Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

YouTube Said to Be Fined Up to $200M for Children’s Privacy Violations

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 156 posts

Re: YouTube Said to Be Fined Up to $200M for Children’s Privacy Violations

#21

Post by dmix »

input_sh wrote: post #18
dmix wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A competitor who finds a way to deal with copyright better, has a sane advertising policy that doesn't randomly demonetizes people, with a patreon system built in, and has a modern UI (YouTube has a lot of room for improvement) it could possibly compete with YouTube. A whole lot of major YouTube channels who are constantly attacked by false copyright claims or have to push product placements due to no ads would love…

It's a chicken and egg problem: users won't switch platforms until their favorite creators switch over, and the creators won't switch over if nobody's there to watch their videos.

Well in any case it's pretty clear which one needs to come first, convince the creators and they'll push existing users to the new platform.

The chicken problem is more about the ad buyers and the users, not creators. The patreon system scales better this way but the ads are what holds most back.

I know quite a few YouTube channels who tried pushing one of those awful decentralized versions of YouTube that look like Chinese knockoffs when the either the demonetization and copyright stuff bit them hard and threatened (or simply ruined) years of their hard work, but there was never a proper alternative to offer. I'm sure they'd love a legitimate alternative designed by top tier designers and developers for once.

Otherwise the creators will have no financial incentive to route users to another platform. Which is a far higher problem than not having enough other people commenting on the same video as other users.

Re: YouTube Said to Be Fined Up to $200M for Children’s Privacy Violations

#23

Post by ericd »

stickfigure wrote: post #20
um_ya wrote: post #7

With all the complaints against Youtube, I don't know how they can still be so out of touch with everyone. It's almost as if they're doing it deliberately. They're begging for competition to take over their unprofitable business. Nobody wants to step up.

Nobody wants to step up So step up. Or are you just too comfortable in your armchair?

Extreme network effects make this an unreasonable thing to ask.

Re: YouTube Said to Be Fined Up to $200M for Children’s Privacy Violations

#24

Post by namewasmypw »

14 wrote: post #2

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 whe…

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.

Re: YouTube Said to Be Fined Up to $200M for Children’s Privacy Violations

#25

Post by point78 »

14 wrote: post #2

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 whe…

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.

Re: YouTube Said to Be Fined Up to $200M for Children’s Privacy Violations

#26

Post by wongarsu »

stickfigure wrote: post #20
um_ya wrote: post #7

With all the complaints against Youtube, I don't know how they can still be so out of touch with everyone. It's almost as if they're doing it deliberately. They're begging for competition to take over their unprofitable business. Nobody wants to step up.

Nobody wants to step up So step up. Or are you just too comfortable in your armchair?

There have been plenty of attempts, nearly all of them failed (with the rest holding onto niche markets)

Re: YouTube Said to Be Fined Up to $200M for Children’s Privacy Violations

#28

Post by techntoke »

cududa wrote: post #15
14 wrote: post #2

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 whe…

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

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.

Re: YouTube Said to Be Fined Up to $200M for Children’s Privacy Violations

#29

Post by gpm »

input_sh wrote: post #18
dmix wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A competitor who finds a way to deal with copyright better, has a sane advertising policy that doesn't randomly demonetizes people, with a patreon system built in, and has a modern UI (YouTube has a lot of room for improvement) it could possibly compete with YouTube. A whole lot of major YouTube channels who are constantly attacked by false copyright claims or have to push product placements due to no ads would love…

It's a chicken and egg problem: users won't switch platforms until their favorite creators switch over, and the creators won't switch over if nobody's there to watch their videos.

You don't have to convince creator's to switch, just to use your new platform as well. YouTube doesn't have an exclusive license on the content.

Re: YouTube Said to Be Fined Up to $200M for Children’s Privacy Violations

#30

Post by wongarsu »

dmix wrote: post #12
pjc50 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a two sided market; the player with the largest catalog wins. Youtube has also negotiated the copyright minefield extremely well - starting a competitor would have to deal with takedowns.

A competitor who finds a way to deal with copyright better, has a sane advertising policy that doesn't randomly demonetizes people, with a patreon system built in, and has a modern UI (YouTube has a lot of room for improvement) it could possibly compete with YouTube. A whole lot of major YouTube channels who are constantly attacked by false copyright claims or have to push product placements due to no ads would love…

Sure, just build a video streaming website with good UI, a good recommendation/discovery algorithm, it's own avertising network (that is able to compete with YTs excellent personalized ads while having a more creator-friendly policy), spend more on human review of copyright claims than YT, establish a revenue share system for creators, as well as a system to pay monthly pledges similar to YT channel memberships or patreon (of course both need to comply with laws and regultions of all major countries), and have the budget to finance multiple months of video streaming and encoding servers.

There's space in the market, but I don't think anyone is willing to pay for that after so many others failed.

Post reply on HN