COPPA: The End of YouTube?

The end of YouTube?

Creators across the globe are in a frenzy about the upcoming change to YouTube policy because it may put and end to thousands of channels. What is this change? COPPA. Will it be the end of YouTube?

What exactly is COPPA?

The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, COPPA, is a law created in 1998 which prevents digital entities from collecting personal information from users under the age of 13 without parental consent. Seems harmless enough on the surface, but the devil is in the details.

YouTube had to pay nearly $200 million to the FTC and the New York attorney general for being found in violation of this law. As a result, YouTube will now be requiring all of its creators to designate if their videos are intended for children. Failing to do so can result in fines of up to $42,530 PER VIDEO.

The real kicker is the vagueness of this designation. What determines whether or not a video is targeting children? YouTube videos designated for kids will not be able to include targeted advertising. Several other features will also be disabled, including: comments, channel branding watermarks; the “donate” button; cards and end screens; live chat and live chat donations; notifications; and “save to playlist” or “watch later” features. Pretty much everything. To make matters worse, the kid-video designation will also make them unsearchable. The implications of this are obvious – Gaming channels, channels with animated content, toy reviews, toy unboxing channels and many other genres will no longer be able to monetize. Content creators may vacate the platform in favor of others.

What can be done about this?

Maybe nothing. YouTube updated it’s terms and conditions to state that content creators are legally responsible for what they post – this was likely done to keep COPPA off of their backs when channels in violation of the law are discovered. The FTC is accepting feedback from content creators, however and so far a petition with 600,000 signatures has been created and over 100,000 creators have replied to the FTC with their thoughts.

What are your thoughts on this issue? Do you think affected creators will be leaving the platform?

Author: Donnell Peavy