPPA and other laws."

That paragraph has sent shivers down the spine of the YouTube community around the world. What does this mean for a YouTube channel that has an audience of under 13 as well as an audience that's over 13? What does this mean for family vlogs? What does this mean for gaming channels? What does any of it mean?

We want those answers just as much as you do, so on today's episode of Tube Talk let's unpack those questions with someone who understands not only the law but also the influencer network, so someone who understands the YouTuber mindset. That man is 

 who's an entertainment attorney representing influencers for the past three years. He's the co-founder of 

, an amazing event for creators and brands to network and learn from each other. In this podcast you will learn:

Why the pressure to comply with COPPA is on creators not YouTube

Why there is so much confusion around COPPA

How creators need to determine whether their content is 'made for kids'

Why YouTube probably won't offer creators a 'mixed audience' option

How COPPA is going to fundementally change the YouTube platform

Wh creators need to contact the FTC and comment on the changes

Why COPPA affects you even though you may live outside the US

Why adding a disclaimer to your YouTube discription is not enough

__Just a quick disclaimer before we get started. This is going to be a long episode and anything in this podcast should not be constituted as legal advice. __

Subscribe to TubeTalk: The Video Marketing Podcast!

TubeTalk has been informing video creators and marketers since 2014, and is one of the most respected and listened to podcasts in the online video industry. Subscribe today so you never miss an episode! You can find vidIQ's TubeTalk at:

The COPPA and FTC Info Every YouTuber Needs to Know: Full Transcript

Liron Segev:	Jonathan, welcome to TubeTalk.

Jonathan Katz:	Thank you. Thank you so much. It's great to be here.

Liron Segev:	Jonathan, we're about to embark on a discussion to deal with the FTC and COPPA and YouTube. We're just having a discussion around this very sensitive topic.

Jonathan Katz:	Absolutely. I think a lot of attorneys are nervous to speak casually about this topic for fear that it might be interpreted as legal advice. There's a lot of nuance here. There's a lot of subtlety, and so I'm happy to share what knowledge I have, but in the context that none of this is legal advice. Nobody listening to this is necessarily my client, so everybody's situation is personal and you really should consult an attorney rather than rely on what some guy said on a podcast.

Liron Segev:	And with that legalese out of the way, let's jump into it. So, Jonathan, you must be a pretty busy man at the moment with trying to unpack the mysteries of COPPA and the FTC. What's going on?

Jonathan Katz:	Sure, so the first thing I would do is recommend that they check out 

 raising the alarm about this. A number of weeks ago before people were really talking about it, another attorney who happens to be a YouTube creator named Jeremy Johnston and I, we've been sort of mulling this over and being really concerned about it for a while. And so he published a video about it on YouTube.

I published an article about it and started making calls and contacting all the creators that we knew. And the thing that we were concerned about, the thing that we were anxious about is that after the news about the settlement with YouTube came out, we realized that there wasn't a ton of information spreading about how the settlement was going to impact the YouTube platform.

And the one thing that we knew and that was clear from the settlement is that creators were going to be bearing the responsibility of being COPPA compliant or not COPPA compliant going forward. That YouTube was no longer taking responsibility for complying with COPPA on a channel that was "directed at kids" and that it was going to come down to the creators having to self-designate.

And that got scary really quickly because we realized that by self-designating, YouTube is going to have to change what your opportunities and abilities to interact with the platform are based on if you designate one way or the other. And we started contacting YouTube and started talking to the FTC directly about what is the picture of what comes next? And we found that information was not forthcoming by either side. There was a lot of ambiguity. There was a lot of vagueness, a lot of uncertainty on how creators could self-designate to avoid violations of the law.

Liron Segev:	Is that strange when it's something that large of a magnitude and has such an impact on so many people for them to be that vague, is that unusual?

Jonathan Katz:	So that's an interesting question. How unusual is it? I would say that one of the things that's really novel about the FTC, and I suppose there are a number of regulatory agencies that experience this, which is they create a piece of regulation. And then they start to enforce it. And when enforcement actions are performed by a regulatory agency like the FTC, the shape of the law and the clarity of the law often comes out in legal cases.

A judge writes an opinion at the end of a trial stating, "This interpretation is correct. This interpretation of the law is incorrect." What's particularly unusual and difficult about COPPA is that there has been very little judicial opinion on the subject that lawyers can use as references to interpret their child-directed 10-factor test.

And so it's all incredibly vague because the FTC wants to have the room to have as much flexibility to take enforcement actions as they want, and there isn't a judge who has had a case brought in front of him who can check that vagueness by forcing them or obliging them to create much more clearly defined criteria.

And the reason that there haven't been court cases like that is because it seems like everybody settles with the FTC. And so if there's a settlement, it never gets in front of a judge and therefore no opinions are written, and therefore we don't have insight as to how the law works.

Liron Segev:	Yeah, because they said in their 20-year history, they've had just over 30 cases have actually resulted directly with fines from COPPA or the FTC.

Jonathan Katz:	Exactly. And so there's just ... So six years ago, they amended this law in 2013 making huge changes to it, and it has taken until now for these changes to even apply to YouTube content creators. And so nobody's really poked or explored how the definitions of kid directed, not kid directed, mixed audience, how any of this stuff is applied. It's not like we have a big case history where we can look and see, "Well, it applied here in this case and not here in that case," if that all makes sense.

Liron Segev:	Yes, it does. But it does hit one word which was mixed audiences, and I think we just need to understand that a little bit because content on YouTube is made up of a variety of every niche, every industry, every vertical that you could think of. And a lot of them have, especially things like K-pop channels and WWE channels, gaming channels, they have an audience that's definitely under 13, but they have an adult audience as well. So what is this mixed audience that we keep hearing about because YouTube's only giving us two choices. Are you for kids, or is this video not for kids?

Jonathan Katz:	And god knows that a lot of creators have been making videos talking about this subject, and it's been interesting watching all of the speculation that's out there. So COPPA has a series of factors that it uses to determine whether you are kid directed or not.

Each of those factors constitutes a certain amount of risk. And as YouTube will tell you over and over again, you need a lawyer to review that criteria, review your content, and then provide you essentially with a risk assessment, what elements of your channel, what elements of your audience put you at risk for a COPPA violation? And that's what I basically spent the last three months doing is performing these COPPA channel review assessments.

And so frequently my clients have come back to me after I provide them with this risk assessment, especially in the past week, and they say, "Wait a second. Wait a second. You've been telling me whether I'm kid directed or not kid directed, but what's all this I hear about a mixed audience?" And so the mixed audience exception is designed for people who have an audience that is not primarily kid directed but they are aware that there is ... because there's the reality of what was your intent in producing your content and also the incidental audience that you attract to your content. And then there's general audience content that appeals to a broad range of people including kids.

And so you got to remember the core goal of COPPA. The core goal of it is that they want that if a kid is online, and they're interacting with a piece of content, that their personal information isn't getting sucked up into some advertising network or some website. They offer essentially three ways to do that or two ways to do that, I should really say.

One is that you have a fully COPPA-compliant ecosystem that any time a kid is interacting with it, no data is being collected at all. And then they have potentially a mixed audience system which could be created which basically is just constantly checking in with the user to make sure that only people over the age of 13 are consuming the content. And there's all kinds of restrictions and regulations around that.

To say, "YouTube should just give us the mixed audience option." Well, I'm sure that there are a lot of technical requirements that they would have to meet in order to provide that. I don't know what they are. I am not an engineer, and I don't know the technical elements that would be required to, for example, verify that a parent is selecting the age option and not a child who is just saying they're 21 years old. There's plenty of that.

And so I don't know what the burden would be for YouTube to implement a mixed audience exception that would allow creators to monetize the part of your audience that is over 13 and not monetize the part of their audience that is under 13.

Liron Segev:	And I think a lot of it is the fear that we're kind of relying on YouTube's systems and their learning algorithm, which admittedly is getting ridiculously good over the years, but they still flagging things incorrectly. Right now before even COPPA and the FTC and all of this even bubbled up, you're demonetizing videos that shouldn't have been, taking people off the platform that shouldn't have been, and then on the flip side, doing absolutely the right thing by identifying content that should not exist on YouTube.

Do you think that COPPA and the FTC have the ability to really monitor a hundred million video creators, 500 hours of content uploaded every minute, or is it going to boil down to YouTube offering some sort of system access, and they will flag content?

Jonathan Katz:	So I think this is as good a time as ever to remind everybody that nothing I'm saying should constitute legal advice. However, we can all do a fair amount of speculation and look at the resources that each body has available to it in order to assess what the future on the platform will look like. So YouTube's AI for whatever problems it has had, especially around demonetization, there are certain things it is really, really good at.

And I would say the number one thing is, it is incredible at detecting pornography. It is unbelievably good. YouTube's AI technology for spotting and removing porn off the platform is fantastic. I've never run into porn on the platform, and you think about the huge volume of people who are using it and the huge number of trolls that are on the platform who I'm sure think it's hilarious to slip porn into the middle of a video that they've re-uploaded. And yet, I never see it. And I would have to assume that that is in large part thanks to YouTube's very sophisticated AI that is able to detect that kind of thing the moment that it's uploaded.

And if we know that about YouTube, if we know that they have that level of competency, then I have to believe that there's a lot of content that their AI can spot and say, "This content is high risk for being targeted at kids." And it will have lots of false positives. It will also have lots of false negatives. But the capacity for YouTube to find kids' content being uploaded to the platform and not being designated correctly is, I'm confident, very impressive. And while I certainly see a lot of false positives and false negatives in my clients' channels right now, I am also confident that over time, this system will improve and improve and improve and improve and get to be very sophisticated.

Because identifying kids' content is a lot easier than identifying what might be brand safe because the definition of brand-safe or friendly for advertisers is just so ambiguous and confusing. Whereas a kid can spot kid content when they're watching it, and so presumably this AI can do a fairly good job too.

Now you compare that resource that YouTube has against the resources that the FTC has. The FTC doesn't have a ton of resources to put towards this. And in their settlement agreement with YouTube, it was not a requirement that they have an automated system that serves as an enforcement arm for the FTC. It's voluntarily chosen to do that, and what they do with that ultimately is up to them.

However, I imagine that given they just paid the FTC $170 million, they're very motivated right now to cooperate with the FTC and be a useful source of information gathering for the FTC and provide information that the FTC is looking for in order to pursue actions against content creators who are abusing the self-designated option on the platform.

Liron Segev:	Why didn't YouTube simply say to the rest of the world say, "Look, our terms are you've got to 13 and over to use our system." Why are you making this our problem? People know that they've accepted the terms and conditions. That's it. End of story. Why are you making us jump through all these hoops? You used pornography earlier as an example, you go the site, and it says, "Are you over 18? Are you over 21?" You click the yes button, and that's it.

Jonathan Katz:	It's a very good question, and I think that it's one that is particularly difficult for everybody to sort of navigate because on some fundamental level, I think there is a principle that companies should be able to trust their users, and in the case of kids, the parents of their users to monitor what their kids are doing online and make sure that they're only visiting websites that are age-appropriate. And that if they are visiting a site that isn't COPPA compliant and they know that and they know that the site says it's only intended for people over the age of 13+, that they are accepting the responsibility as parents to whatever data collection that happens incidentally on that site.

By the way, that data collection is typically of the account holder rather than just the person who happens to be passed the device to consume for a moment. So it's not like these websites are collecting social security numbers from children. Personal information is a very ambiguous sort of term. I think there's a lot of parents out there that accept the fact that YouTube is tracking the watch history of whoever is using the account at that particular time. I don't think that's even secret information given that you can go back and look at your own watch history. And so those parents are like, "You know what? It's okay for YouTube to do what YouTube's going to do."

Now the FTC has not taken that approach. They have not laid the responsibility at the feet of parents in saying that, "Okay, parents, you've clicked through that the site is 13+, and you've passed the iPad to your kids, therefore you are consenting to this information being collected by YouTube, and therefore YouTube has done nothing wrong."

I think there's a bit of an overreach by the FTC by saying that parents can't choose to allow their kids to watch YouTube despite the information that's being collected. And I think that a big part of that is that the law doesn't make it convenient or easy for parents to provide that consent. And I think that that's where clearly COPPA needs to be updated and the degree to which parents actually care about persistent identifiers and cookies on their machine being used to provide their kids with the entertainment they want that all of my clients produce for them, how much do parents really care about that? How sensitive are they to various kinds of data collection that are used for the purpose of making a better user experience on the platform?

Liron Segev:	It seems to be, for me as a parent, and I'm okay for my child to watch this movie on the big screen, I am making that as a parent. That's my responsibility. Why is that different when it comes to a YouTube platform, where I'm signing in with my account, and I understand?

Jonathan Katz:	Exactly, and I think that what's unfortunate about the FTC taking six years for the effect of this change that was made to COPPA only felt like in this moment is that in those six years, a healthy and wonderful and diverse content creator ecosystem of all these creators that I know and love who produce amazing and valuable content for their very diverse audiences. They're all in peril. Their platforms are going to be taken away from them because they will be demonetized.

I represent all kinds of diverse minority creators, mixed-race families, families with adopted children, families who create content in all varieties of different languages for all different kinds of audiences, for audiences who have disabilities. And it's all for kids, and that content only exists because of the democratization of content creators being able to build audiences on YouTube and monetize them through personalized ads.

What's unfortunate is, when you remove the personalized ads, all of those content creators suddenly lose their ability to produce this content. And then all you have left are billion-dollar corporations who are going to continue to flood the internet with their mainstream, middle of the road, Los Angeles and New York content and instead of the diverse array of content that clients enjoy, clients' audiences enjoy.

A perfect example of this is faith-based content. And regardless of what faith you are a part of and even if you're not part of any particular faith, you'll discover that on mainstream television, you don't see much conversation about faith or much content being produced about families of faith. And that's because of various economic and cultural decisions being made in those businesses.

But there are so many people of faith all around the world who would love to watch content that reflects their families. And if we allow these massive corporations to be the gatekeepers of what kind of content gets to be displayed and they say, "No, we're not going to have any queer families," or, "We're not going to have mixed-race families," or, "We're not going to have families with adopted kids in our content." Then they get to decide that for everyone else what content is available.

And what YouTube has done, to its credit, is allowed all kinds of families to create content about themselves and about their experiences so that those underserved audiences can see the content that is meaningful to them. And in making their actions, the FTC is annihilating all of those communities in one fell swoop, in large part because I fundamentally believe they don't understand the business that they are regulating.

Liron Segev:	And is this what you guys, the people who have access to both the legal and the YouTube community, is that what you're fighting for?

Jonathan Katz:	Absolutely. So if you go back and you read the article that I published in TubeFilter about the coming COPPA-colypse, we end the article with very clear calls to action. We say, number one, we said to everybody, "Go comment on the FTC. Let them know that you love family and kids content on YouTube, that you love content that is child attractive on YouTube, whether it's Minecraft or slime videos or any sort of toy collectibles, etc. because all of that content is at risk and the FTC needs to understand that whether you are a family who enjoys sharing that content with your kids and want it to be able to continue or whether you are an 18 year old who doesn't want the borderline content that you enjoy to be destroyed as a casualty of this regulation.

So the FTC comments really effective, and we're asking for them to clarify their rules and to offer creators a moratorium or an opportunity to adapt their content in order to survive in whatever the new ecosystem is going to be.

Liron Segev:	A collective voice is what we need here. We need lots of people from diverse walks of life around the world really jumping in on this because it does affect absolutely everyone and things going forward.

And we're talking about YouTube specific, but I'm assuming there's going to be ramifications of things off YouTube. Maybe Instagram, maybe TikTok, maybe LinkedIn and Twitch. It's got to have ramifications. We have to speak up and educate the lawmakers about how things are done today. And things will constantly change, but the law doesn't keep up to the way that we are kind of changing.

Okay, a quickfire round, fact or fiction. Because I don't live in the US and all of this is US done, therefore none of this affects me. Fact or fiction?

Jonathan Katz:	So again, none of this constitutes legal advice. YouTube is based in the US and it is governed under US law. And YouTube is going to be taking action to protect its platform from further violations or further regulations, and so even if you're not based in the US, you are held to YouTube standards.

So I think if you are based outside of the US and you run a nursery rhyme channel, the FTC might have a hard time prosecuting you, but ultimately YouTube will not allow you to put YouTube at risk for violating COPPA. So it's a blurry question. Jurisdiction is a thing, but that doesn't mean that this doesn't apply to you at all.

Liron Segev:	Okay, so definitely keep abreast of the situation. A ramification, it might not be the FTC themselves, but there will be ramifications. Right now, we've been seeing this a lot. If I add a disclaimer to my video description that this is not for kids under 13, surely that simply protects me from COPPA.

Jonathan Katz:	I mean, there's a big logic gap in that one. If you're making nursery rhyme videos, and the kids can't read, how could they read your disclaimer? Ultimately, YouTube has been very clear that their compliance is limited to you notifying them that you need to comply because you're creating kid-directed content. I saw, what's his name, Stuckman posted a disclaimer on his Frozen 2 review video. And I mean, that's kind of comical because a film review is not really, wouldn't really be kid directed. I think that's a pretty low risk in terms of an assessment. And I think he meant it tongue in cheek anyway.

I don't think that sort of a disclaimer would weigh in in any way as to whether or not you were kid directed and therefore whether or not you were appropriately self-designating on the platform.

Jonathan Katz:	The only thing that you can really do is get a risk assessment from an attorney, and then make informed choices about how you label your content after you have a full risk assessment.

Liron Segev:	Okay, so I just wanted to touch on that very quickly. Since a lot of the content creators are maybe not in a position to go out and seek legal advice, small channels don't have the money to do it, do you think maybe YouTube is being a bit tone-deaf by saying, "Seek your own advice?

Jonathan Katz:	Tone-deaf? YouTube? Never, never. Their PR is always nuanced and sensitive and thoughtful in every way, shape, or form. While this law has existed for six years, you could also think of it as if it was passed today, as if Congress just passed a new law and that law is creating a regulatory burden on content creators that didn't exist before. And if you think of it from that context, YouTube doesn't have a lot of options in terms of informing its audience as to what kind of risk that their content is at.

And one of the things that's really tricky about it, and sometimes I emphasize with YouTube in this and sometimes I'm infuriated with them. And I think one of the things that I keep getting stuck on is I don't expect that YouTube could provide a meaningful assessment without creating more liability for themselves.

And the entire reason they've set up these systems is to eliminate the responsibility that could imperil the platform. It is tone-deaf, but it speaks to the poverty of imagination that YouTube is exercising in responding to this settle. That this is a solution that seems practical at scale for them without avoiding massive problems for a significant portion of the creator base.

Liron Segev:	It just feels very almost passing the buck situation. And $42,530, it's the magic number. Everybody seems to be focused on it. Are we really going to see that as soon as somebody uploads the wrong video, expect a letter in the mail saying, "This is your fine?"

Jonathan Katz:	So I do not believe that the FTC will rush to start issuing fines, especially given the incredible amount of pushback in the FTC comments that we've been encouraging creators to raise their voices. That they've received communicating that that is not the will of the people for the FTC to start issuing gigantic fines that bankrupt creators.

They've made statements, unofficial statements, saying, "Hey, we're not here to bankrupt creators." Although, unfortunately, Commissioner Wilson did make his, "We're going to shoot them like fish in a barrel," sort of comment. Which I think was incredibly destructive and personally, I would like him to apologize to the creator community for that, especially if now they're saying that that is not what they intend.

On the other hand, I don't think the creators are immune to fines. And I've seen some people making comments saying, "Oh, the FTC isn't going after individual creators." Because I think one of the things that people forget is that the FTC's commissioners can change with one administration to another. We have a revolving door in this country. potentially every four years, we have a new president of the US. And that new person could be ... And the turnover of who make up the commission could change at any time, and the choice of what they choose to enforce and what they don't choose to enforce could be very ambiguous and it could change.

On this week's episode of TubeTalk, we cut through the confusion to bring you the info around COPPA and FTC that every YouTuber needs to know.

COPPA & FTC

How to Make Money as a 'Made For Kids' YouTube Channel

Lydia Sweatt

YouTube Children’s Content Creators Face New Woes from KIDS Act

Carla Marshall

Don't Fall For This YouTube, COPPA, FTC Phishing Scam!

Rob Wilson

The 7 Types of 'Made for Kids' Content on YouTube Under #COPPA

Carla Marshall

COPPA and FTC: What Every YouTuber Needs to Know: TubeTalk 191 with Jonathan ...

Liron Segev

How Likely Are You to Receive a $42,530 Fine Under YouTube's FTC COPPA Rules?

Rob Wilson

How to 'Hide' Your YouTube Channel From the FTC and COPPA... But Should You?

Rob Wilson

Is Your YouTube Content Made for Children? New FTC COPPA Rules

Rob Wilson

How To Protect Your YouTube Channel Under COPPA [Beginner's Guide]

Rob Wilson

COPPA, FTC and Your YouTube Channel - Everything You Need To Know!

Rob Wilson

11 Things You Need to Know About COPPA and Kid's Content on YouTube TODAY

Carla Marshall

What the New Changes to YouTube Mean for Kid's Content: TubeTalk 177 with Sha...

Liron Segev