YouTube bloggers targeting a children’s audience are about to get an unpleasant surprise - video hosting is radically changing its policy regarding children's content.
YouTube will stop recommending videos for children to watch, and viewers won't be able to post comments on such videos and include notifications on channels of interest.
Restrictions are associated the US Federal Trade Commission imposing a hefty $170 million fine on YouTube for their collection of children's data, which violates the 'Children's Privacy Protection Act on the Internet' (COPPA). The fine, relatively a drop in the ocean compared with the company's massive overall budget (only 1% of its annual income), however, YouTube was also obliged to fulfil several other conditions - and it is these that threaten the business of about 2 thousand bloggers who work using the website.
YouTube CEO Susan Wojbitski said that 'The platform disables comment and notification features for videos that focus on topics for children - games, characters, toys, etc. Children's videos will be completely cleared of advertising, which will greatly affect the income of their authors.'
The changes will be difficult for both YouTube bloggers and the website itself - many authors will probably stop using and instead use competitors like Twitch (https://www.twitch.tv/) or Mixer (https://mixer.com/). The new rules will come into force in January 2020, and by this time YouTube has promised to keep creators in the loop with all the details of the forthcoming changes.
