Privacy, Stolen Videos, Fake Channel, Youtube will not help

[Kath]

Hi everyone,
It's been a while since I've been here. I am in dire need of help I let my son have a Youtube channel, he's only 10 years old. I thought I was doing everything right, gave him a list of rules, watched everything he was making, no swearing etc etc....
Well someone made a fake channel copying his. They made a terrible video which got taken down for hate speech (a lot of swearing, go 'f' yourself, kill yoursellf etc) But they also uploaded 4 of my sons videos. I have reported the channel twice and Youtube has done nothing to take it down. I'm so distressed about it, as this person keeps commenting on other videos too. Everyone knows now it is not my son doing it, but it's still disheartening.

My son is locked out of his own channel because he forgot his password :/ believe me I have tried everything to recover it.

How do I get this imposter channel taken down when I have reported it twice now?
I no longer have an option to report it. Youtube is really disappointing in this regard. I will not post links as I don't want my sons old channel out there. Thanks.

*Update* I just reported the channel again for impersonation. This will be the 3rd time now. I will report it everyday until it gets taken down. So ridiculous.

 

[V3XL0R]

When I did YouTube back in like 2011 or so, I found that someone had taken one of my videos and reuploaded it to their channel. When i saw this, I immediately reported the video (back then, they had you select one of your videos on your channel as proof that you were the real owner of it). Theoretically, that person's channel should get taken down because of copyright infringement (pirating too) and impersonation of another person. If you're with a network, I suggest going to them about this because they have a lot more tenure with YouTube. One thing I should ask you is... did you ever make yourself a manager or owner on his YouTube channel? In the future, if you're going to allow him to make videos again, I suggest making yourself a manager or owner on his YouTube channel (or at least making a channel under your primary account and making your son a manager or owner of it so he can upload and such). I'm sorry to hear this is happening to you. Someone should do something about this.

 

[Kath]

When I did YouTube back in like 2011 or so, I found that someone had taken one of my videos and reuploaded it to their channel. When i saw this, I immediately reported the video (back then, they had you select one of your videos on your channel as proof that you were the real owner of it). Theoretically, that person's channel should get taken down because of copyright infringement (pirating too) and impersonation of another person. If you're with a network, I suggest going to them about this because they have a lot more tenure with YouTube. One thing I should ask you is... did you ever make yourself a manager or owner on his YouTube channel? In the future, if you're going to allow him to make videos again, I suggest making yourself a manager or owner on his YouTube channel (or at least making a channel under your primary account and making your son a manager or owner of it so he can upload and such). I'm sorry to hear this is happening to you. Someone should do something about this.

My son wasn't with a network or anything I didn't make myself a manager no. I really should have taken control right away when I found out he had a channel. Silly me, thinking he knew his password, sigh. He deleted a ton of his videos, but he didn't delete ALL of them. So half of them are still up (only his subscribers can see them I think) Ugh he just signed out so fast. If I could go back in time. Thanks for replying.

 

[KatyAdelson]

Welcome back, Kath! I'm sad to hear this is happening. I think the best thing to do is keep reporting it until YouTube gets their act together...

Have you tried this tool for removing content?
https://www.youtube.com/reportingtool/legal?visit_id=1-636332184941244369-348505726&rd=1

There is also their abuse report that can be used for flagging impersonation of a channel:
https://www.youtube.com/reportabuse

And the impersonation of an individual person report, which I think you've already said you have filled out:
https://support.google.com/youtube/contact/impersonation

Also, regarding the password, a lot of browsers can save the password in their security manager. Maybe there's a password in there -- or perhaps a recurring password from other sites that you can try using (or maybe it might jog his memory about what the password might be?). Also, I'm guessing he also forgot what email he used to sign up with his YouTube account? =/

 

[Kath]

Welcome back, Kath! I'm sad to hear this is happening. I think the best thing to do is keep reporting it until YouTube gets their act together...

Have you tried this tool for removing content?


There is also their abuse report that can be used for flagging impersonation of a channel:


And the impersonation of an individual person report, which I think you've already said you have filled out:


Also, regarding the password, a lot of browsers can save the password in their security manager. Maybe there's a password in there -- or perhaps a recurring password from other sites that you can try using (or maybe it might jog his memory about what the password might be?). Also, I'm guessing he also forgot what email he used to sign up with his YouTube account? =/

Thank you so much. I will definitely look into these. Yeah I've tried to get him to type things in...he cannot remember at all. I've tried every combination imaginable...as I knew part of the password. He also forgets his email password, sigh.

 

[Crown]

Hey Kath, welcome back. Great to see you again. ^^

How do I get this imposter channel taken down when I have reported it twice now?

Maybe you can log into your channel and contact support from that ? Since it is bigger and older than your son's, you should have access to email support with YouTube.

Maybe play the "worried mother card" and passively aggressively hint that they'd be responsible if anything bad happened (if they don't do anything about it) - The legal aspect should force them to take action, if nothing else.

Log into your channel, scroll all the way to the bottom, and click on help and you should have an "email" option:

Good luck.

 

[KatyAdelson]

Another idea (maybe more of a last resort...), if you want your son's content fully removed, perhaps you can tell YouTube his age. YouTube says channels must be created by users 13 years old or older:

In order to create a YouTube account, you must confirm that you’re at least 13 years old. If a video gets flagged and we find that the the uploader inaccurately stated their age during the account creation process, we will terminate their account.

https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2802272?hl=en

It sounded more like you wanted the imposter channel removed, but if your son can't remember his password or access his content anymore, then you could tell YouTube you're concerned that an under-aged child had a channel and now has an imposter re-uploading his content. It will probably shut down both channels, but maybe it will end a lot of frustration.

 

[MarkRodriguez2012]

Yeah, I don't think 10 year olds are allowed to have youtube channels. I hope taking down this impostor channel won't result in you losing yours in the process. I'd tell youtube it's YOUR channel and you let your kid use it, don't say it's his.

 

[Noobzilla]

think the best thing to do is keep reporting it until YouTube gets their act together...

While I feel for @Kath, I am happy that channels can't request for videos to be taken down unless it is from the affected account holder themselves. There is already a lot of abuse in the system when it comes to claims and letting third parties claim videos on the behalf of others would only make matters worse. I hope the son can figure out the password or find another solution soon, good luck