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Upcoming changes to kids content on YouTube.com 4 Recommended Answers 777 Replies 7041 Upvotes
Last edited 1/6/20
1/6/20 Announcement
Starting today, certain features that rely on user data, such as comments and personalized advertising, will no longer be available on content made for kids. This is to comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). You can see a full list of features that will be limited or turned off on content that is made for kids in this Help Center article.
You can read more on the YouTube blog and we’ll continue to keep this thread updated with answers to top questions.
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*** 11/12/19 ACTION REQUIRED FOR ALL CREATORS - COMPLYING WITH COPPA ***
Note: Regardless of your location, all creators are legally required to comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act and/or other laws.
Starting today, all creators will be required to indicate whether or not their content is made for kids. To help you do this, we’re rolling out a new audience setting in YouTube Studio.
We’ll also use machine learning to help us identify kids content – so don’t be alarmed if your audience has already been set for you by YouTube. You should still review your videos and make sure the audience setting is correct for all content on your channel. If you need help determining whether or not your content is made for kids, see our Help Center or consult legal counsel.
Starting in January, we’ll limit the data we collect on made for kids content to comply with the law. This means we’ll start disabling certain features like comments, notifications, and others. You may see some small changes before then as we experiment and refine our systems over the next few months. These tests help us find potential issues and fix them before rolling out more broadly, and is standard practice for platform changes.
More info to help get you started with today’s YouTube Studio updates:
- To bulk update all existing videos at once and set a default for future uploads, use the channel level setting. Go to Settings > Channel > Advanced settings > Audience and then choose an option that best describes your channel. Detailed instructions here.
- If some of your videos don’t align with your channel-level setting, you can select a different setting at the video level. Go to Videos > Select video(s) > Edit > Audience. Detailed instructions here.
- Even creators who don’t make content for kids should set their audience as “not made for kids” at the channel level. This also helps ensure our automated systems make the right decisions for your videos.
- For videos with an audience setting of made for kids, personalized ads will show as disabled in YouTube Studio starting today, but personalized ads won’t actually be disabled until we start testing and rolling out the changes to limit data collection (which is happening separately).
For more, check out this YouTube Creators video and our Help Center.
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9/4/19 Announcement
Today we announced important steps we’re taking to help us better protect data on kids content on YouTube. This includes several upcoming changes to kids content on YouTube.com that will go into effect in the upcoming months. You can read the full update on the YouTube blog.
We’ll keep this thread updated with answers to top questions, and any additional information and resources over the coming months.
- Sarah (TeamYouTube)
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Q: Will creators that make content made for kids still be able to monetize?
If you create content made for kids, your videos may still be eligible for non personalized ads (ads that are shown based on context rather than on user data). This Help Center article outlines some types of non personalized ads under “Content targeting”.
Last edited 9/7/19
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Q: What if my content is applicable to a wide audience, but is not “Made for Kids” specifically?
A video that is safe/appropriate for all ages is not necessarily made for kids. If your content is for all audiences (aka "family friendly") but does not target kids, it may be considered general audience and doesn't need to be marked as made for kids. For example, if your video targets adults (anyone over 13) and children incidentally enjoy it, it’s likely not made for kids.
According to the FTC, your content isn’t considered “directed to children” just because some children may see it. The FTC issued additional guidance on this topic today actually, check it out here.
Q: Does marking my video as “not made for kids” mean it’s only suitable for adults?
If you set your audience as not made for kids, this does not mean that it's only suitable for audiences 18+, nor does it mean we’re going to age restrict your content. The audience setting was exclusively created to help you comply with COPPA and other children's privacy laws – age restriction is a separate setting that might be enabled when a video doesn't violate our policies, but may have content that's only appropriate for audiences that are 18+. You can read more about age-restricted content here.
Last edited 11/23/19
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Adding some FAQs here to address the top questions:
Q: Why is YouTube doing this?
These changes address concerns raised by the U.S. FTC regarding compliance with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). If you are interested in sharing your view on COPPA, the
FTC is receiving comments on its website until Dec 9.Q: How do I use the audience setting? Why am I not seeing it?
To set your audience as “Made for Kids” or not, you'll need to use YouTube Studio (you won't be able to do so in Creator Studio Classic). You can either set your audience at the channel level, or the video level. To set at the channel level, In YouTube Studio, Go to Settings > Channel > Advanced settings > Audience and then choose an option that best describes your channel. Detailed instructions here.
To set the audience of a video or videos in bulk, go to the Video tab of YouTube Studio > Select video(s) > Edit > Audience. For more detailed instructions, check out this Help Center guide.
Q: Isn’t this what the YouTube Kids app is for?
YouTube.com has always been for people 13 and up, while the YouTube Kids app is for kids under 13 to watch independently. But, we can’t control how people and families use YouTube.com together. We’re making these changes to ensure our data practices for all content made for kids are protecting kids’ privacy.
Q: Should family vloggers mark their content as “Made for Kids”?
Some family vloggers make content for kids while others target parents and adults. You can learn more about what content is made for kids here or seek legal counsel for more advice.
Q: Does this impact Minecraft or gaming videos? / Should gaming content be marked as “Made for Kids”?
While different games appeal to different audiences, think about whether the content you’ve created, itself, is directed towards kids, not just the audience of the game you’re playing in a video, alone. Remember: COPPA applies to all videos on YouTube, including gaming content. For more information on determining whether content is made for kids, see the FTC’s guidance. You may also want to consult a lawyer.
Q: How does your system / algorithm define content as “Made for Kids”?
Our system is using the factors set forth by the FTC to identify “Made for Kids” content. For example, it’s working to identify videos that focus on subject matter or content that is designed for kids, like those that have an emphasis on kids’ characters, themes, toys, or games. You can find more examples here.
Q: How do I get into the YouTube Kids app?
While this isn’t about the YouTube Kids app, we’re happy to explain a little bit more about how to be included there. Content for the YouTube Kids app must be family-friendly (we use a mix of automated filters, user feedback, and human review to determine this). There’s no way to guarantee that your content will appear in YouTube Kids – “Creating for Families” guide is designed to help creators develop programming that will be eligible for YouTube Kids and resonate with family and kid audiences.
Q: Do I have to mark my old videos as “Made for Kids” or “Not Made for Kids”?
Yes, you can bulk update all existing videos at once and set a default for future uploads using the channel level audience setting in YouTube Studio. Here are detailed instructions.
If you don’t want to set your audience at the channel level, but you do want to set videos in bulk, go to the Video tab of YouTube Studio > Select video(s) > Edit > Audience. More details are in the Help Center guide here.
Hope this helps!
Last edited 11/23/19
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YouTube submitted its comment on COPPA to the FTC, as part of the FTC’s public comment period. To read about the comment, check out the blog here.
As a reminder, we are required by COPPA to enforce changes on made for kids content in January:
- You should set your audience as made for kids or not at the channel or video level if you haven’t yet.
- The most up to date guidance can be found in this post or the help center.
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The FTC released more guidance for YouTube creators with some helpful tips to determine if your content is made for kids or not -- check it out here.
Below are some important pieces we wanted to highlight:
Q: Is animated content considered made for kids?
According to the FTC, just because your video has bright colors or animated characters doesn’t mean you’re automatically covered by COPPA / made for kids. While many animated shows are directed to kids, the FTC recognizes there can be animated programming that appeals to everyone. You can read more from the FTC here.
Q: Kids *might* watch my content, does that mean its made for kids?
According to the FTC, your content isn’t considered “directed to children” just because some children may see it. You can read more from the FTC here.
Q: How can I see who watches my videos?
According to the FTC, it might help to consider how others view your content and content similar to yours. Has your channel been reviewed on sites that evaluate content for kids? Is your channel – or channels like yours – mentioned in blogs for parents of young children or in media articles about child-directed content? Have you surveyed your users or is there other empirical evidence about the age of your audience? You can read more from the FTC here.
Q: Will the FTC fine me if I don’t accurately set my audience?
The Rule allows for civil penalties of up to $42,530 per violation, but the FTC considers a number of factors in determining the appropriate amount, including a company’s financial condition and the impact a penalty could have on its ability to stay in business. You can read more from the FTC here. Last edited 12/11/19
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Welp. No children for me. Jokes aside I can see this being helpful for parents
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My channel is entirely dedicated to children,
And you are basically saying that we will not be able to monetize content for kids? after years of work and millions of subscribers? YouTube kids income is insignificant compared to the YouTube platform, it will not be worth adding material for such a small income.the real affected are the producers because of your lack of control or rather your hunger for control ...
We would like to know what solutions are you going to give ? many of your most important channels are for children and by eliminating profits I don't think it is still business.
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Get a job, Eric. YouTube owes you nothing.
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Its pretty good but hello
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Everyone can see my video.remove made for kids videos setting please sir
Last edited 4 days ago
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