Massive drop in views on kid channels
- Thread starter dv2000
- Start date
MeachamLake
Active Member
It's interesting how YouTube is effectively letting us manually override their AI - the first time I can remember them doing this. No appeals, no manual reviews etc.
She makes it very clear in the video that it's ultimately creators - not YouTube - who decides if content is for kids. We hold the power.
Clearly this is YouTube trying to absolve itself of any legal responsibility. But theoretically, what would happen if every creator just ignored the AI? Would the FTC then individually take every single YouTuber to court? Unlikely!
She makes it very clear in the video that it's ultimately creators - not YouTube - who decides if content is for kids. We hold the power.
Clearly this is YouTube trying to absolve itself of any legal responsibility. But theoretically, what would happen if every creator just ignored the AI? Would the FTC then individually take every single YouTuber to court? Unlikely!
anonymousssss
Active Member
Absolving themselves is absolutely what is happening. Any questions? Talk to YOUR lawyer. Unsure? Talk to YOUR lawyer. Over and over again.
Don't agree with how we detected your video audience? Shrug, change it! The pretext seems to be, do whatever you want, we don't care if you get sued by FTC or not.
Don't agree with how we detected your video audience? Shrug, change it! The pretext seems to be, do whatever you want, we don't care if you get sued by FTC or not.
MeachamLake
Active Member
Maybe we should all change careers and go to law school!
Considering how broad the FTC's definition of 'child directed' content is - theoretically anything which holds appeal to under 13s - then they in theory should start suing everyone starting in January. I look forward to my day in court, although I suspect I will be waiting a while with 20 million other channels in the queue.
The cynic in me says that YouTube is intentionally going to make the AI flag as many videos as possible so that the kickback from high profile creators will become impossible for the FTC to ignore. *puts tin foil hat on*
anonymousssss
Active Member
Some random interesting observations:
I don’t wanna mention my channel. We get around 2 million views a day. We pivoted to more of a vlog setup immediately after the FTC announcement.
The videos we made post pivot were NOT automatically marked as For Kids. The ones we made prior to pivoting WERE automatically marked For Kids. This means that pivoting is indeed a viable strategy as long as your content is good and your subs are loyal.
The content dubbed For Kids automatically by YouTube’s AI were analyzed on a video level, NOT through keywords or title/description. We have some older content FILLED with keywords related to kids content that were not marked For Kids.
Which means frantically going back in your library and mass removing/mass altering tags will do nothing. Google is actually scraping videos frame by frame.
I don’t wanna mention my channel. We get around 2 million views a day. We pivoted to more of a vlog setup immediately after the FTC announcement.
The videos we made post pivot were NOT automatically marked as For Kids. The ones we made prior to pivoting WERE automatically marked For Kids. This means that pivoting is indeed a viable strategy as long as your content is good and your subs are loyal.
The content dubbed For Kids automatically by YouTube’s AI were analyzed on a video level, NOT through keywords or title/description. We have some older content FILLED with keywords related to kids content that were not marked For Kids.
Which means frantically going back in your library and mass removing/mass altering tags will do nothing. Google is actually scraping videos frame by frame.
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FamilyToyReview
Posting Mad!
I imagine it is tough selecting “this is not made for kids” for the new vlog videos knowing your base is made up of kid audience from previous videos. It seems like family vlogs would need to make mature videos. Its very confusing.
I think besides visual detection they use tags, titles and description as the number one way to detect. AI is still not perfect to know what's for kids and what's not. But if you mark your content 13+ you might loose traffic since it will not be recommended to kids anymore like it used to be. For isntance, it wont be in recommend next to peppa pig like it used to be.
Also ai will use previous user experiences. If your video was watched after peppa pig it is more likely a kid is watching and your video will be classified as a kid video
Redterrors
Loving YTtalk
Maybe we should all change careers and go to law school!
Considering how broad the FTC's definition of 'child directed' content is - theoretically anything which holds appeal to under 13s - then they in theory should start suing everyone starting in January. I look forward to my day in court, although I suspect I will be waiting a while with 20 million other channels in the queue.
The cynic in me says that YouTube is intentionally going to make the AI flag as many videos as possible so that the kickback from high profile creators will become impossible for the FTC to ignore. *puts tin foil hat on*
You are correct that the FTC will not be filing a lawsuit against numerous content creators. What will happen is channels in violation of failing to identify children's content will be reported to Youtube and Youtube will shut your channel down. If Youtube refuses, the US District Court for DC will be petitioned for Youtube to show cause as to why they are not in violation of the permanent injunction. Further punitive measures will be sought and the court can order Youtube to shut the channel down. Youtube has been ordered to comply with the government and submit compliance reports. Not only does Youtube have to develop a system to identify children's content, but they must take reasonable steps to ensure content creators are in compliance. If it is reported to Youtube that a channel creator is intentionally avoiding a designation of children's content, Youtube is just going to pull the plug on your channel. There is no reason for them to risk action against them to try to save your ad revenue. With the exception of a very few limited channels, you will have no recourse. If you want to play that game, have at it. There will be plenty of people helping to look for violations.
Redterrors
Loving YTtalk
Instead of trying to transition your channel and deceive the system, designate your content properly and show the FTC that kid content creators are law abiding small businesses that want to protect children, not hurt them. All of these stories about channels just doing it for the family bonding and they had no expectation of making money is really showing to be all bogus. It is all about the money. For those kid content creators that are proudly designating their channel and continuing to make quality content, good job. Youtube may not appreciate you, but parents and the United States government does.
anonymousssss
Active Member
Your replies are always empathetic, kudos for that
You’re right, it’s super tough. It feels like drawing a line in the sand, a conscious deliberate step away from a genre and style that have made us millions since our channel started. It’s frightening. But I remind myself that we are being forced— and, theoretically, we got very good at making videos—that ability to make content that has high retention should carry over to family content instead of kids content. The views will come. Just like they did when we first started and built a younger fan base.
I’m patient. It feels like starting over, and we choose to be excited about it. We’re having fun.