COPPA VS YouTube Animation Content Creators VS Kids Under 13

What is COPPA?

The Children’s Online Privacy Policy Act is here to remind content creators that the COPPA imposes certain requirements on operators of websites or online services directed to children under 13 years of age, and on operators of other websites or online services that have actual knowledge that they are collecting personal information online from a child under 13 years of age. Enacted October 21, 1998.

What happened between YouTube and the US FTC (Federal Trade Commission)?

In April 2018, 20 child advocacy groups complained to the FTC that YouTube was violating children’s privacy laws. FTC filed a civil complaint against YouTube alleging that YouTube violated the 2013 amendment and YouTube owed it $42,530 per violation of this amendment and YouTube should be forever barred from marketing to children who are under the age of 13 years old. YouTube settled this civil complaint in 2019 forever changing the platform and creator and viewers’ experience on the platform as a part of the settlement YouTube agreed to pay a $170 Million fine and to stop providing kids content on the platform and a lot of other changes to the YouTube platform.

COPPA happened Now what?

Important Update for All Creators: Complying with COPPA

From January 1^st, 2020, YouTube is enquiring all creators, regardless of their location and their target audience, to designate whether the videos they are making are for kids. Managed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the COPPA Act specifies that, sites must require parental consent for the collection or use of any personal information of young website users. What must be included in a privacy policy, including the requirement that the policy itself be posted anywhere data is collected. When and how to seek verifiable consent from a parent or guardian. What responsibilities does the operator of a website legally hold with regard to children’s privacy and safety online, including restrictions on the types and methods of marketing targeting those under 13. The video platform is no longer allowed to show children-targeted ads. Creators of kid-friendly content will very likely notice a drop in revenue

COPPA was passed to address the rapid growth of online marketing techniques in the 1990s that were targeting children. Although COPPA does not specifically define how parental consent should be gained, the (FTC) has established guidelines to help Web site operators ensure compliance with the Act. The FTC has stipulated that parents may delete certain information but may not otherwise alter it. As of January first of 2020, thousands of YouTube channels will probably be gone. YouTube creators who fail to mark their content as for kids or not could be fined up to $7500 per violation and risk their channel being terminated. Chaos could occur as creators will be in a position of not knowing how to categorize their videos and YouTube will categorize them in this case.

YouTube creators are going to lose some privileges such as, they not being able to upload their stories on YouTube, their viewers not getting notifications when they hit that notification tab, and cannot save videos to watch later. Personalized ads will not appear on YouTube. Generally, as kids content creators, you might not be able to create content.