Guest Columnist

Gary Pope, co-founder and ceo of Kids Industries, takes a look at the new YouTube rules on what it describes as ‘overly commercial content’ and how it’s time to adapt, adopt and improve.

Right: Gary Pope, ceo and co-founder, Kids Industries.

UNBOXING HAS BEEN UNBOXED

a responsibility to take seriously.

After receiving a costly fine, YouTube doubled down on YouTube Kids and made it a safe place to visit - no paid promotions and expert human/algorithmic hybrid curation. All content that was kid-friendly was to be labelled as such and they shut down serving targeted ads in this content.

Fast forward to this summer and we get news of a somewhat vague and quietly revealed announcement of a crackdown on overtly commercial content. In a blog post the company said it would start removing such content and those that ‘focused on product packaging’ in the coming weeks. It appears that the days of that weird phenomena - the unboxing video - are over, but the line between acceptable content and ‘overtly commercial content’ is a blurred one. Especially if you're not quite seven.

CONTENT DEBATES

It’s clear that the door is open to further stiffening of the rules - with YouTube promising to remove any content that ‘incites viewers to buy a product’ and ‘content focused on the excessive accumulation or consumption of

products’. They can literally go anywhere they like with this. Idon’t need to tell you that YouTube is the biggest, brightest and best platform for children’s content. Or There’s an argument that content pertaining to shows that preschoolers love, are overtly commercial content because the bulk of revenue comes directly that children spend more time on it from consumer products that spin than they do watching proper telly, out of these shows. Multiple studies or even that it is perhaps the most have proven the link between a effective medium for marketers that child’s enjoyment of a TV show want to connect with those kids. and their request for product,

This corner of the internet so there’s a big debate coming has been increasingly more over what constitutes good important to businesses that content that nourishes the sell to families and children, children’s minds and what however fundamental is the content that just aspects of the platform are drives them to buy stuff. evolving and the way we The interesting thing use the platform to connect is that these changes with consumers may well are not required by law. need to change too. This is YouTube getting

At the end of 2019 YouTube ahead of the game; these are paid $170 million to settle the changes that will be required allegations by the Federal Trade in time, but ones that even the Commission and the New York lawmakers haven't seen yet. Attorney General that they It’s a good reminder to all that had illegally collected personal children aren’t commodities to information from children without be commercialised and frankly, their parents’ consent. At the that is where the whole influencer time the company refused to thing has been heading for a acknowledge that portions of the while. Children have always found platform were clearly directed commercial content engaging - to kids. An utterly daft thing to it's exciting to fantasise about all have done, but the message that the toys you'd like to play with they needed to change landed. after all - but there is a massive

I very much doubt that money difference between a healthy had anything to do with that obsession with a leaf through realisation. Parent company (what was) the Argos catalogue Alphabet says in the first line of its and the square eyes that come code of conduct that staff should from unboxing videos on loop. ‘do the right thing’. There has It's time to read up on what’s always been a moral or ethical coming and how to adapt, adopt dimension when marketing to and improve. Commerce will children and young people, after all, find a way and there's but today it’s more than a side few more commercially savvy thought to do so, it’s essential and than those in the toy industry.