YouTube content creators have had the spotlight shined on them quite a bit in the past few months. Unfortunately, not all content creators have been in the spotlight for the best reasons.
Over the past year, YouTuber content creators have been the focus of controversy. There have been content creators found to exploit children, video content that shows abuse of children for views), and controversies involving antisemitic views. Most recently, a YouTuber was in the spotlight for sharing a video of a dead body.
YouTube is looking to mitigate future controversy with a new set of rule on what it takes to become a YouTube Partner and how to get paid. These new rules won’t be affecting the big content creators, even if they post questionable content. The new rules will be affected smaller channels for the most part.
In order for a content creator to become a YouTube Partner and monetize their videos, they must have 4,000 hours of watchtime within the past 12 months and 1,000 subscribers. Previously, the YouTube Partner Program requirement was 10,000-lifetime views for a channel.
A 30 day grace period has been issued for YouTube Partner channels to reach the new requirement. On February 20th 2018 channels with fewer than 1,000 subs or 4,000 watch hours will no longer be able to earn money on YouTube.
YouTube will be “working to schedule conversations” with creators to hear how they can tackle the issue of how a large channel’s actions can impact the community and how advertisers view YouTube.
Good luck to all the content creators affected by the new requirements.
