January 2020 was an important month for YouTube because it marked the rollout of a number of new changes that will indelibly affect the future of the platform and the people who use it. For teachers, and for schools, these are important changes to be aware of as they look to curate content, upload content, and work with students to do the same. So, here's a quick summary of what you need to know.
What Happened?
Investigations by the Federal Trade Commission and the New York Attorney General found Google to be guilty of violating the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, (COPPA). It was judged to be guilty of collecting data from kids under 13 and using that data to serve personalized ads to those users. This is a direct violation of COPPA. Google were served a fine of $174m, and, perhaps more importantly, it was compelled to make changes to to YouTube. These changes would make YouTube compliant with the terms of COPPA, but they would also alter the way that YouTube works for its users.
What Changed?
In short, the biggest change is that you now need to choose an audience for the videos you upload to YouTube. More specifically, you have to say whether your video is made for kids, or not made for kids. You can set this option as a channel-wide setting, or make the decision on a case by case basis when you upload your videos. Once YouTube knows the intended audience for a video, it can turn off features like data collection and personalized ads in order to better comply with COPPA.
Why Does it Matter?
Well, it might not, but if you mark a channel or video as made for kids, there are some other things you should know about. For instance, your video will no longer autoplay on the YouTube homepage, you can't add cards or end screens, the notification bell is disabled, and your video can't be added to a playlist or to the watch later list. Videos that are marked as made for kids, are also more likely to be promoted alongside other videos that have the same designation, so this could affect your discoverability on YouTube.
However, these are just some of the features that are disabled with the made for kids audience setting. You can see the full list here on Google's support page. Playlists are probably the biggest drawback, but there is nothing stopping you adding your videos to a Wakelet collection or to a Google Slides presentation as an alternative.
However, these are just some of the features that are disabled with the made for kids audience setting. You can see the full list here on Google's support page. Playlists are probably the biggest drawback, but there is nothing stopping you adding your videos to a Wakelet collection or to a Google Slides presentation as an alternative.
How Do I Know if a Video is "Made for Kids"?
This can be a bit of a gray area, but YouTube does have some guidance for you. If children under the age of 13 are the primary audience for your video, then your video should be labelled as made for kids. If children are in your video, or your video has toys, characters, or animation aimed at children, then it should also be labelled made for kids. Songs, stories and poems directed at children are also in this category. More information here.
Although this can be confusing for some people, ultimately the responsibility as to what choice you make does like with you as the account holder. YouTube says, "As a creator, you know your videos and your audience best, and it is your legal responsibility to comply with COPPA and/or other applicable laws and designate your content accurately. If you fail to categorize your content correctly, there may be consequences on YouTube. Additionally, there may be legal consequences under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) or other applicable local laws." (Source)
Although this can be confusing for some people, ultimately the responsibility as to what choice you make does like with you as the account holder. YouTube says, "As a creator, you know your videos and your audience best, and it is your legal responsibility to comply with COPPA and/or other applicable laws and designate your content accurately. If you fail to categorize your content correctly, there may be consequences on YouTube. Additionally, there may be legal consequences under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) or other applicable local laws." (Source)
What Does It Mean for Me?
As Amber Bridge said on a recent episode of our podcast, think about the age of your students. If your students are 13 years or older, then you probably don't have a lot to worry about here. You will not need to mark your content as made for kids, because the videos you upload to YouTube for your students are aimed at an audience that is 13 or older. However, if you are an elementary teacher, you may need to think a little harder about this. Are you creating a video for your students or for other teachers? These would be a different audience, and that is absolutely fine because you always have the option of picking and choosing your audience depending on the content of your video.
For instance, a school YouTube channel may have some classroom videos that fall into the "made for kids" category, and some others that are more directed at parents, so they would be labelled as "not made for kids". It would just depend on the content. All you do is be mindful when uploading your videos and use your best judgement to make sure you comply with the new changes.
For instance, a school YouTube channel may have some classroom videos that fall into the "made for kids" category, and some others that are more directed at parents, so they would be labelled as "not made for kids". It would just depend on the content. All you do is be mindful when uploading your videos and use your best judgement to make sure you comply with the new changes.
Where Can I Learn More?
In addition to the video above, Google has some support documents that address most of the issues surrounding the audience settings on YouTube. Those articles are linked below, along with episode 71 of The Edtech Take Out, which also features a conversation around the same topic!
If you have questions about any of these changes and the impact it has on you or your students, contact your Digital Learning Consultant for more information!
Jonathan Wylie
Digital Learning Consultant
Grant Wood AEA
Jonathan Wylie
Digital Learning Consultant
Grant Wood AEA
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