COPPA feelings

Once upon a time, in 1998 to be specific, The United State's Congress enacted the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which does pretty much what it says. It protects the private data of children under 13 that use online services and requires that content on the internet made for children abide by strict rules and regulations.

This is why pretty much every general online service out there, YouTube included, makes you check a box verifying that you are over 13 before allowing you to make an account.

In theory, YouTube is not meant to be used by anybody under the age of 13. In practice, as anybody that's seen a kid fixated on their parent's smartphone in the grocery store can tell you, we know that's not the case. "Baby Shark" didn't get nearly 4 billion views from teenagers and up.

More importantly though, YouTube knows it as well.

The plausible deniability of YouTube's age-gate went out the window when they went to toy manufacturers like Mattell and Hasbro, bragging about how popular their service is with the 2-12 demographic.

Not only does YouTube know full well that kids are watching their videos, they have been literally banking on it, generating millions of dollars in targeted advertising revenue on videos made for kids. It's how YouTube makes money in general. They build algorithms that track what users watch and target advertising at them. The algorithm doesn't care if you are three or 33.

As it turns out, the Federal Trade Commission isn't too keen on this sort of thing and YouTube ended up paying a $170 million settlement last September, an amount ten times larger than every civil penalty the FTC has collected on previous COPPA violations combined.

YouTube, likewise, isn't too keen on paying any more record-setting settlements. Thus, big changes are coming in order to make sure the company stays in compliance with COPPA and then some. A site-wide overhaul is underway where content creators are being asked to label their videos as either "for kids" or "not for kids."

So this is a good thing, right?

Probably not if you're a YouTuber or are the parent of a screaming three-year-old that wants nothing more in life than to be fixated on an animated nursery rhyme or a video of a kid unboxing a toy. If nothing changes, that kind of content is going to be a lot harder to find next year.

YouTube creators that make videos that explicitly appeal to kids are now required to label their videos as such. As a result, these videos will lose features like comments, the community tab, subscriber notifications, and the ability to add the video to a playlist. All of these features drive engagement, which is vital for videos trying to get noticed among the unending deluge of content uploaded every second of every day.

More importantly though, these videos will no longer be eligible for personalized advertising. This doesn't mean that kids won't be seeing ads on videos. It just means that when the Hasbro ad pops up before that toy unboxing video, it will be because Hasbro bought ad space on that video, not because they targeted the viewer directly. It won't be much of a difference for the viewer, but targeted ads generate vastly more revenue for content creators and losing them could mean a catastrophic loss of revenue for their channel.

Guess how many content creators are going to invest their time and energy into making videos that they won't get paid for on the off-chance anybody sees them in the first place? These aren't just hobbyists. These are small businesses that have producers and editors that need to be paid.

But it's not just explicitly kid-oriented channels under the knife either, largely because there isn't a strict definition of what a kid-oriented channel is or isn't.

The language of COPPA essentially leaves the definition up to the FTC, who will consider, among other things; the subject matter, the visual content, use of animated characters, music or other audio content, and celebrities that appeal to children.

If that seems super vague, that's because it is.

I can't imagine anybody that has seen "Rick and Morty" confusing it with something for kids, but if you made a parody video where they joined a barbershop quartet with Dwayne Johnson and Pewdiepie you've already hit at least three measures of the criteria.

Personally, I spent my Saturday editing together a video guide for "Resident Evil 2" for my own channel. Well, that's a video game and kids like video games. Sure, "Resident Evil 2" is an M-Rated game but do I trust the FTC to be able to make that distinction?

What if I decided to make a similar guide for "Pokemon Sword?"

Pokemon is a nostalgic franchise. It appeals to 30-somethings like me just as much as it appeals to kids. There is a virtual ton of Pokemon content on YouTube. Most of it is made by people who make their living creating videos for audiences that are largely adult.

How about any video having to do with "The Avengers?" They're pretty popular with everybody, kids included. And as the FTC's FAQ states, "If your service targets children as one of its audiences – even if children are not the primary audience – then your service is 'directed to children.'"

FTC Bureau Director Andrew Smith has declared that the FTC will be sweeping YouTube for compliance and will hold individual creators liable for videos they unilaterally decide are "for kids." Considering the virtual non-existence of a clear legal definition of "kids content" it's hard to say how strong a case the FTC could make against a creator, particularly since individual channels aren't the ones collecting data, but I'd hate to be the one that tests that in court.

It's ironic. For years YouTube has been urging creators to create content that is as safe as possible in order to satisfy advertisers. News videos, videos about controversial subjects, and even videos with strong language are de-monetized en masse, creating a financial incentive to be appealing to all audiences.

Now creators are being hit from the other side, threatened with legal penalties for making content that is too appealing for general audiences.

YouTube gets 30 million visitors a day. It'd be nice if they could figure out who content creators are supposed to be making content for.

Travis Fischer is a news writer for Mid-America Publishing and is usually kid-friendly, but not explicitly for kids.