Of course the owner of the biggest kids niche MCN is going to tell us that everything will be ok in a year or two... her company's livelihood depends on it. She hasn't slept because she's probably been making the same empty promises to her clients and advertisers. There are zero signs that anything positive is coming. YouTube has not taken any opportunity that they could have to provide us with promise of a light at the end of the tunnel. (P.S. Melissa - watermarks can be a significant source of subs and there are very unique ways of using them that you should probably be educating your clients about).
Whew! that was a painful watch. I think she is right though. Just not my style of communication. She does make some excellent points, except that I don't hate and never hated kids channels, and I am one of those mature content creators that have worked my butt off trying to scrounge up a couple of million views in three years in a very narrow niche. Dare I say less popular niche targeted at a very small subset of the American population. I doubt I will have reach million subs, because I don't think there are a million people in the US that would watch my stuff. When I went on socialblade for the first time and saw that the highest-rated YouTube channel was "COOCMELON", with like 30million subs, sure I was infuriated. But then I thought about it. Kids watch the same thing over and over again, and a lot of parents slap on a video in loop mode to babysit there toddlers for hours. I raised three kids and I can quote the Lion King line for line, let me tell you. I am a grandpa and I can sing every word of songs in The Little Mermaid. I have watch Cars so many times babysitting my autistic grandson in the last couple of years, I know every word in it. So, after I realized why kids channels got so many views I was like, "Good for them". I thought it over and tod myself, "I can change who I am to make content that will go viral. But will I be happy?" The clear answer is "NO".
So guys, I feel for you. I really do. I am fighting for you guys, not for me. I think I am pretty safe. But ever since I was a child, I hated injustice. In elementary school, I was a self-appointed playground monitor. If I saw a bully picking on a smaller kid I stepped in to defend the little kid. If I saw boys mistreating girls, I stepped in. I never threw a punch in my life, but I have pinned many of bullies to the ground until they gave in. I was fortunate that my older brother was a collegiate wrestler and I was his training buddy, so I knew a lot about how to hold people without injuring them.
There has always been something in me that rises up when I see injustice. My mother always said that I have a Crusader spirit. What is being done to these children's channel is injustice on a level I have never seen before in the US, and if I had the power, I would end it. I have some calls out to my political contacts and I am trying to raise the alarm at the congressional level, but this whole impeachment thing is just consuming everything, I wonder if the FTC has chosen to do this specifically at this time because Congress is so distracted that they will not take notice of the massive Constitutional violation and overreach of power that the FTC is committing.
Bottom line my legal contacts have taken a look at the situation and after recovering from fits of uncontrolled laughter and disbelief at how utterly stupid what the FTC is doing is, they have assured me that the FTC's position of finning Content Creators if ad companies run targeted ads on their content, will NEVER stand up in court. They predict that it will quickly be challenged and overturned by a Federal Judge. Now what this will do will protect us from the insane fines the FTC is threatening, but it will just place more burden on YT to monitor where they show ads, so this will make it even more difficult for children's content.
I believe at the end of the day, this is where this is all headed. YT will eventually have to verify every YT account against a real form of identification like a credit card. They will have to make account holders to swear to not share their account with children, and threaten to fine them (against their credit card) if they see unusual child activity on their account. All child content will be moved to YT Kids and be inaccessible from the normal YT app or channel.
All the above is my guess, but here is one thing I know for certain. Without money, the content goes away, without content, YouTube DIES. So youtube has a real vested interest in making sure that you kids content creators do not disappear. Like it or not, kid's content is the lifeblood of YT's fortune. YT's survival is tied to you. They will find a way to keep you happy.
As for my, I am not important and nobody needs me around. I know that. But I will fight for justice for you guys anyway because that is who I am.
