My Channel Might Be In Serious Trouble

oh don't you not even a week ago this channel celebrated its five year anniversary and I was gonna do a video for that but I decided to delay it a little bit maybe maybe even into next year just so I can give it a little bit more time uh but it is unfortunate that so close to that event I am here to bring you pretty ill Tidings um you've probably heard by now this this is kind of spreading a lot more um if you don't I don't know look it up it's this is some pretty important stuff here if you follow chadtronic he's been talking about a lot he's been linking to a lot of stuff on his Twitter um check some of that out I don't know if you missed it here's the gist though this isn't everything in super great detail this is the gist though um YouTube messed up they've been breaking the law for years they've been mining data from miners who are watching their platform kids um and they've been using that to you know create targeted ads for the kids this is all very illegal um they've been obviously using their algorithm to give priority to to other people who were making disgusting comment content you know you know the type all the minions and the Spider-Mans and the Elsa's and just like really gross predatory copyright breaking content aimed at kids it's all super gross stuff I could go on and on about all that stuff but they've been encouraging that they've been trying to make that a thing by allowing it and the algorithm has been picking them out and monetizing like crazy um so the FTC the Federal Trade Commission it's a government thing they had to step in and change something because YouTube just wasn't willing to do it themselves and prepare themselves for the future they thought let's just break the law as long as we can and make as much money as we can and then when things go bad we will pass the buck to the creators because that's that's I mean that's kind of what they always do whenever they mess up we pay the price for it they got fined by the FTC but they got fined a teeny teeny tiny fraction compared to what they make so great thanks so the FTC is stepping in and saying if you make content that is for kids you need to Market as for kids using YouTube's own little system there's a little option in your channel thing or individual videos can be marked as for kids ideally this would just mean that your video Only Could Be viewable in the YouTube kids app that would solve a lot of problems I don't know why it didn't happen that way before and I don't know why YouTube is not doing that in response to this because it would solve a lot of problems but no instead what happens is if you mark your video or your Channel or whatever as four kids it means a whole lot of bad stuff it means it will no longer have targeted ads which means a drastically drastically lower ad Revenue something around 10 percent as much so a tiny fraction but then you'll also not get as many views so it's going to be even less than ten percent because no one can search your video it will not come up in recommended people will not get notifications for it it will basically be invisible unless someone I think if they subscribe to your channel it'll still be in their feed if they go to it specifically and it will be on your channel if they go to your channel directly but it won't be anywhere else nowhere on YouTube no discoverability no nothing it's essentially a death sentence for a video it's not going to make you any money and it's not going to be viewed by anybody um so here's the thing is they're they're telling everyone like you got to start marking this stuff and that's all well and good but then you start looking into the specifics that they're talking about in the law and they're being super vague about it they're saying it's not even just stuff that is explicitly for kids because you know my content is not for kids you know it's not it's for everybody it's it's it's like the Muppets versus Sesame Street I hate to bring those up specifically because I get compared to those a lot but it's it's a really good comparison you I I mean I'm a colorful character I'll say that I'm a colorful guy I'm blue not a lot of YouTubers are blue okay so you have other colorful characters many with fur you have Sesame Street muppets you know that Sesame Street is explicitly for kids it is content created for kids it's about learning it is aimed at young children and basically no one else Beyond like little pop culture references and stuff but that's how the parents don't hate it completely The Muppets is for adults it can be enjoyed by kids because it's colorful characters but it's more adult humor it's not only for kids it's just kind of for anybody you get it I get it it's obvious um and then of course all this other we like video games we like toys we like pop culture this is our generation this is just the way that we are now we grew up still liking this stuff we're making most of this for ourselves and yet the wording in the FTC is saying it's not just stuff for kids but it's anything a kid might like anything a kid might find interesting they specifically mention video games and toys and pop culture and even words like fun and cool and yeah and uh things that are colorful and vibrant like we like things that are colorful and vibrant I'm a thing that is a little colorful and vibrant so that's the real problem here like it's cool that they're coming in to protect the kids that's great um but the wording is so vague there's this video of this guy and you get this like this guy who's in charge of all this and you get this impression that he's like totally out for blood like this guy is like talking about taking down creators like shooting fish in a barrel and how it's just like oh no we're going after the creators and the content they're making they're the ones that are that are to blame here and we're gonna start taking them down and finding them and that's the thing is they're talking about heavy heavy career destroying fines potentially per video and um YouTube of course especially when this all started YouTube is coming around saying you know what you guys know what's best for your if you know that your content is not for kids then you know best you're probably gonna be fine gaming is gonna be fine but get a lawyer that's what YouTube has been saying because everything they've been saying is not lining up with what the FTC has been saying they've been saying no anyone making anything that a kid might like is just doomed we're gonna find you or you're gonna just basically shut off your channel and like yeah we know it's absurd we know that it is we know that they are objectively wrong we know that this is a bad thing if they do this this is going to destroy actual legitimate kids content on YouTube there won't be any anymore and then kids will still be going online just as much but they're only going to be seeing stuff that's not appropriate for them this is gonna see a great rise in just stuff that's not for kids at all and of course this could I mean bear with me I'm gonna sorry everything this is over reacting but like in theory the way that it is on paper right now this could destroy YouTube it actually could this this could wipe out half the content on the site all at once and and the real problem with me is like even if they deem okay you know what video games are okay we're not gonna just say video games overall even Nintendo because Nintendo's a thing that is way more skewed toward kids in terms of the way that it looks um you know it's colorful an FTC guy might just be like well yeah Mario's for kids but like even even buying that even if they say Nintendo's okay or whatever um it seems like they're gonna have FTC people you know goons whatever scouring YouTube that's what they've even said they're just gonna be scaring YouTube finding stuff and they're gonna be like it doesn't even matter what the intent is it doesn't matter what the intended audience is it's looking at the thumbnail and the title and like does this look like something a kid might want to click on and even if all of my peers are okay even talking about video games what does that mean for this guy this blue furry sorry to say it Cookie Monster looking guy um even if everyone else is okay I might not be I don't know it just it like they've written the law so vaguely that it just comes down to whether or not they wanna how are they gonna enforce it and like it's hard because it's like there's two ways to go about this do I just mark my content as for kids say I'll never make another dime on YouTube and just try to focus on patreon and merch and all that stuff so that I don't get fined or do I hold my ground try to keep my career going and potentially face serious fines I don't know I don't want to make a rash decision because we don't know what's going to happen or if something is going to change but I don't want to be unprepared for things if they go bad we're going to talk a little bit about the uh the overall plausibility of this I know there are some people who think this is we're overreacting this is fear-mongering and then there are other people who are like we might be doomed I'll talk about that in a bit I'm going to talk about these are um these are the potential outcomes for me um that as I see them okay the first potential outcome is they are just riding the law very vaguely to protect themselves and give themselves a lot of power but they only really intend on going after the uh you know the really bad the the very bad channels that have been really preying on children the Logan Logan Paul's and all of the gross videos that I was talking about like that and they might just do that that'd be great if in that case I'm fine we're all fine YouTube is fine um next possible outcome is they do find me and it's not because of the video games it's because I'm a blue monster and so they uh shoot me with a bunch of fines and they say you can make this kind of content but you can't look like a colorful character on the thumbnail I'm sorry I look like a colorful character it's just just what my mom and dad gave me all right they say you can't do that anymore and I have to just stop being me I can create all the same content but I I just don't put my face on the thumbnail you don't see me in the video I'm just a disembodied voice it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world it's better than having nothing but that that's pretty lame that's pretty I like my face I like my Blue Fairy face and so that would would be unfortunate um or even worse next possible outcome is this is all for kids video games are for kids Nintendo is for kids I'm for kids everything is for kids and uh I can still be me but I have to mark my content as for kids and I just can't make money anymore I can't make money on YouTube anymore I have to rely entirely entirely on my fans and and that's the real problem is that like if that happened growth would end YouTube would stop showing like like Twitter would be the new YouTube of like how to find me and how to find other YouTubers and stuff um it would just be like my pre-established fans and anybody who wanders in it would just be monetizing and you know trying to do merchandise and trying to focus on other side stuff and basically struggling a lot more and relying more on people to give me money which I don't I mean I appreciate my patrons but I don't I don't want to just beg everybody for money because I'm just gonna go I don't like it so I don't like that one either and then if I want to go a little bit more Broad and even further in that direction the last possible outcome is they they go full on this they do this for everybody they're right anyone who says the word yeah or does a video about a video game or anything um they do it and they Define us all and they find us all so much money we can't do YouTube anymore people can't do it anymore because it's not it can't make money and it's not worth the risk we'll always have hobbyists and stuff um but it's gonna even be hard for them because if they're having to mark their stuff is for kids and nobody is finding it and nobody's watching it and no new channels are coming along it um even if it wouldn't be the death of YouTube it would be the death of YouTube as we know it as a platform where you go on and you discover new creators and they are creating and having audiences and all that stuff it would just be a file file hosting site and you'd have to discover elsewhere like I said it like Twitter would be the new YouTube you'd go on Twitter and look at people's retweets and stuff to try to find new videos and you'd have to find them directly through the links and stuff so the overall plausibility like I said you have some people who are like this can't happen some of this is so ridiculous with all the fines and everything it can't be real this is unprecedented but then on the other hand like you look at the wording they're saying it I'm not going to trust a government a a government agency who is saying we have the right to completely destroy you and you just have to hope that we don't even though we're saying we're going to and that's the thing like is this fear-mongering is this overreacting maybe I mean I'm I'm trying not to panic about it but I don't feel good about it that's for sure I have had a pretty yucky sick feeling in my tummy for the last couple days now um I don't want to overreact and start deleting my channel but I also don't want to be unprepared if things go bad and I don't want to have to spend all of my money on a lawyer just to look at this case and potentially not even help me just so I can feel safe I don't really know I don't really know I don't want to preemptively set myself to a kid's Channel and just that would preemptively ruin me that would just be like me throwing in the towel so I want to hold my ground but are they going to just you know what I mean are they going to destroy move the fines I don't know I'm kind of like I don't want to see him right in the middle I'm more on the end of worrying because as it is right now like like the vase is falling if no one catches the vase it's gonna crash it's gonna crash on the floor I'm not gonna say oh we're overreacting it's probably not gonna no it is it's on its way right now and so um the only thing that's kind of helping me out right now is that YouTube stands to lose a lot of money and a lot of other organizations stand to lose a lot of money a lot of big YouTube channels and stuff so my only the only thing helping me out right now is knowing that they are fighting it's not just on us little gaming guys there's a lot of people who this will affect and so they're all throwing their voices out there and trying to make this not happen including Google themselves and they're very big I mean they're not acting like they're doing anything about it but I have to imagine they're going to I have to imagine they themselves are going to fight this I know they paid they're fine maybe they're not gonna fight it because they know they broke the law so much that they're like we don't really have any say in this I don't really know so I just have to hope that people are fighting it um and uh what you can do is uh I'll put the links in the description or you can find them they're all over the place it's it's not a lot it's really not a lot but there's a petition great a petition there's a petition you can go sign and then also uh we have been invited to leave comments on the FTC website um telling them that this is wrong and so uh they've extended the date or something that we can do that until like the somewhere in December like 8th of December or something like that um we don't know what's gonna happen but at least we can do that isn't it always fun then when it's this big issue that affects everybody they don't let us vote for it they just uh I'm not gonna get super political here but isn't it kind of frustrating this big giant change that affects everybody and well no no you don't vote for it we're just gonna do it you can complain loudly if you want to we might change it we might actually listen to reason but otherwise we're just gonna do this thing that is objectively objectively wrong it will only hurt people hurt kids hurt the platform hurt everybody it's a fact it's an actual fact that if you understand how this works it's only going to be a bad thing and that's the whole thing everyone's saying it's like more hurt than more harm than good is what they're trying to say hashtag more harm than good so uh we'll just have to say I'm uh yeah I mean trying to have a good attitude but it's hard and I have so like I've already been very stressed trying to get out all the I got so much work to do through the end of this month and into December and you know that was already bad enough and now I got this and it's I'm finding it very hard to function properly very hard to stay motivated and do all this fun work and be talking about I'm going to do my predictions video what's going to be happening next year am I going to be making content next year you know is this going to be viable next year I really don't know is it gonna look like something completely different am I gonna have to stop YouTube completely and just make a podcast or something and just try to monetize that through patreon I don't really know there's a lot of ways that this could go but uh do what you can go sign the petition and leave a comment on their site it doesn't feel very good it doesn't feel very empowering but uh at the very least over the last few days we've had uh at least one or two of the FTC chairman people being like Hey we're listening cool thanks for leaving comments I don't know if that works but people are talking they are hearing it we just have to hope that they see reason it's good to protect kids Kappa in itself is still a good idea but they just can't do it the way that it is currently written currently written is bad let me know what you think about all this in their comments yada yada sorry I'm just feeling a little it's a little poopy sorry sorry to sorry to throw out the p word but it's pooping it's feeling a little poopy right now but okay that's all right I'm just gonna keep plugging away videos you try to have yourself a good day try to try to stay positive try to enjoy your YouTube content and and we're never I mean if we get through this we're never gonna take it for granted again that YouTube is an amazing platform and that we are very lucky to have it um go tell a creator that you love today that you love them come on Twitter tell them to come or something go tell them you love them and you appreciate them and you're thinking about them have a good day see you later foreign

Channel: Arlo

Views: 662,137

Keywords: puppet, blue, monster, youtube, coppa, for kids, not for kids, $42000, fines, ftc, kids, content, creators, law

Id: jNzimCH4e_k

Length: 18min 7sec (1087 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 19 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

Uh oh

[u/[deleted]]

Crazy. I have NEVER seen Arlo as a kids' content creator. Family friendly, sure, but every video the guy makes is 10, 15 and even more minutes long and is very well thought out...well out of the attention span of many very young kids. He posts well written and intelligent videos that just so happen to be free of lewd content and foul language and adult humor...

Smh YouTube. Discriminating against him just because he's a happy blue puppet.

[u/bach315]

Does anyone know if there’s a single place to go that’s tracking this as it develops? I wish there was some user based way to rate things as for kids or not.