web Youtube's Comment Ban On Cartoons (Thoughts?)

[Valeska 184]

I recently was browsing clips of shows like MLP, Miraculous Ladybug, and animated movies. I scroll down to the comment section and Youtube has them turned off. I guess they recently enacted "Youtube Kids" where they turn off comments on any videos deemed content for kids. As an adult it sucks because now I can't give my input or discuss most animation videos, including MLP, Miraculous Ladybug, Pixar, Disney, Dreamworks, etc. Will I survive without commenting? Yes. However, it just seems kind of overkill in my opinion. Why not allow comments as long as people verify their age? 

Anyway, what are your thoughts on this new development?

[TBD 17,254]

I have feeling if the youtube channel is from an official cartoons channel, it's most likely they want to avoid kids getting into cyberbullys or falling into victims of cyberbullys. Since assuming most kids comes in to watch it on youtube, they want to restrict that for their own safety.  I have seen similar things in some history-related videos, example Nazi, to avoid  conflicts or comments that may provoke and be offensive to viewers. 

[Splashee 28,564]

@Valeska

Moved to Media Discussion, as that is where media related topics like YouTube discussion go.

[Pentium100 2,126]

I think this is Youtube's way of punishing channels for uploading kid-friendly videos.

Some time ago there was an issue of Youtube violating COPPA by collecting information about kids (it's a bit more complicated, but not by much). Since then, Youtube requires uploader to mark if the video is "for kids" and then YT cannot collect information about the people who watch the video. So, I guess, disabling comments is a way to discourage uploaders from marking their videos as "for kids" (because if the video is for kids and is not marked as such, then YT proceeds to collect information and if there's a problem with the law, then YT hopes to make the uploader responsible and get him to pay the fine).

[Courageous Thunder Dash 7,824]

See here's the real truth, YouTube flatout screwed up. They collected information of everyone including children. This went against COPPA and to cover up their faults, they imposed this new thing. How are people getting around it? Simple: not marking their vids "for kids". This has affected a ton of family vlog channels and toy review channels. Honestly, it's a total drag that it had to come down to this...content creators suffer all because of YouTube's big blunder. 

[ZiggWheelsManning 10,405]

Done for good reason.  You can't forget the horror that happened several years ago to the Sesame Street video page  

[Cash In 22,347]

Yeah, this has been a thing for a while, but I can sort of understand it. What bothers me more is that YouTube won't let you put any of those videos in a playlist. Now thats's stupid.

[EpicEnergy 23,218]

I think it is illogical. I mean, YouTube could have just placed restrictions on child accounts on YouTube like disabling their access to the comment section. Instead, they left it up to the content creators to determine if their videos were "for kids" or not, and then some sketchy algorithm comes in and auto-marks videos as "for kids" even if they are clearly not.

[Pentium100 2,126]

1 hour ago, EpicEnergy said:

I mean, YouTube could have just placed restrictions on child accounts on YouTube like disabling their access to the comment section.

Doing things logically would mean Youtube would be able to collect less data. Youtube wants to collect all the data, but also does not want to get in trouble for it, so it figured out ow to hopefully make the video uploader responsible for YT collecting data on kids.

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 41,538]

To me, it is a meaningless façade. It is just Youtube virtue signaling and pretending to care about kids when they highly reward channels that exploit children all the time. Youtube hardly cares about any of its problems so them making this one teensy tiny exception rings oh so hollow in my view. 

[Pentium100 2,126]

Youtube does not even pretend. What it does is try to technically comply with the letter of the law, while breaking the spirit of the law. I'm sure their team of lawyers advised them that this is how you can continue to collect data on almost everyone, while putting the blame for COPPA violations on the uploaders.

Similar to Apple saying that it's for environment protection and such, while trying its hardest to make its products as difficult to repair as possible, so that people would throw them away (creating pollution in the form of e-waste) and buy new ones (creating pollution in the manufacture).

[Northern Star 1,024]

On 2021-10-05 at 2:37 AM, Valeska said:

Why not allow comments as long as people verify their age? 

Something about "they got around the age restriction" I recall reading when it first happened. 

Also how would one verify one's age?

Edited October 8, 2021 by TheGleaner

[RDDash 19,184]

YouTube doesn't want children to have accounts (you have to be 13 or older), also YouTube is going to make a bot to disable comment section for the videos with animation. I think it's has to be at least annoying for the content creators because their only means of communication with the public is slashed.

Edited October 9, 2021 by RDDash

[Valeska 184]

On 2021-10-05 at 1:16 PM, Splashee said:

@Valeska

Moved to Media Discussion, as that is where media related topics like YouTube discussion go.

Whoops! Sorry about that. I had a feeling I posted in the wrong threat. I'll be more careful in the future. 

 

On 2021-10-05 at 2:37 PM, Pentium100 said:

I think this is Youtube's way of punishing channels for uploading kid-friendly videos.

Some time ago there was an issue of Youtube violating COPPA by collecting information about kids (it's a bit more complicated, but not by much). Since then, Youtube requires uploader to mark if the video is "for kids" and then YT cannot collect information about the people who watch the video. So, I guess, disabling comments is a way to discourage uploaders from marking their videos as "for kids" (because if the video is for kids and is not marked as such, then YT proceeds to collect information and if there's a problem with the law, then YT hopes to make the uploader responsible and get him to pay the fine).

COPPA is important infrustracture yet it is very complex. I see why Youtube disabled comments for certain videos, while others it doesn't seem fair to the creators. 

 

On 2021-10-05 at 8:52 PM, Cash_In said:

Yeah, this has been a thing for a while, but I can sort of understand it. What bothers me more is that YouTube won't let you put any of those videos in a playlist. Now thats's stupid.

Really? I hadn't noticed that. I'm guessing because if you create a playlist with child friendly videos versus just regular vidoes that is deemed a bag thing. See this is where it doesn't make sense to me. If a kid is watching a cartoon they can't comment but if they are watching a normal video not intended for kids they can. It logic isn't really there for me. 

 

On 2021-10-08 at 3:17 PM, TheGleaner said:

Something about "they got around the age restriction" I recall reading when it first happened. 

Also how would one verify one's age?

Yeah, you're right. I was thinking about verifying your birthdate but then anyone can say they are any age on the internet. 

[Misty Shadow 7,900]

The kind of ads Youtube allows to be played for mobile games really shows you much they care.  This is essentially just another advertisement from them to use alternative tech, absolutely nothing stupid they do can surprise me anymore. 

[Splashee 28,564]

I think this whole thing started with this talk on TED:

 

[Cash In 22,347]

7 hours ago, Valeska said:

Really? I hadn't noticed that. I'm guessing because if you create a playlist with child friendly videos versus just regular vidoes that is deemed a bag thing. See this is where it doesn't make sense to me. If a kid is watching a cartoon they can't comment but if they are watching a normal video not intended for kids they can. It logic isn't really there for me. 

Yeah. I noticed it when I wanted put some songs from FiM into a huge playlist, but YouTube doesn't let you. It just doesn't make any sense at all.

[Tom Gallagher 33,588]

I hate it. I love reading the comments on MLP videos and now a massive amount of them are gone. If they don’t want kids reading them, add a filter! 

Edited October 13, 2021 by TomDaBombMLP