YouTube is making changes to its service to comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act or “COPPA”.
The online video-sharing giant says all “creators” are required to tell them if their content is made for kids.
Starting in January, YouTube will block data collection on videos marked by creators as “made for kids” in an effort to protect the privacy of young users.
In September, the Federal Trade Commission stepped in, fining YouTube owner Google $170 million for violating COPPA and allowing kids personal data to be captured.
“Not only can we sue Google and YouTube for compliance with COPPA, but also individual channel owners and content creators,” FTC officials said.
YouTube sent out an email last week telling creators they must determine which one of three categories their videos fall under. If it’s only for adults or only for children it’s just one click to change. When the content is for a mixed audience, each video must be individually classified.
Some creators are firing back, wondering what “made for kids” really means. According to the FTC, any videos that are appealing to children under the age of 13.
If a video is marked “made for kids”, YouTube will disable personalized ads on that content. Comments and notifications will also be disabled, and the video will not be searchable or recommended on YouTube.
The changes take effect on January 1, 2020.