YouTube channel owners: Is your content directed to children?

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The FTC action against YouTube and Google


A COPPA recap




How COPPA applies to channel owners


How channel owners can determine if their content is directed to children



  • the subject matter,
  • visual content,
  • the kind of music or other audio content,
  • the age of models,
  • language or other characteristics of the site,





What are the possible penalties for violating COPPA?


Isn’t the FTC taking another look at the COPPA Rule?


Where can channel owners go for more information?




Hello FTC I have a question I'm a new creator on YouTube I make animations with animals and other characters. My art style is very animated but I don't want kids to see my art as some of it is more mature. Some of it is gory and dark I never show actually blood but like a dog with a skull head. But because of my art style am I in danger of doing something wrong even though I mark my content as not for kids? I want YouTube to be safer for kids but I also want to be able to continue to make my art. The majority of my art is very happy and gore free but even when its gore free am I in danger of doing something wrong because of my art style? I'm a really new artist. I'm 19 I'm still a kid in a sense and I don't want to do anything to in danger myself unknowingly. Can I get in trouble for marking my content 'not for kids' if its friendly in general. Like if its an animation of a dog playing with another dog and has a bunch of bright colors and I mark it as not for kids because. I'm not trying to make anything for kids to view I'm making stuff for my age group and above. Can I get in trouble if its determine to be kids content by computer scanners? Even though I marked it as adult content. I can't control who watches my videos. And I want to help make YouTube safer. Can you help me understand things more please. also I wanted to thank you for looking out for kids and for protecting them. I love making adult content and I don't want kids to see it simply because it wasn't made for them or with the intention of them being viewers.

Thanks for the article. It was a huge help.

I believe that it is important to protect children's information, but I believe the current rules, as applied to YouTube may put up barriers to creators that are unnecessary. There are videos that are created with children in mind. There are videos that are created for an adult audience. And there is a third classification that your current guidelines completely ignore: family friendly content. This is content that even young children CAN watch, and may include some things that appeal to children, but they are not created FOR children. Many content creators at this time are confused by the guidelines and are left wondering if they are responsible for editing out any and all things that might appeal to children at the risk of being fined for violating COPPA rules. This is unreasonable. Please adapt the guidelines and categorization so that there is a place for family friendly content without it being classified as "for children" when it really isn't.

I have a question.If we put a blood in gacha life videos does that mean we are not kid friendly?

I have a concern for this. There are cartoons that are geared towards adults and teenagers. There are also video games and Computer games not appropriate for children. What happens to them?

Hello good sir,I know protecting children is important but can u try to manage on that by trying to not worry other youtuber's about their channels?Thank you.

1. The fine is COMPLETELY ridiculous. YouTube will loose the majority of their channels because people on YouTube can't afford to pay that amount.
2. It is NOT the youtubers problem if someone's child stumbles upon their channel and It's not for kids. Youtubers have no control of their audience. Plus, many underage kids lie about their age to make a google account. So there's no way of knowing if there's any kids watching your videos.
3. Why..?

There have been complaints from creators that specifically mark their content as "not for kids", but YouTube, either by bot or manually, changes the designation to "for kids" and continues to change it after the creator has returned it to the proper rating. YouTube has specifically said that "creators know their audience best". What would be your response if you happen to catch a video marked as such?

Hello FTC! I just wanna say, why did COPPA "Take over" youtube? Cause i dont understand what's happening. Is youtube being saved or something?

If The FTC reads this, thank you for your time.

Hello! Thank you for this update, it is very much appreciated. My comment is more of a question. So you said you recognize some animated content appeals to everyone.

"...just because your video has bright colors or animated characters doesn’t mean you’re automatically covered by COPPA... the FTC recognizes there can be animated programming that appeals to everyone."

Does that mean content that appeals to everyone is exempt from COPPA compliance, even if kids under 13 are part of the "everyone" that's watching?

Another question, do you make a distinction between "intended audience" and "actual audience"? According to my understanding of what YT told us, the "intended audience" is irrelevant if the "actual audience" is kids. However, in this document it seems like the decisive factor for you to implement COPPA is the "intended audience" not the "actual audience".

"...your content isn’t considered “directed to children” just because some children may see it. However, if your intended audience is kids under 13, you’re covered by COPPA".

Many YouTube creators think they're not covered by COPPA because their intended audience has never been kids. But YouTube being a wildly popular free service, and kids being the curious, learning-hungry little people they are, they have found these channels. So by some unintended evolutionary process, these channels now have a considerable kid audience. Are they right in thinking they are not covered by COPPA?

Hi dear FTC!
I understand your concern regarding kids privacy protection. We have 6 kids in our house and they are obsessed over mobiles. But when I give anyone of kids my phone and the ad that comes before video is some kind business tool because I am a business owner.
The solution provided doesn't fit in current situation.
I recommend you guys should give this another 3-6 months to really dig deep because this will decide the future of technology.
This will literally burn alot of houses. People have spent so many years creating videos and all there hard will go to waste. It is not fair on them.
What you can do that ask YouTube to put a system in place that can just review the advertiser and Mark it as trusted and if someone is spamming they can just categorize third ads not suitable for kids so the system doesn't show those ads on kids directed content. That way people will not lose money and advertiser, content creators and FTC and COPPA can be happy.

What about people who make family friendly contact not kid

Don't you guys think your wording is too vague.

This entire thing can ruin people's lives, you can't decide that what we make is for kids if we say it is not, you are scare mongering, kids will still watch videos that are not for kids that's not the content creators fault and yet they are the ones who will suffer for this

Whats happens:
If a creator uploads a video,
ticks the box declaring that the content is not for children
a bot or human MANUALLY recategorises the content as suitable for children

Who's responsible for that video now?

I ask as I have seen some creators having this done to them which they have caught on video.

Seems like a brilliant way for someone to ruin someones channel/income, because the person manually checking doesn't care about the creators, just cares about his/her own pay packet... which is probably pennies compared to the creators earnings.



Dear FTC
Yours sincerely, a YouTube viewer




This doesnt help......




This doesn’t help anyone.



-YouTube has a child friendly app.











COPPA needs to stop right now!





Just get parents to make their kids watch YouTube kids







Dear FTC




This is kind of confused , noo nice at all





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