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I for one am glad at this though I am sure the fine could have been exponentially larger. The fact that YouTube can go here and say their platform is only inten

by 14 7y ago

I for one am glad at this though I am sure the fine could have been exponentially larger. The fact that YouTube can go here and say their platform is only intended for 13 year olds and up is a joke. Their are thousands of shows targeted directly at my kids. I can even clearly hear one video my kid likes to watch starts out with saying “look kids” so tell me how that is not directed at kids. I use an adblocker but when I go to my moms she doesn’t have it set up on her iPad. The kids shows are bombarded with ads for adult products like cars or you name it. They are marketing towards kids and I can’t stand it.

ty38 7y ago
> the fine could have been exponentially larger. 200,000,000^2 is 4e16, which is more wealth than exists in the entire world. Which exponent did you mean?
- cududa 7y ago
  Exponentially larger on a per user basis
cududa 7y ago
Why in the hell are you being downvoted for saying YouTube targets children?
- techntoke 7y ago
  Because children have these things called parents, that are allowing unrestricted access to a platform that they failed to read and follow the terms and conditions of. There is also a YouTube kids app, specifically geared towards helping filter child-appropriate content and advertising policies. I'm personally no fan of YouTube myself, as it constantly recommends channels and videos that I have no interest in and that I often find to be despicable based on my actual interests. I loathe that it does this, but I have the choice of not using it. What would you prefer... Every site you going to require that you sign in and verify your identity before being able to use the service, and sign some type of agreement that you won't let a minor or child access it? Same goes to cigarettes and alcohol by the way.
  - dang 7y ago
    > children have these things called parents Please don't break the site guidelines by being snarky and taking threads further into flamewar. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
    - techntoke 7y ago
      Sorry
  - DanBC 7y ago
    Youtube Kids doesn't work. It doesn't have the content that children want to watch, and it includes content that is not suitable for children. Other organisations manage to provide ad-supported video content with very few problems. You can sit a child down in front of UK Channel 4 or ITV children's content and know that the ads won't be for alcohol or gambling or horror films, and you'll know the video will be age appropriate. There are content creators on Youtube who target children. There are children who want to watch that content. There are parents who'll allow their children to watch the content. All we need now is for Youtube to not place horror film ads in that content, and not to start recommending videos to the child where people are yelling "DIE YOU FUCKING $racialslur".
dmix 7y ago
Isn't there a YouTube kids version? I'm not a parent so I've never used it and I've been curious since I also see that Netflix had a cordoned off sections for kids too. I'm not sure if these are sufficient content and feature wise? Also is there any parental consent thing going on here as well with how YouTube words it? I remember seeing plenty of adult ads as a kid watching TV at night time watching with my parents. The morning kids shows and kids channels always had ads for children of course. Id imagine it's in YouTubes interest not to show kids adult ads as well, most adults probably aren't sitting around watching the same shows with them to make the adult ads useful.
- ryanjshaw 7y ago
  There is but it is not free from very disturbing issues (search for 'elsagate'). Also YouTube Kids has no quality controls. It uses more bandwidth, due to our hires tablet display I guess, than any other device in our household. Very annoying when on capped LTE on a trip.
  - mav3rick 7y ago
    You can set video quality to a lower res.
- jan_g 7y ago
  There is and any parent giving their phone/tablet to young kids should at minimum make sure it's YouTube Kids they're watching. It doesn't have ads or comments section, for example. As for its content being sufficiently filtered or not - nowadays I think it is. We, the parents, should of course try to minimize the amount of time our kids spend with youtube or in general with phones/tablets/TVs.
namewasmypw 7y ago
YouTube is a video hosting platform. It targets whatever the people who upload videos target. Stop clutching your pearls and start being responsible for yourself. The "please think of the children" rhetoric has the effect of ruining it for the rest of us, and it's especially frustrating when the subtext is "because I'm not willing to think of the children myself." If you want a website you can let your kid use with unfettered access and no supervision, go use one of the sites that claims to provide that.
- dang 7y ago
  Personal attacks will get you banned here. Would you please read https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to the rules when posting to HN?
  - namewasmypw 7y ago
    Can you highlight which part of my post was a personal attack?
    - dang 7y ago
      > Stop clutching your pearls and start being responsible for yourself
point78 7y ago
Cartoon nursery rhymes directed at as low as even 1 year olds will sometimes have ads popup for a tv show containing drugs and guns. Completely inappropriate! EVERYTHING that deals with children whether directly or indirectly is strictly regulated, and rightly so. Television programming as an example, for 70 years only permits certain ads to be displayed on children's shows. YouTube should be regulated by the FCC in regards to this and very easily can have a checkbox for advertisers and providers to check that says the content is for under 13 or not.
- DanBC 7y ago
  Yes. I've complained to the UK regulator about gambling ads placed in children's content and they are paying attention. They say it's hard because YouTube forbids (because COPPA) anyone under 13 from having an account, which means those children use their parent's accounts, and so the demographics used by the advertisers are skewed. However, they did take action against every single gambling company I complained about because the ads were placed against children's content.
- izacus 7y ago
  > Cartoon nursery rhymes directed at as low as even 1 year olds will sometimes have ads popup for a tv show containing drugs and guns. Completely inappropriate! Does that still happen if you actually pay for the service via Prermium subscription? Or only if you want to use it completely free and paying nothing?
  - point78 7y ago
    Free. Just like public broadcasting system is free and when watching Sesame Street an ad for The Wire (Or whatever came up) will not happen.
midev 7y ago
You need to be a parent and not expect regulatory fines to watch your children. You've identified a problem, you've identified the cause, and now you need to do something about it within your household. You're literally talking about a video you let your child watch, while bemoaning the FCC needing to step in. > The fact that YouTube can go here and say their platform is only intended for 13 year olds and up is a joke The joke is that you understand YouTube is for 13 year olds and up, and you still allow your child on there. Personal responsibility needs to come first. > They are marketing towards kids and I can’t stand it. What kind of home router do you have. I'll show you how to block YouTube. Your mom can do similar things at home. There are plenty of blocking solutions out there. Which ones have you tried?
- point78 7y ago
  Completely wrong, everything targeted at children (for decades) is regulated. If your kid is watching Sesame Street on PBS and an ad for The Sopranos appears - that does not happen for a reason. Uploading cartoon nursery rhymes and having an ad for drug trafficking come up is idiotic.
  - johnisgood 7y ago
    It very may well be regulated, sure, but what is completely wrong exactly? Parents are responsible for their children! Is this incorrect? We can go back to how parents blame everyone but themselves when their kid steals their credit card to buy, say, loot boxes.
    - DanBC 7y ago
      We don't want a society where parents have to helicopter their children. We want a society where parents can give their children gradual access to freedom. > We can go back to how parents blame everyone but themselves when their kid steals their credit card to buy, say, loot boxes. This is a completely different problem. Content is made for children. Those content creators don't want unsuitable ads in the content. The children enjoy watching the content. Those children don't want unsuitable ads. The parents are happy for their children to watch the content. Those parents don't want unsuitable ads. All YouTube has to do is give content creators a checkbox: "Is this content aimed at people under 18?", then not place ads for gambling or alcohol or horror movies etc against that content. YouTube needs to be aware that regulation is coming, and they're not going to like what the EU will impose.
wolco 7y ago
I thought having an account required 13 or over but to view a public video there are no age restrictions.

by 14 7y ago

ty38 7y ago

> the fine could have been exponentially larger. 200,000,000^2 is 4e16, which is more wealth than exists in the entire world. Which exponent did you mean?

cududa 7y ago
Exponentially larger on a per user basis

cududa 7y ago

Why in the hell are you being downvoted for saying YouTube targets children?

techntoke 7y ago
Because children have these things called parents, that are allowing unrestricted access to a platform that they failed to read and follow the terms and conditions of. There is also a YouTube kids app, specifically geared towards helping filter child-appropriate content and advertising policies. I'm personally no fan of YouTube myself, as it constantly recommends channels and videos that I have no interest in and that I often find to be despicable based on my actual interests. I loathe that it does this, but I have the choice of not using it. What would you prefer... Every site you going to require that you sign in and verify your identity before being able to use the service, and sign some type of agreement that you won't let a minor or child access it? Same goes to cigarettes and alcohol by the way.
- dang 7y ago
  > children have these things called parents Please don't break the site guidelines by being snarky and taking threads further into flamewar. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
  - techntoke 7y ago
    Sorry
- DanBC 7y ago
  Youtube Kids doesn't work. It doesn't have the content that children want to watch, and it includes content that is not suitable for children. Other organisations manage to provide ad-supported video content with very few problems. You can sit a child down in front of UK Channel 4 or ITV children's content and know that the ads won't be for alcohol or gambling or horror films, and you'll know the video will be age appropriate. There are content creators on Youtube who target children. There are children who want to watch that content. There are parents who'll allow their children to watch the content. All we need now is for Youtube to not place horror film ads in that content, and not to start recommending videos to the child where people are yelling "DIE YOU FUCKING $racialslur".

dmix 7y ago

Isn't there a YouTube kids version? I'm not a parent so I've never used it and I've been curious since I also see that Netflix had a cordoned off sections for kids too. I'm not sure if these are sufficient content and feature wise? Also is there any parental consent thing going on here as well with how YouTube words it? I remember seeing plenty of adult ads as a kid watching TV at night time watching with my parents. The morning kids shows and kids channels always had ads for children of course. Id imagine it's in YouTubes interest not to show kids adult ads as well, most adults probably aren't sitting around watching the same shows with them to make the adult ads useful.

ryanjshaw 7y ago
There is but it is not free from very disturbing issues (search for 'elsagate'). Also YouTube Kids has no quality controls. It uses more bandwidth, due to our hires tablet display I guess, than any other device in our household. Very annoying when on capped LTE on a trip.
- mav3rick 7y ago
  You can set video quality to a lower res.
jan_g 7y ago
There is and any parent giving their phone/tablet to young kids should at minimum make sure it's YouTube Kids they're watching. It doesn't have ads or comments section, for example. As for its content being sufficiently filtered or not - nowadays I think it is. We, the parents, should of course try to minimize the amount of time our kids spend with youtube or in general with phones/tablets/TVs.

namewasmypw 7y ago

YouTube is a video hosting platform. It targets whatever the people who upload videos target. Stop clutching your pearls and start being responsible for yourself. The "please think of the children" rhetoric has the effect of ruining it for the rest of us, and it's especially frustrating when the subtext is "because I'm not willing to think of the children myself." If you want a website you can let your kid use with unfettered access and no supervision, go use one of the sites that claims to provide that.

dang 7y ago
Personal attacks will get you banned here. Would you please read https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to the rules when posting to HN?
- namewasmypw 7y ago
  Can you highlight which part of my post was a personal attack?
  - dang 7y ago
    > Stop clutching your pearls and start being responsible for yourself

point78 7y ago

Cartoon nursery rhymes directed at as low as even 1 year olds will sometimes have ads popup for a tv show containing drugs and guns. Completely inappropriate! EVERYTHING that deals with children whether directly or indirectly is strictly regulated, and rightly so. Television programming as an example, for 70 years only permits certain ads to be displayed on children's shows. YouTube should be regulated by the FCC in regards to this and very easily can have a checkbox for advertisers and providers to check that says the content is for under 13 or not.

DanBC 7y ago
Yes. I've complained to the UK regulator about gambling ads placed in children's content and they are paying attention. They say it's hard because YouTube forbids (because COPPA) anyone under 13 from having an account, which means those children use their parent's accounts, and so the demographics used by the advertisers are skewed. However, they did take action against every single gambling company I complained about because the ads were placed against children's content.
izacus 7y ago
> Cartoon nursery rhymes directed at as low as even 1 year olds will sometimes have ads popup for a tv show containing drugs and guns. Completely inappropriate! Does that still happen if you actually pay for the service via Prermium subscription? Or only if you want to use it completely free and paying nothing?
- point78 7y ago
  Free. Just like public broadcasting system is free and when watching Sesame Street an ad for The Wire (Or whatever came up) will not happen.

midev 7y ago

You need to be a parent and not expect regulatory fines to watch your children. You've identified a problem, you've identified the cause, and now you need to do something about it within your household. You're literally talking about a video you let your child watch, while bemoaning the FCC needing to step in. > The fact that YouTube can go here and say their platform is only intended for 13 year olds and up is a joke The joke is that you understand YouTube is for 13 year olds and up, and you still allow your child on there. Personal responsibility needs to come first. > They are marketing towards kids and I can’t stand it. What kind of home router do you have. I'll show you how to block YouTube. Your mom can do similar things at home. There are plenty of blocking solutions out there. Which ones have you tried?

point78 7y ago
Completely wrong, everything targeted at children (for decades) is regulated. If your kid is watching Sesame Street on PBS and an ad for The Sopranos appears - that does not happen for a reason. Uploading cartoon nursery rhymes and having an ad for drug trafficking come up is idiotic.
- johnisgood 7y ago
  It very may well be regulated, sure, but what is completely wrong exactly? Parents are responsible for their children! Is this incorrect? We can go back to how parents blame everyone but themselves when their kid steals their credit card to buy, say, loot boxes.
  - DanBC 7y ago
    We don't want a society where parents have to helicopter their children. We want a society where parents can give their children gradual access to freedom. > We can go back to how parents blame everyone but themselves when their kid steals their credit card to buy, say, loot boxes. This is a completely different problem. Content is made for children. Those content creators don't want unsuitable ads in the content. The children enjoy watching the content. Those children don't want unsuitable ads. The parents are happy for their children to watch the content. Those parents don't want unsuitable ads. All YouTube has to do is give content creators a checkbox: "Is this content aimed at people under 18?", then not place ads for gambling or alcohol or horror movies etc against that content. YouTube needs to be aware that regulation is coming, and they're not going to like what the EU will impose.

wolco 7y ago

I thought having an account required 13 or over but to view a public video there are no age restrictions.