If you are interested in hearing a good explanation straight from the FTC attorney that wrote the complaint for permanent injunction, here you go. This isn't like the youtube videos that try to prepare you for a shocking discovery and then tell you absolutely nothing. It is a little dry, but it is straight facts and provides important context. Ms. Cohen is a very intelligent and talented attorney.
playlist.megaphone.fm
So I listened to this whole thing. Nothing in it is new information or goes against anything I have said. Plus, it is only a mere opinion piece, and not a legal discussion. The FTC person is giving her opinion, not a legal argument. She starts out stating the hardcore letter of the COPPA law and the case against youtube, but then veers off into left field and makes a bunch of unconnected statements that do not line up with her original statements. I am not sure why you felt this was useful, since this woman says almost the identical same things that Andrew Smith said in the video.
Don't get me wrong Red, I can learn, but you need to give me more than just some FTC person saying some stuff that makes no sense. Show me the actual letter of the COPPA law that says that Content Creators can be sued if they do not appropriately designate their content. Don't show me the YT settlement, because that is not law, that is not legally binding to anyone but YT. It just a simple fact that you cannot be held liable for not adhering to a contract that you did not agree to. If Ford Motor Company signed an agreement with the Federal government that their cars would not go over 55 MPH, then it is Ford's responsibility to make sure people don't drive Ford's cars over 55 MPH. If a cop pulls a person over in a Ford car that was doing 60 MPH, they cannot be fined for going over 55 MPH because of the contract that Ford signed. The only way they could be ticketed is if they were driving in a speed zone that was under 60, because that would have been in violation of a traffic law, but that has nothing to do with the contract that Ford signed. So, unless there is wording in the COPPA law that says something to this extent, "Failure to appropriately designate content intended for children under 13 years of age as such shall be subject to legal ramifications", then the clause in the YT settlement is only applicable to YT.
I am really not sure why this is so hard for you to understand and why you keep pushing this point. It's like you want content creators to be persecuted by the FTC. I feel like you are actually rooting for the FTC's abuse of power on this.
I know you feel like there are content creators that were intentionally taking advantage of the children's niche on youtube, and who were knowingly targeting kids with full understanding that they were profiting from YT violating COPPA. I feel like you at some level think that this, going after content creators, is good for a child privacy and this is at the root of why you really want the FTC to be able to fine YT content creators directly. At least, this certainly seems to be at the root of your efforts here. If it is not, please correct me and tell us what your true motivations are.
I have said this before, but I feel it is necessary to say it again. Here is where I stand. The COPPA law originally was about preventing the collection of personally identifiable information on children, without parental consent. I fully support this. My problem with what the FTC is doing is that, it does ZERO, ZIP, ZILCH, NADA to stop Google from collecting data on children. This attack by the FTC on private content creators is nothing more than putting a Speed Bump in the road to prevent street racing. It does nothing to stop it and just punishes everyone who was not doing anything wrong.
Here is my huge issue with it. It unjustly punishes EVERYONE for the crimes of a few. I absolutely hate, and utterly disagree with this whole idea of "Crime Prevention through regulation". I believe in "Crime prevention through the punishment of those who commit crime." This whole thing that the FTC is doing (that you apparently agree with) is effectively criminalizing everyone, in order to try to prevent a few people from acting badly. I realize that we are not talking about the legal definition of crime here, so please do not let the grammar nazi instinct (that many people are afflicted with) take over and distract you from the forest.
Yes, there may have been a few bad actors, but the majority of content creators were not doing anything wrong. But now, the FTC has effectively criminalized all these innocent people and threatened them with life-destroying punishment, if they do not kill their business. There were a few speeders on the road, so instead of punishing the speeders, the government punishes everyone driving on the road by putting in a huge speed bump that damages theirs car and forces them to go 5 MPH in a 30 MPH zone.
Can you see just how unjust this is? Why is it not the rational thing for the FTC to go after the people that are actually breaking the COPPA law and punish them? But you see, that is not what they are doing. They are trying to prevent people from breaking the COPPA law by punishing everyone else by making previously acceptable behavior, illegal. So instead of going after just the criminals, the FTC criminalized everyone in their effort to prevent the few criminals from breaking the law.
As far as the interview goes, that FTC spokeswoman is a communist. She believes that a family earning good money is a Big Problem. She states that the richest YT channel features a child that has made millions and then says, "This is a Big Problem". REALLY? Why is a family making good money such a big problem in your eye, Miss FTC woman? Only someone who is opposed to Capitalism would think that a family earning millions would be a "Big Problem". That FTC woman is a communist and evidently does not share our American value system that was best articulated by Abraham Lincoln when he said.
"
That some should be rich shows that others may become rich, and hence is just encouragement to industry and enterprise."
In the eyes of that FTC woman, becoming rich is a "Big Problem" that the FTC needs to take action against and discourage by attacking anyone that dares to attempt the same enterprise.
There is nothing wrong with children acting in films. There is nothing wrong with a family working together to start a profitable business. There is nothing wrong with making content directed at children for profit (Walt Disney). The ONLY, ONLY, ONLY, thing that is illegal here is the
COLLECTION of personally identifiable information on children without parental consent. No YT content creator IS DOING THAT!
Criminalizing content creators for not marking their content as "Chid-Directed", will not stop Google from collecting child data and using it. All it does is punish millions of innocent people for crimes that other people were committing, but it will do nothing to stop the few from continuing to commit that crimes the FTC wishes to prevent.
It is unjust, wrong, and stupid. It is also very un-American, as America is built on the idea of capitalism and free enterprise, and nothing is more in tune with that idea than a YT content creator trying to earn a living by starting a YT channel.
