YouTube's Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA) Manipulation. THEY are legally liable NOT YOU!
My content on YouTube is no longer available by my choice because I am not a fool. This new message and provided info from them regarding the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA) is filled with misinformation. In fact, they are blatantly not telling us the truth. Not even close. I'm going to show you what YouTube is telling everyone, what the COPPA rule ACTUALLY says, and I'm going to show you what the Settlement over COPPA with the FTC says. Let's take a look......
Here Is What YouTube Is Telling Content Providers....
I know it's hard to read but here is what it says:
"Regardless of your location, we require you to tell us whether or not your videos are made for kids. We are making these changes according to an agreement with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and to help you comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and/or other applicable laws. Failure to set your content appropriately may result in consequences on YouTube or have legal consequences under COPPA and other laws."
Here they tell you:
"Note: We’ll also use machine learning to help us identify videos that are clearly directed to young audiences. We trust you to set your audience accurately, but we may override your audience setting choice in cases of error or abuse. However, do not rely on our systems to set your audience for you because our systems may not identify content that the FTC or other authorities consider to be made for kids. If you need help determining whether or not your content is made for kids, check out this Help Center article or consult legal counsel."
We must set our audience or WE (content providers) could face compliance/legal issues they say:
"...you may face compliance issues with the FTC or other authorities, and we may take action on your YouTube account. Learn more about the FTC’s enforcement of COPPA."
They also just once in a brief statement reveal this:
"These changes are required as part of a settlement with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and NY Attorney General, and will help you comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and/or other applicable laws."
We will get to the settlement information in a moment. After all this fear porn I will call it, I looked at the COPPA Rule information and immediately noticed a problem with what YouTube is saying. Let's take a look!
Here Is What The COPPA Rule Actually Says...
So....this rule has been around since 2013. I guess we all didn't have to worry about it (until YouTube got in trouble as you will see).
AHH!!!!! It's about.......DATA MINING! Collecting personal information from a child under 13 without parental consent. BUT CONTENT PROVIDERS DO NOT COLLECT USER INFO! You see?
Notice the word operators. Who are the operators? NOT THE CONTENT PROVIDERS!!!! Yet YouTube's info gives you a link to this fine amount in the information stating that YOU must comply. No! THEY must comply. You see, not being honest. THEY must comply and need the content providers to help them stay out of trouble without changing their data mining ways, just tweak things a bit. That is the truth. They received a hefty fine as you will see and have to take action to prevent future violations. Why not just say that? Are they saying they will pass the fines down to the videos content providers on videos that children watch and are accidentally data mined by YouTube?
Again, this does not apply to content providers only the platform! I must state again, content providers are not gathering information about the under the age of 13 users and so can not violate this rule.
Here Is The Settlement Information......
$170 Million! Ah Ha! You See now? Why so much? Because it is $42,530 per violation. Just like HIPPA.
You notice the "child directed channels" reference here. You see? THIS is why YouTube needs us to label our videos now. NOT because WE would violate the law but because THEY would. Yet, they tell us in multiple places the opposite. Had they been honest I would have happily done my best to comply. I take great offense at being lied to.
Now you see the rest of the story. "Youtube and Google must develop, implement, and maintain a system that permits channel owners to identify their child-directed content on the YouTube platform so that YouTube can ensure it is complying with COPPA." But this is not what YouTube is telling it's content providers is it? YOUTUBE must comply and it needs to identify child-directed content ONLY so they can cease data-mining the children using the platform or so that's the idea anyway. This is what is really going on here. Of course what is to stop a child from watching a "not made for kids" video and having their info gathered? Google does not want to stop gathering as much info about everyone as they possibly can and so here we are. Then they have the nerve to pass the blame onto the content providers. Shameful!
Now tell me this, where are these video guidelines YouTube talks about?!
Follow the provided link and you end up back to the COPPA rule where these "guidelines" for labeling videos do not exist. These guidelines are from YouTube. Look at the settlement. No video labeling guidelines. Yet YouTube says you should consult an attorney if you have any doubts regarding labeling. Going by a subjective YouTube designed guideline for something the content provider is not legally liable for. Look for yourself. Links to everything is down below.
Here is says:
"Note: As a creator, you know your videos and your audience best, and it is your legal responsibility to comply with COPPA and/or other applicable laws and designate your content accurately. If you fail to categorize your content correctly, there may be consequences on YouTube. Additionally, there may be legal consequences under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) or other applicable local laws. "
Are you angry? It is NOT the content provider's legal responsibility to comply with COPPA. It is Google/YouTube's responsibility and they are using fear porn to achieve that goal. What are these consequences on YouTube? Pass down the fine? Why won't they tell us? It's not true that the content provider would face a day in court. It's just not true as you can clearly see for yourself.
So what Does All This Mean? What Am I Saying Here?
The following become obvious:
They clearly thought we would not read the information and look up the settlement they briefly mentioned. We are stupid and lazy and respond to fear porn with blind compliance.
This is about gathering information from minors under the age of 13. Content providers do not gather user information. Google/YouTube does. Content providers can not and do not violate the COPPA Rule. Google/YouTube can. Yet, they are saying it is the content provider who is legally liable!!!!! This is just plain untrue.
This $42,530 fine mentioned in the COPPA rule is per violation. You can view it as per child. For collecting personal info of children under the age of 13. Kinda like the HIPPA law. Google got caught and what is their reaction? We'll set it up so any future fines fall on the content providers. What, we will be sued by Google for THEIR data collection and privacy games? WE are not the ones data mining so we are not breaking any law unlike YouTube's provided info states.
Why are other video platforms not doing this? Easy, they are NOT DATA MINING THE USERS.
Google/YouTube is now guilty of providing misinformation on the Internet and is clearly a bully. Like we didn't already know that I know. This is just another example of abuse by these corporations. I am not an idiot nor a fool. They could have gone about this this honorable way by telling the truth and imposing a fee or something for non-compliance to their new rule because that's all this really is.
All Of This Begs MANY QUESTIONS!!
Why do we need to consult an attorney or seek legal counsel in labeling our videos when we are not legally liable for data mining errors? It sure seems to me YouTube plans on passing the buck on any an all future violations without coming out and saying that. Instead they want you to believe that YOU would be legally fined instead of THEM.
So...if a child watches my video even though it is marked not made for kids and YouTube data mines that child, I am liable?! YouTube will sue me? I am not liable legally as I am not data mining anyone as a content creator. Am I agreeing to be liable by using the platform? I have made every single one of my 300+ videos unavailable. I'm not playing. I am not a fool.
No good crisis goes to waste. Will this be weaponized against certain content creator? Why not. They have with every thing else. Again, I am not a fool.
Note: I am not an attorney. This is not legal advice. This is my personal analysis of available information.
Links:
https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/complying-coppa-frequently-asked-questions
https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/9528076
https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/9527654
For those of you on Bitchute, a video about this will be coming soon.
WEKU: https://main.weku.io/@squirrelbait
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I wish more folks would wise up. Stop using their platforms and see how quick they change their ways (or become shells of what they are or better, bankrupt).
This is just insane. A perfect example of the power corporations have. Just write a "policy" or a "terms of service" that people don't have to sign just automatically agree to and you can demand anything you want including their first born child. Insane. I wish we could do that to the politicians. 'By representing me you agree to the following terms of service and community guidelines". Hell, we the people should try that!!!!
Right now it's scary, I've been slowly building my channel back, not for monetizingreason but because I've used it as promotional side channel for more a than a decade, I have the videos hosted and deeplinked in my sites, and more. But I got the notifications and each day the notes are more ambiguous , any family friendly COULD BE for kids, like "music" or "fantasy" or very AMBIGUOUS terms. I do not make my songs and music FOR KIDS and some are even not SUITABLE due to the complicated language to be understood by them. I set my channel to "no" and I'm waiting for any kind of issue happening to anyone to make a decision. They should have a system that tracks like they track the copyright, long time ago they should have spend to hire on some curators instead of ai algorithms to promote some high quality underrated content, but seems if you're not family friendly no ads, we can close your channel, if you're for kids, no ads, no "interactions" and we can fine you... should we just all go? I hope not! :/ but that just might be it.
I've perceiving a great exodus especially form younger youtubers,and we are all trying to gather more bits about this.
Yeah, I think people are going to leave like I did. They are taking down people like me anyway so it was just a matter of time. YouTube is on the way out. It will only be full of stupid commercial type stuff. Ya know, videos that promote products. Sad.
not that I like it but I hope I can remain, as a recording artist I do need my videos hosted somewhere where they are "stable" easy to embed out and have reach to potential audience. I'm forgetting about monetising though (becauase they don't want to pay not family friendly and now they don't want to pay for family friendly). I hope I can at least remaining hosting them without feeling I am at "risk" if it's not the case and it all comes to its demise hope other alternatives come but for me it has to have high traffic and most importantly stable embedding out options to be an option.
I have an account on vimeo, just a few, but it's said law is gonna apply there too and also in all networks as mandatory soon, so same issue, besides vimeo on its own HAS NO TRAFFIC from users and as I promote my work to "reach" I have to abide rules and play their game (until it's a total loss of course)
The ability to embed videos is huge I agree. Especially if a YouTube channel is being used professionally. A large reach capability as well. A waste of energy and time otherwise in a case like that. This whole thing is such a mess and is taking so much power away from the people to do their thing in peace.
I really miss being able to embed my videos. I kept the videos I had loaded and just made them all unlisted for this reason. I can still embed those if I want to. I guess I'm lucky in that I already stopped unloading new videos so I was already weaning off of YouTube. There are no alternatives (yet) that compare to YouTube. In time I hope there will be but yeah, the ultimate goal is to completely control all posts video and otherwise on the internet as a whole and it has nothing to do with kids and kid safety. That is a mask. YouTube already has YouTube kids. It's up to the parents to keep kids there. This is a multi-layered push towards China level control. Why not just stop all the data mining? End of problem, right? I watch what they do not just what they say and I agree with you......this is all going to hurt a lot of people who are just trying to be a little financially free. I guess that too will no longer be allowed.
Yes, I have a few on vimeo but they don't have the reach or the traffic. As I see it is the way I see all NETWORKS, the only place I own is my own domain official website, by the way I must sit down and upgrade and update it because at the end networks come and go (I have seen the rise and demise of mp3 dot com, myspace, live journal (that was sweet) and others) We must understand they are not our websites, but still these new laws might affect ours as well, and yes it starts to feel like censorship in many ways, because if parental advice is needed it should be the parents monitoring what they kids watch. Anyway I'll see on the go, I don't find other alternatives that serve to my purpose at the moment :/