Tarmack
Rhetorical Porcupine
Kevin, here's the best I can do for advice.
ContentID can only match exact to exact which makes it not very good at matching video but exceptional at matching audio. This is why basic gameplay never gets matched but cutscenes do. Simply because the gameplay video and audio is different every single time and no system can really automatch to that. Content Owners who are not video game specific are much more rigid in this regard because they're often using content in their games that mirror movie content as you have discovered.
My usual workflow is to first turn off the in-game music as this is the most likely to be matched. Keep the sound effects because those are in most cases fine, but ensure the music is off as it is often farmed out to various distributors like AudioMicro and others who will claim it even though they shouldn't. From there, when you're recording always try to run a timer (I keep episodes around 15 minutes each) and when a cutscene comes up, just mark down the time. Then drop it into Windows Movie Maker or whatever editing software you use and pull the cutscenes out. It's worthwhile to have your son stop talking during those bits as well just so the viewer doesn't get a disjointed experience if you're cutting the content out. Now, you've got a video with no cutscenes and no music but still has all of the gameplay, sound effects and your sons' voice for commentary. Now there's essentially nothing for ContentID to match.
It's cool to focus on Indie games and if he enjoys that, then that's great. Be cautious with the music as well though just in case because sometimes indie games also use music that either comes from or was given to distributors. At 7, editing a video may be difficult for him to do on his own but it's a good age for him to start learning it, so perhaps if he really wants to do a big budget game, you could make sure he knows it's more work and that he has to help you do it. My GF has a 10 year old son who doesn't have his own YouTube channel yet but I've been considering doing the same with him. He's big into Minecraft which has no copyright concerns of any kind but I'm sure he'd like to do other games too.
If he didn't actually get a copyright strike from the video being blocked (and you would be notified if he did) then at the moment all is fine. However, even if he did get a strike it's not the end of the world. The channel will be shut down after 3 active strikes and strikes fall off after 6 months, so if one did happen you just need to be more careful for a while.
Also, just in case you were thinking of going the network route, it will not help with this issue. Networks don't provide any assistance when it comes to ContentID claims.
ContentID can only match exact to exact which makes it not very good at matching video but exceptional at matching audio. This is why basic gameplay never gets matched but cutscenes do. Simply because the gameplay video and audio is different every single time and no system can really automatch to that. Content Owners who are not video game specific are much more rigid in this regard because they're often using content in their games that mirror movie content as you have discovered.
My usual workflow is to first turn off the in-game music as this is the most likely to be matched. Keep the sound effects because those are in most cases fine, but ensure the music is off as it is often farmed out to various distributors like AudioMicro and others who will claim it even though they shouldn't. From there, when you're recording always try to run a timer (I keep episodes around 15 minutes each) and when a cutscene comes up, just mark down the time. Then drop it into Windows Movie Maker or whatever editing software you use and pull the cutscenes out. It's worthwhile to have your son stop talking during those bits as well just so the viewer doesn't get a disjointed experience if you're cutting the content out. Now, you've got a video with no cutscenes and no music but still has all of the gameplay, sound effects and your sons' voice for commentary. Now there's essentially nothing for ContentID to match.
It's cool to focus on Indie games and if he enjoys that, then that's great. Be cautious with the music as well though just in case because sometimes indie games also use music that either comes from or was given to distributors. At 7, editing a video may be difficult for him to do on his own but it's a good age for him to start learning it, so perhaps if he really wants to do a big budget game, you could make sure he knows it's more work and that he has to help you do it. My GF has a 10 year old son who doesn't have his own YouTube channel yet but I've been considering doing the same with him. He's big into Minecraft which has no copyright concerns of any kind but I'm sure he'd like to do other games too.
If he didn't actually get a copyright strike from the video being blocked (and you would be notified if he did) then at the moment all is fine. However, even if he did get a strike it's not the end of the world. The channel will be shut down after 3 active strikes and strikes fall off after 6 months, so if one did happen you just need to be more careful for a while.
Also, just in case you were thinking of going the network route, it will not help with this issue. Networks don't provide any assistance when it comes to ContentID claims.