Becoming a YouTuber - a dream job for kids

Similar to music or movie stars, "YouTubers" are great role models for children and young people. It is therefore hardly surprising that many adolescents want to become "YouTubers. They seem to spend all their time creating videos and pursuing their hobbies (e.g. computer games, traveling, make-up) and earning "a lot" of money. What happens behind the camera is often not considered. Therefore, first talk to your child about the possibly naive ideas about the profession YouTuber*in.

Also talk to your child about:

  • Costs for necessary technology and equipment
  • Building up know-how and the time required for filming and editing video clips.
  • Workload: To be successful on YouTube, you have to be constantly active. In addition to YouTube, other platforms such as Instagram must also be "played on" daily. This hardly allows any time off, otherwise your reach will drop and you will lose advertising revenue and thus your livelihood.
  • Privacy: As a YouTuber, you have to be prepared to share a lot of personal information from your own life. You make yourself vulnerable to criticism.

Active on YouTube

Before your child publishes his or her own YouTube clips, he or she should keep the following things in mind:

The Google account: Prerequisite for your own YouTube channel

According to the GDPR, the age of at least 16 years is a basic requirement for creating a Google account. It is assumed that from this age, young people can better assess the scope of their YouTube use. In particular, the handling of personal data plays a role here. However, according to the Terms of Use for children and young people under 18 , parental consent is also required for registration with YouTube.

Protecting your own privacy

Even when creating a YouTube channel, some aspects must be taken into account: the YouTube user name should not allow any inference of personal data, such as the real name, age or place of residence. When producing any video, it is important to consider which aspects of personal life should remain hidden. For example, it is not advisable to shoot videos in your own children's room.

Use privacy settings

For each video published on YouTube, it should be checked which group of users should be allowed access to it. YouTube offers the option of making videos accessible only to a restricted group of users. It is also possible to upload a video to YouTube as "unlisted". In this case, users receive a link to the video that can be passed on to others. However, it should be noted that such a link can also be passed on to others by third parties in an uncontrolled manner.

Observe copyright

As is the case elsewhere on the Internet, YouTube is governed by laws that must be observed by everyone. For example, you may not upload any third-party videos to your own YouTube channel without the permission of . If you see others in the video, you should ask them if they agree before posting. Especially if it is "embarrassing" footage. Because according to the right to one's own image, one may not publish pictures without the consent of the person depicted and may not "expose" or "degrade" anyone in pictures. Caution is also advised with background music in the videos. Here it is best to use your own songs or music published under a Creative Commons license .

Comment function: Dealing with criticism of your own videos

The tone on the Internet is not always nice. Prepare your child for the fact that he or she may not only receive positive feedback on videos posted. Discuss how to deal with such comments. Saferinternet.at shows in step-by-step instructions how to report comments to the platform or how toswitch off the comment function.