So I'm sure those of you using YouTube are aware, COPPA's family friendly content laws will be taking over the site by December 10th, requiring users to labeling their videos as safe and not safe for young viewers. The catch is that they're using bots to tell the difference between the videos regardless of labeling the videos, and only just recently it's been said that there will be a $42 thousand fine for each video that goes against this content. Because I'm being taken away my freedom of uploading more teen rated content, I've decided to delete every single one of my videos from my channel and move them over to the YouTube alternative video hosting site, Bitchute, just to be on the safe side if my kid friendly videos are labeled as inappropriate, and I highly suggest everyone else with a channel do the same unless an update develops that COPPA has been overturned from YouTube. It's been causing nothing but stress for me lately and I haven't gotten much sleep because of it. I'm not stopping you if you don't want to, but I don't want to see other channels getting terminated for all the wrong reasons because of this new partnership.

As far as the $42 thousand fine goes for each video, I'm not that concerned about that. FTC has actually stated that they don't have the means to go after every single video that is some sort of violation of COPPA. If they somehow did, it would lead to tons of lawsuits and court orderings that would be too much for the FTC to deal with. If you want to shut down your channel, and delete your videos because of this, go right ahead. I'm not going to be doing it with my channel either way. I plan on keeping my videos up, and even if something were to happen, I have most of them backed up on my computer anyway. I feel like people are freaking out too much over that small section, and are deleting all their videos from their channel out of fear of these new rules. Unless you're really purposely breaking to the rules to a high standard, I don't think they're going to fine you.

My concern has less to do with COPPA, and more so to do with how Youtube is going to implement machine learning to regulate COPPA. The same type of machine learning that has caused the ad-pocylipse a few years ago, where a lot of big Youtube channels were hit due to the algarithm detecting certain topics that's not considered "advertiser friendly", and many channels had to start up Patreons. That's what my concern is. I know Youtube claims that their machine learning only detects videos that are obviously mean't for children, but there's already a few instances of videos flagged as kid friendly that clearly isn't. Machine learning is still in a bit of a primative state, and Youtube, and other sites like Facebook, seem to continue to implement it. Because of this, a lot of videos get wrongfully flagged due to AI detection.

I've dealt with government regulations long enough to understand that there are some that you must absolutely comply with, and others that you can negotiate your way around. Like blue said, there is just no way for the government to adjudicate every instance of failure to fully comply with these rules. This fine is clearly meant to be a scare tactic to those who would willfully disregard the requirements. Not for some poor soul who didn't understand and thought he/she did what was necessary.

i've already heard about channels getting terminated and demonetized though, and it's been having me concerned ever since. i don't like how corporate youtube has become now. i just want to play it safe and migrate my videos over elsewhere. i never joined youtube for gaining popularity anyway.

Can't you simply have them posted both places?

Benjanime wrote :

i've already heard about channels getting terminated and demonetized though, and it's been having me concerned ever since. i don't like how corporate youtube has become now. i just want to play it safe and migrate my videos over elsewhere. i never joined youtube for gaining popularity anyway.

-end

if it means the videos getting potentially removed from youtube themselves i really see no point.

You can, but there's really no point in maintaining a YouTube channel if your videos are going to be constently flagged and removed for various things. It's also just not worth it anymore since monetization has become literally non-existent since the adpocalypse first struck in 2017.

Vaporman87 wrote :

Can't you simply have them posted both places?

-end quote

because i haven't really been getting anywhere with my previous statements, i'd like to use this video as an example of how youtube is slowly destroying channels. this user in particular known as amber is also part of two different youtube channels, one for her husband, luke who focuses on doing gameplay videos on mature themed games as well as making comic book related discussions, and both her and her husband's kid friendly video gaming channel, kwings' let's plays. the video here belongs to her own channel, kwife's gaming life where she does her own personal let's plays as well as blog videos.

now here's the dark turn that youtube had made for them. they've had to rely on the revenue they were making on their channels due to luke getting in a nasty car accident resulting in a pretty bad fracture that couldn't be healed and he could no longer work for money, and on top of that amber has to look after him daily. but because of youtube's bots cracking down on what content they're uploading they've gotten many false claims of their videos having inappropriate sounds or scenes leading to their channels to get demonetized and now they're just barely scraping up any income with patreon and twitch. notice the dark room that amber's in here because of this. she's even said on a past twitch stream that she broke into tears talking about this and how youtube has basically destroyed their career on the site and on top of it the two have had had to hide their depression with fake smiles during their video commentaries. i've supported these two ever since taking notice to their channels back in 2013 and it sucks seeing them getting dragged in the mud like this. the only thing that's keeping their channels afloat is game developers giving their only support with sending them review copies of new video games coming out, and that's it.

While I sympathize with the struggle of the couple in your example, I think it also shows the folly of relying on this kind of thing to make a living. Making videos of yourself playing games and expecting that to put food on the table the rest of your life is foolish.

Now, here you've said that the couple has suffered from the husband's injury and inability to work. That's why we have safety nets in place. Disability... welfare... food stamps... all kinds of assistance.

In my mind, it was only a matter of time before this whole "get rich off of YouTube" thing came crashing to the ground. It's ridiculous to think that people have made millions of dollars off of filming themselves doing mundane things. That's not how life works, and it was bound to catch up with us eventually.

Maybe it's just my Gen X mentality, but YouTube should be a hobby and nothing more. To go beyond that is to invite disaster. 

I mean, if you still support the site, more power to you. but I'm not gonna pay a fine just for content that I have uploaded. my decision is final and i'm moving my videos. I won't stand for this nonsense. i joined youtube to upload content, not babysit.

On one hand, I kind of agree that Youtube is not a very stable platform when it comes to making money to begin with. I've always said that the income that comes out from Youtube is not a sustainable source, and it's something that could get taken away in a heartbeat. I've known this back in 2008, and we've been seeing before with the ad-pocylipse, and what looks like we're going to be seeing now with kid friendly content, as that's who's going to be hit the most. I'm kind of on the belief that the money being made on Youtube should kind of be used as more of a secondary source of income as opposed to the primary source. If you are going to make it a primary source, then I would be sure there's a backup plan in case this fails.

But on the flipside of this, I also believe that a lot of the channels that is being kept alive is due to them being compensated for it. Yes, while Youtube is something that should be done as a hobby, and not to go straight into it expecting to make money, a lot of the channels that is still going today is primarily motivated due to the money they make on Youtube. Had it not been for that, we likely would have seen a lot of these big Youtubers fade away. There are some Youtube channels that I follow that I find to be very informative and enjoyable, and I don't think they'd be where they are had they not been compensated to keep going. It's a part of human nature: in order to keep going, you need to be compensated for it.