If Your School District Has A YouTube Account … You NEED To Watch This Warning From YouTube

This week, YouTube set the world buzzing with the release of a brand new video from their YouTube Creators account warning users about a recent change in their policy about creating videos.  Starting immediately, anyone with a YouTube channel MUST comply with a new rule that requires channel owners to declare if their content is being created for kids.

This change has come about due to a court case involving inappropriate content being placed on the world”s largest media platform that was then targeted to small children.  The reason this is important is because of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule, also known as COPPA.

What Do You Need To Do To Your YouTube Settings?

Content creators have two options. First, a creator can select to deep their entire channel as being “made for kids” or “not made for kids” by going into the settings area on their YouTube Creator Studio panel.  Or, you can leave this setting turned off and select to make this decision for individual videos moving forward.

Additionally, YouTube will be using their Machine Learning tools to search what is essentially the second largest search engine in the world for videos already published to make sure that they are complying with COPPA rules.

When Should Content Be Considered “Made For Kids?”

Long and short, in order to be considered “made for kids” your video must adhere to a number of standards mentioned in the video.  For the majority of videos that you are creating, the answer is “not for kids.” This is what I set the TeacherCast channel up as.

How Old Is A “Kid?”

In the United States, a “kid” is defined as anyone under 13 years of age.  This, however, might be different in other countries.

What Happens If I Select A Video To Be “Made For Kids?”

If your video is created with kids in mind, you will have a limited number of options available.

1. To comply with the law, YouTube will limit the data that is collected from these videos
2. Comments on these videos will no longer be available
3. Videos will not show personalized ads
4. Info cards / Endscreens will no longer show on the video
5. Stories will not be available
6. Community Tab will not be available
7. Notification Bells will not be available
8. Watch Later will not be available
9. Playlists will not be available

Is This A Big Deal?

I have been thinking about this question for the last week as I speak with other content creators and educational podcasters. For the most part, if you dive into your YouTube settings and make the selection appropriate for your channel then this isn’t a big deal.  However, if you are not truthful with your channel settings, then the consequence might lead to your channel being removed from the platform.

What Do You Think?

It is clear that this is just the first of many major updates that will be rolling out for YouTube content creators.  If your school has a YouTube channel, then you really need to take the time and adjust/update your channel settings today.

Please leave a comment below with your thoughts on this topic. I’d love to hear from you.

About the author, Jeffrey Bradbury

Jeff Bradbury, creator of TeacherCast, and father of the famous @EduTriplets Thanks for checking out TeacherCast today. Please take a moment to find me on all of my Social Media channels!