Reuben the Bulldog: Reuben’s Channel and COPPA
hey everybody how are you doing what’s
going on I’m here with my good friend
Ruben you may know him Ruben and I’ve
got something to go over with you today
which is not a lot of fun and Rubens
sentiment there expresses how we are
feeling right now because we’ve got some
news that you may or may not have heard
about that is affecting a number of
channels on YouTube right now and so I’m
going to try and cover this with you the
best that I can from the information
that I’ve gleaned from news articles and
the Internet and the Federal Trade
Commission website and other places so
and I will say that I reserve the right
to be wrong about some of this
information but I think the general gist
of what I’m saying encompasses what we
think is going on and the bad thing is
that this is going to impact Rubens
videos here on YouTube so let me see if
I can go through and cover all the
points for you ok so here’s the deal
so this year YouTube faced a fine of a
hundred and seventy million dollars from
the Federal Trade Commission for
violation of Coppa which is the
Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act
and essentially what they did was they
were collecting advertising from kids
that were 13 and under or under 13
should say and we’re using personalized
ads towards children now when when you
and I know the other adults cruise
around the internet the the FTC says
it’s no problem for websites and
companies to to track us and get
information about us and then give
advertising that is targeted tourists
towards us that is pertinent towards
what we are interested in and the
problem with this is that they were
doing it for kids that were 13 and under
under 13 and that’s not allowed so 170
suddenly 70 million dollar fine came
youtube’s way about I think of September
and they had to make some changes to
make sure that that did not happen again
so a couple weeks ago I got notice on
our YouTube channel to say that we need
to either designate Reubens channel as
for kids intended for kids or not
intended for kids and I didn’t think
much of it because we’re not really
targeted towards children I think about
less than 1% of all the views
in 2019 we’re from the demographic of 13
to 17 years old it’s 99% as adult but
obviously there are kids younger than
that that do watch I think sometimes on
the road sometimes were their parents
but regardless of that metric we said
well we’re not designed for for kids
we’re gonna keep it as or not for kids
is the designation and go from there but
I got notice from a couple different
people that we should probably look into
that and the Articles that I’ve been out
there and would have been reading saying
that it’s not so simple the problem is
that the rules that designate what is
for kids and what is not for kids is
completely vague and unclear and there’s
potential huge ramifications and fines
if you are found to be in violation of
this for example even though you know we
are not a you know a children’s directed
content network the subject matter that
they look at for example one of the
specific criteria from from the oomiak
is that from the ruling is that subject
matter that is appealing to children
appealing to children and one of the
things specifically on there is pets and
I don’t know about you but this guy is
appealing to adults and two children but
if someone from the FTC were to come
along and look at him also music is a
category that they look at and there’s
the possibility that if someone said
okay you’ve got a dog that talks and
subtitles and you have cutesy music
sometimes and you have a cute dog
subject matter that could be construed
as being for kids now there’s nothing
that spells out exactly in the rulings
that this is the case but there’s
nothing that says that that’s not the
case and it would be an individual who
is making that decision here’s the
problem the problem is that if we stay
as a channel that is designated as not
for kids and continue on as we are doing
right now and someone from the FTC
reviewed our videos and said well we
don’t think that’s the case you have
kids you peel the children then that is
upwards of forty two thousand five
hundred and twenty dollars per video
fine
surely be that much but that’s what they
can that they can they can’t find you
for and even though you know we have
kind of gone taking this channel from a
you know for starters kind of a hobby
and put a lot of hours into it on
evenings and weekends
a lot of hours actually and and we do
get a small amount of income from it and
the income that we’ve gotten would be
wiped out immediately by even one fine
so financially as a family that would be
devastating we would not be able to keep
doing it so from a safety standpoint
basically this is driving our channel
and thousands of other channels that
have content that could be contention
construed as being kid-friendly off of
youtube or at least to change it to
kid-friendly designation now what
happens if we mark his videos as
kid-friendly well first of all it’s any
kind of you can’t comment all comments
are disabled so the entire community and
what we’ve built up here is is now is
gone and that is is probably one of the
best things about doing this was hearing
from all you guys about your feedback
about Ruben and how he’s impacted you
and what you like about them and that’s
really the major reason why we keep
going this because that interaction
between you guys and us has been that’s
been fantastic let’s see what else on
there you would there’s no notifications
of any videos that would come out you
can’t you can’t like or dislike you
can’t the video is not going to be
searchable at all essential is gonna be
removed from search algorithms the video
can’t be suggested or recommended to
anyone and essentially any income that
we make from it would go down to
essentially nothing so essentially we
making videos and putting them out and
and just and into the into the universe
and not really knowing what’s going on
with them we’re seeing what getting any
feedback or it’s just not the same thing
it’s not so we’ve got to make a decision
as to what we are doing with with this
it’s not until December 31st that we
have to decide but if we are leaning
toward now towards unless there’s
further clarification from the FTC to go
ahead and mark it as just as
kid-friendly and kind of be done with
that
the videos will still be out there in
some form I guess but it’s gonna be
harder to find and it’s just gonna be
it’s it’s a it’s gonna be a whole
different this is not what we what we
have grown and have been enjoyed doing
so we are going to think about things
from now until the end of the year and
explore other platforms that maybe we
can go to I’m not really interested in
going to like a patreon as one one can
play this tape a platform where you have
to pay per video or for access to his
videos
I’m not real fan of putting up a paywall
for people to have to see his stuff the
possibility is all this is having a page
on Facebook and posting there because at
least we can interact with you guys and
there’s a couple other options but we’re
not making any decisions now as we’ve
got until the end of the year to look
into that but it’s it’s not fun it’s not
it’s not it’s not a happy time Ruben’s
beside himself as you can see right I
would be too so because what we built
you guys has been has been fantastic and
we’ve the the amount of time and effort
that we put into it has really been
enjoyable and we just hate that it’s
kind of being damaged for something that
is so unclear in what they’re asking
from us but that’s kind of what we have
to do to be to be safe but there’s a lot
of other channels on the internet that
are on YouTube that are in the same same
boat as we are so I guess the question
is what can you do about something like
this there’s two things I’m gonna put
links in the description the video
description that you can go to one of
them is a petition for us on change.org
and is a petition basically requesting
that the FTC look at their rules again
and make them clearer for
family-friendly channels like ours and
and you can read about the description
what they’re asking for
it has about six hundred thousand
signatures right now so a lot of folks
are on that one I’m gonna put a link to
that one and I’m also going to link to
the Federal Trade Commission which
through December 9th is accepting public
comment on their decision and taking
feedback on it so if you do have feel
that you have
and you’d like to say what maybe you
know someone who has their own channel
maybe you just enjoy this channel and
you say what this minute has me into
your family or to yourself but do so in
a in a respectful manner and and I’ll
put the link on there as well
I think I’ll also include if I can find
it again there’s a couple videos out
there one of them was from a social
media attorney who explained Coppa in
his own words and again and the the fact
that it’s so unclear it’s it’s I think
it’s it’s about 15 17 minutes long it’s
a long video but it does give a lot more
details as to the act itself and how
confusing it is so I’ll put a bit that
information out there for you guys so
you can you can peruse that but but you
can you can search the web yourself or
cop on YouTube and see a bunch of
information and I guess that is it so in
the meantime we are going to continue
making videos through the end of the
year and if we are forced to do them on
another platform of some sort I’m not
sure they will have it in the same
quantity or or the same fashion I’m not
sure what this will be in the meet we
are still going to be on Instagram I
know not everybody’s on Instagram but
let’s write that’s really easy to sign
up for and if you’ve got a phone we’ll
be there with pictures in shorter videos
of Ruben and he’s it’s at Ruben the
bulldog on Instagram so that is it for
now
so sorry to have to be the bearer of bad
news for this but hopefully we can
something will be quote-unquote fixed I
guess and this won’t impact us and many
other channels out there in the meantime
so thank you guys thank you all for
being supportive and take care
[Music]
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take care
