I know this is a plant blog but I feel that I need to voice my opinion on something and where better to do it than on my blog? I do plan to write about other things than plants occasionally but I will always include a plant in the post so you have at least a little eye candy to enjoy. So some of you might know that I have been making plant videos on youtube for about a year or so and yes I have been sucked into all the other plant videos plus diy, arts and crafting videos. I do spend a lot of my time watching youtube videos especially when it is cold outside which is generally the case this time of year. I have been trying to create videos consistently but that has been severely lacking because my last video was uploaded 4 weeks ago unfortunately. One of these days I hope to get videos up more consistently but I don’t know when that will happen.

So onto my original intent for this post, COPPA, the law created in the 1990’s that prohibits people from targeting kids when it comes to advertising. Starting on January 1st, 2020, YouTube will begin enforcing this law and it will be affecting a large amount of creators on the site. If a creator makes content that is of “interest to kids” or aimed toward kids then they will no longer get Adsense money, be found in searches and have subscribers get notifications when they upload a video. The site will also no longer allow that creator to have comments on their video(s) which meet this criteria. I don’t know about you but I enjoy watching arts and craft videos such as Nerdecrafter and TheCrafsMan on youtube and because of this COPPA law, these creator’s channels are in jeapardy because they could be seen as “interesting to kids” because they create/sculpt fun sculptures and art. I really would miss these channels if they go away. If you feel this way then please go to the FTC website and voice your opinion on this future enforcement of the law. I am just going to say that in my opinion, I think asking someone if they are under 13 before making an account on youtube should cover it but I guess my opinion doesn’t count. And also, if parents don’t want their kids to be targeted for ads then they shouldn’t allow their kids to watch youtube videos.

And now for some houseplant eye candy because COPAA is just plain depressing: