POLL: Are you willing to risk a $42K per video fine by the FTC in order to remain monetized?

[Jungle Explorer]

The FTC is priding itself that it is now coming after content creators directly. We are "Fish in a barrel" to the FTC and they are coming after us directly. They will fine content creators $42,000 for every video the FTC decides violates COPPA based on their extremely vague and broad interpretation of "Child-Directed Content". Since there is no clear way to determine what is and is not Child-Directed Content, how many of my fellow creators are willing to risk possibly millions in fines to stay monetized? Respond to this post with a Yes or NO to vote.

 

[UKHypnotist]

@Jungle Explorer

Why does this poll exist in the face of the new channel settings section created yesterday?

 

[Jungle Explorer]

This poll is not about what YT is doing. It is about the threat that the FTC will come after you directly if you allow YT to place targeted ads on your content, not only on YT but anywhere on the internet. For child specif channels the choice is easy, but for channels aimed at the TEEN and young adult demographic, this is a real threat because the FTC considers a 13-year-old to be a child, and a lot of 13-year-old children watch content aimed at the 13 to 18 year old demographic. Since the FTC is not talking about the intent of the content but rather if it is "Attractive" or "Appealing" to 13-year-old children, there is a huge danger for these creators that are not targeting real children (8 years or younger) will get caught in the massive net the FTC is throwing.

 

[UKHypnotist]

@Jungle Explorer

I'm very sorry; but the fact that your poll title says "in order to remain monetized" combined with the fact that this is a YouTube-specific forum, makes it appear to be the exact opposite.

Also,

Since the FTC is not talking about the intent of the content but rather if it is "Attractive" or "Appealing" to 13-year-old children, there is a huge danger for these creators that are not targeting real children (8 years or younger) will get caught in the massive net the FTC is throwing.

Considering that according to the YouTube Terms of Service no one under the age of 13 should be using the site in the first place, and those between 13-16 should be under parental supervision, the FTC may find itself in a "spot of trouble" so to speak if an accused channel owner has a savvy lawyer.

All such a defense lawyer would need to do is make sure that the channel owner had specified in his or her COPPA settings that they never upload content aimed at children, and the FTC would be "hoisted on its own petard".

 

[Jungle Explorer]

@Jungle Explorer

I'm very sorry; but the fact that your poll title says "in order to remain monetized" combined with the fact that this is a YouTube-specific forum, makes it appear to be the exact opposite.

Also,

Considering that according to the YouTube Terms of Service no one under the age of 13 should be using the site in the first place, and those between 13-16 should be under parental supervision, the FTC may find itself in a "spot of trouble" so to speak if an accused channel owner has a savvy lawyer.

All such a defense lawyer would need to do is make sure that the channel owner had specified in his or her COPPA settings that they never upload content aimed at children, and the FTC would be "hoisted on its own petard".

I agree with you about the stupidity of what the FTC is doing. It violates all sense of reason and rational thinking. The COPPA law is about preventing the collection of personal information on children. Nothing about creating content violates the COPPA law in any way, shape, form, or matter. To punish YouTubers for the ads that Youtube places on their content, is as dumb and evil as punishing the road paver because a criminal drove on it. YouTubers are not harvesting kids data and we are not placing ads on our content. That is done by Google and YT not the creator.

I believe that if the FTC really tries to fine a YouTuber for the ads that YouTube places on their content, that is will be challenged in court and the FTC will lose. This is a tremendous overreach of government power. Now many argue that this is being done to protect children's privacy, but I challenge anyone to rationally explain how fining a content creator that does not, and has no ability to harvest children's personal data, actually protects children in any way. And even some could find some twisted rationale for it, it is still an exercise in injustice and a violation of human rights to punish innocent people for the crimes that others commit that they have no control over.

There are much simpler ways to handle this with unjustly punishing innocent people. First, the blame should be put on those who are actually responsible. The people that are really at fault here are the parents and guardians of the children, because they are letting their children use YouTuber proper, instead of making them use YouTube for Kids. All, YouTube has to do is force all account holders to sign a sworn statement that they are over 13 and that they will not let children under 13 have access to their account. YouTube also needs to move all kid's content off of YT proper on to a separate service for kids.

The issue here is that YT KNEW that they were serving targeted ads to children and was actively soliciting advertisers buy ad space to target get this sub-13-year-old market. YT was greedy and got caught with their pants down. They are still greedy and are trying to find a way to still make money off of kids content by simply passing the buck onto the creator to be responsible for where they place ads. Sure there were a lot of kids content creators that were making money off this (and knew they were), but they were not the ones actually committing the crime.

If YT would simply move all kids content over to YT kids so that it is inaccessible from YT main, then children would not use the main YT app to watch videos and be exposed to targeted ads. This is a drop dead simple solution to the problem. So why is this not what is being done? Because YT is greedy and wants to keep serving targeted ads to kids and making money off of them, so they have now made the creator responsible if that happens.

 

[UKHypnotist]

@Jungle Explorer

Ok, I agree with you on those points. My problem is that I've neither seen nor heard anything indicating that the FTC has plans to fine creators directly. Plus with YouTube creators residing all over the world, and the FTC not having worldwide jurisdiction to the best of my knowledge, how do they plan to persue the fining of creators outside the USA?

Could you please name and/or link the information source which led you to this conclusion?

 

[Jungle Explorer]

Well, YouTube is an American company and so it is under U.S. jurisdiction. A large number of channels are U.S. based as well. While I don't think that the U.S. can enforce the COPPA law against channel owners in other countries, they can certainly force YT to immediately delete any channel that they claim is in violation.

Did you watch the video I posted in the OP? That Derral is a top YouTuber. He has released several videos since that one where he interviews lawyers about this. Here is another video from him.

Here a link to the more info about this.

Complying with COPPA: Frequently Asked Questions

A GUIDE FOR BUSINESS AND PARENTS AND SMALL ENTITY COMPLIANCE GUIDE The following FAQs are intended to supplement the compliance materials available on the FTC website. In addition, you may send questions or comments to the FTC staff’s COPPA mailbox, CoppaHotLine@ftc.gov.

www.ftc.gov

Google Is Fined $170 Million for Violating Children’s Privacy on YouTube (Published 2019)

As part of a settlement, YouTube said it would also institute new privacy measures on children’s videos. Critics said the changes did not go far enough to protect children.

www.nytimes.com

 

[UKHypnotist]

I'm watching it now; however I must admit that I deleted all of my subscriptions to so-called "YouTube channel growth gurus" about the time of the great demonetization of Feb 2018.

What the FTC is proposing may look good on paper; but going after individual creators in order to fine them will take court supoenas for personal information; and where the creator is living outside of US jurisdiction, since the original COPPA has not been amended to include "content that appeals to children", and cannot be so amended is it would be outside the core scope of the Act in question, I still don't see how fines will be enforced at the International level; unless the FTC is either willing to have agents visit every country, or since these fines might be considered a criminal penalty, willing to have mass extraditions set up.

Could you please talk to a lawyer about this yourself and see if this is even feasible at an international level?

 

[UKHypnotist]

Here is a voice of reason....

 

[Jungle Explorer]

Here is a voice of reason....

I don't disagree with him completely, but he is missing a huge point. This is absolutely not about things "Changing" on YouTube. This is about a completely new thing that has never ever happened before. This is about a YouTuber facing the clear and real threat of $42,000 fines for ads that YouTube place on your content. I dare him to show me when that has happened before. No, he completely ignores the real-life destroying threat.

He is right that this is not a time to delete all your content, but it is also not a time to think that this is just another minor adjustment in the YT algorithm. No, this is major serious and could be life-ending for some people. This is not a game.

He is also dead wrong that people should just bend over and just take this. This is a major abuse of power by the Federal Government and it is an injustice on the level of insanity. I don't know about your government, but our government is supposed to stand for justice and is not supposed to unfairly punish innocent people for crimes they did not commit. Making kids content is not a crime. Placing targeted ads on kid's content is, Fining creators for the ads YT places on their content, is a crime against justice and the foundations of our country. No American should be quite and just bend over and take it.

I think this guy has it right.