Reply To: COPPA, the FTC and Youtube content appealing to children.

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The biggest problem here is that this legislation is focusing on the wrong problem. YouTube, the owners of the platform, are the ones responsible for illegally collecting children’s information, so they’re trying to deflect the issue by blaming the content creators. Not to mention that parents should also be more responsible for monitoring their children’s Internet usage so that they aren’t exposed to questionable material on YouTube. Believe me, I’ve seen the weird side of YouTube multiple times, so I know how disturbing it can be if you’re not careful, but it’s all part of freedom of speech. YouTube is not meant to be an alternative to Nickelodeon or Cartoon Network; it’s a platform for information, entertainment, art (in all its various weird forms), and quite simply freedom of speech. In this situation, parents need to actually step up and be parents instead of letting the Internet raise their children, and YouTube needs to accept that it screwed up and has to pay the price instead of punishing the creators using their platform. If legislations like this continue, it will be a clear violation of our country’s constitution which allows free speech on all platforms, regardless of its content. Though given how the Democratic party has been trying so hard to take away freedoms to own firearms, practice certain religions, and even speak openly, this is just more par for the course. In my opinion, I’d just continue to speak openly and freely regardless of how many people are upset by it because 1) that’s a God-given freedom that all people have, 2) that’s the nature of language, 3) and to quote Abraham Lincoln “You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time.” If you always worry about who’s going to be upset by what you say or do, what’s even the point in saying or doing anything?