Admittedly, I needed to understand this setting better when I started working on the Invert City YouTube Channel at the beginning of October. I wrongly assumed that a video set to “It’s made for kids” would be limited to an under-18 audience, but that’s not the case. I know now that the YouTube made for children setting is a great idea conceived to protect children from predatory behaviour on the Internet and to ensure their privacy.
More interesting than the setting is how YouTube’s artificial intelligence engines work behind the scenes to ensure children’s safety.
I’ll expand on this later in this article. I also explain what YouTube considers to be Made for Kids content at the end of this article.
Personal Note
In a perfect world, we would not have to worry about adults making inappropriate comments about children anywhere. If the Internet has taught me anything, however, it is that creeps will always sneak into any conversation.
I should mention that Instagram has been a positive experience for the Invert City project, as most of the comments are positive and respectful. A small subset of our comment sections will see silly remarks about the athlete’s performance. This subset invariably leads to educational conversations about tumbling techniques. And the very tiny portion of unacceptable comments made by gross people always warrants blocking of the responsible accounts.
The YouTube Made for Kids Setting
And this tiny portion of unacceptable comments made by bad people is one of the problems that this setting aims to stop. The setting also helps mitigate the potential dangers inherent in children’s privacy issues.
According to YouTube, all creators must set their audience at the channel or video level. These requirements are “part of a settlement with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and NY Attorney General, and they help creators comply with the US Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).
The FTC declares that “the primary goal of COPPA is to place parents in control over what information is collected from their young children online. The Rule was designed to protect children under the age 13, while accounting for the dynamic nature of the Internet.”
You can read the entire document here.
How The YouTube AI Protects Children
As I mentioned earlier, YouTube’s artificial intelligence engine can take action on your videos when it detects children in them.
This process isn’t perfect yet, but even YouTube will automatically disable comments in videos it believes portray children actors or if the content is directed towards them.
The platform will continue to change comment settings in uploaded content even after the creator changes it manually.
In most cases, the remix option will also appear disabled.
Note: I believe that comments in videos set to Made for Kids are only limited to over-18 audiences. I think this is the case because comments have appeared on our videos set to Made for Kids. And the accounts commenting appear to be from younger viewers.
This notion requires verification.
The idea behind this children’s image detection process is admirable. Ad while it still needs work, I commend Google for proactively protecting our children’s privacy and stopping predatory online behaviour.
With this control available, I feel more confident about posting my athletes’ videos.
Made for Kids VS Not Made for kids
YouTube is clear about what constitutes Made for Kids content. The following list is from Google’s support portal.
Made for Kids
Examples of what may be considered Made for Kids include:
- Children are the primary audience of the video.
- Children are not the primary audience, but the video is still directed at children because it features actors, characters, activities, games, songs, stories or other subject matter that reflect an intent to target children.
Not Made for Kids
Examples of what may be considered not Made for Kids include:
- Content that contains sexual themes, violence, obscene or other mature themes not suitable for young audiences.
- Age-restricted videos that aren’t appropriate for viewers under 18.
We will set our videos to Made for Kids from now on.
Thank you for reading.
— Coach José