We're only a couple weeks away from changes that will happen with YouTube when the new year begins. I am by no means a lawyer, so here's what I've thought about in regards to this whole situation from watching videos and reading articles on this.
I don't see the FTC targeting nearly everyone that does videos as some YouTubers have said. There has to be huge concrete evidence to show that content is directly for kids. But the FTC is not forcing YouTube to do a multitude of things in order to comply with the rules they broke back in September. The one thing they were told to do is have content creators say whether this stuff is for kids or not. But both sides still have to figure out what exactly is for kids because most don't know.
They are not going to fine people 42,000 dollars for each video, either. They are going to look and review them. I'll assume they will target obvious red flags. The FTC does know that adults will watch old cartoons and it will be a case by case basis. They know about video games to a point as mentioned in some videos. It does come off as a gray area type of scenario. I believe they will target Minecraft, modern Nintendo games, Fortnite, and a few other games that are hot along with specific aspects that might be construed as targeting kids. They are aware that just because there's bright colors, it doesn't mean you will automatically be in trouble. I don't think they will target small channels like me and many others, but who knows.
One dreadful aspect again is the algorithm. I've said it before, but it typically doesn't work for YouTube. This kind of mechanism can make a lot of false positives for stuff that doesn't fall into the made for kids area. I know some want a mixed audience button, but I'm not sure if its possible. Not because they refuse, but because how much of your audience is for adults and kids. I'm not sure if it could work. Also, making videos made for kids non-existent will make things worse and kids trying to find content will be troublesome. And not every content creator wants to make adult videos. By that, anything that could be for teens and up.
YouTube has also worked on updating their harassment policies. They are focusing on video creators who insult people based on race, gender, sexual orientation, and it doesn't matter whether the person is famous or not. I think they are looking for the extreme type of people, but it will trickle down to many "ranters" who think they have the freedom to say whatever they want in their video. I'm sure they'll target a lot of comments, whether it's from content creators or not. There's a difference between speaking your thoughts and getting into hate speech. I'm willing to bet most are in the latter. And that's why they are frustrated. YouTube has to police content. They're sterilizing it, but if they want people to keep coming, they have to abide by stuff and work on fixing things. Only now are they trying to make the site better in terms of avoiding hate controversy.
I don't have much else to talk about. I don't think most people will be in trouble with COPPA, but some clarifications could help. And the harassment type videos and content is kind of a necessary thing to look at and remove. Especially with the election in less than a year, we don't need nut jobs on both sides. Hopefully a healthier YouTube is the goal for 2020.
No comments:
Post a Comment