YouTube has been the top video sharing website for years. However, there are several unfair problems with the platform, ranging from monetization crises to ignoring the fact that some copyright owners outsource their handling duties to companies that use bots to automatically block videos and reject claims (this is the case with ViacomCBS, who outsources to Broadband TV). 

But the problem here is one of the biggest ones and it borders on outright censorship... COPPA.

The United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) had introduced the Child Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) long before YouTube existed. However, last year, YouTube was fined $170 million US dollars by the FTC for violations of the act, pertaining to retainment of data collected from users under 13 years of age. This is completely bogus, as users on YouTube are required to be at least 13 years of age.
As such, YouTube began to implement COPPA under the FTC's orders in the beginning of 2020. However, this got bad - fast.

YouTube divided their content into two categories - for kids and not for kids. Videos marked as "for kids" (either by the uploader or YouTube's bots) have several features disabled. They aren't shown on Google search results, they can only be monetized through contextual advertising decided by bots, comments are disabled, they cannot be added to playlists (aside from a workaround), they cannot be downloaded on the mobile app, or be played in the miniplayer. How is the miniplayer supposed to collect data from any user?

This is incredibly inconvenient not just for content creators, but also for adult viewers. If adults can't comment or see comments on a video from jurisdiction not by the uploader, that is censorship. 
And the miniplayer issue has already been discussed and is very inconvenient and frustrating for adults who wish to view nostalgic videos from their childhood.

In fact. not only is it not helpful for adult users, but also not helpful to children either. Not only was YouTube never meant to be for children, but uploads of clips from adult-oriented media (even live-action, non-cartoony media) have been labeled by bots as "for kids". These include South Park, Goodfellas. Family Guy, Robot Chicken, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me. These are full of blood, violence, coarse language, sexually suggestive content, and yet they're marked as kids' content. Which means you can't comment on them and share your thoughts. Not cool. Not fair.

In fact, some YouTube videos that were already age-restricted (meaning that only signed-in users who are 18 and older can view them) - either put there by the uploader or YouTube, have been labeled as "for kids" by the bots.
I think that if only people 18 and older could view that content in the first place, you should already know whether it's kids' stuff or not.

Worse yet is that many of these videos come from users who have been inactive for years. Who knows what they could get hit with by legal divisions for a video marked as "for kids" by YouTube's bots, when they haven't been on the site in forever? Many of these users likely do not come from high-income households, and should things be as worse as possible, they would be out on the street.

That is NOT COOL.

YouTube tends to advertise their existing spinoff app, YouTube Kids, on videos marked as "for kids". Well if you had a kid-friendly version, why is this even an issue? Why does YouTube need to be kid-friendly if it never was meant to be, and if there's already such a thing as YouTube Kids?
Parents who let their kids watch YouTube should have them watch YouTube Kids, and if they aren't willing to do that, they shouldn't let their kids watch YouTube at all. Parents need to take responsibility here. Content creators aren't babysitters and these restrictions are making things harder for both creators and users. And we are NOT HAPPY.

Here's some possible solutions, one or more of which that YouTube can try, should they have to comply with COPPA.

1. Make a General Audiences setting for videos. This way, it's not necessarily mature content nor directed at kids and kids alone.

2. Let users flag videos specifically for being mislabeled as "for kids". These reviews must be done manually to ensure accuracy. If the reviewer (who cannot be a bot) agrees, the video is changed to Not For Kids.

3. Separate users into Standard and Kids/Parent accounts. Standard accounts would be for users verified to be 13 or older. Kids/Parent accounts would be for children 12 and under, or created/managed by their parent. COPPA restrictions will apply to Kids/Parent accounts only. This means that while Standard (adult) users can use miniplayer and view/leave comments on videos labeled "For Kids", a Kids/Parent account will not. Kids are safe, adults are satisfied. Everyone's happy.

If we fail, kids will remain unsafe on YouTube - unbeknownst to them and the FTC - and YouTube will only further dig its own grave. If we succeed, the privacy of children can potentially be MUCH safer on the platform, and more convenient for the adult users. Sign the petition, because we won't stop until we're VICTORIOUS!