Can COPPA fine you?
Some lawyers say the fines are to YouTube itself or to Google or to Alphabet because, in the fine print, it is directed to the administrators of YouTube. The users are not administrators because they don't have all the options that admins have. But regardless, COPPA is a big mess.
Value in Privacy
I agree that it is generally safer to keep kids private. And maybe let them choose to publish their video in twenty years from now or to publish some of them when they are off in college or whatever. Yeah, it is uncharted for sure, for all of us.
Kids Encourages Kids
Now, it is possible for some kids to be able to encourage and inspire other kids via videos, etc, online. But it is similar to being like a child actor. Like, being in the public limelight may come with a price.
Fame to Influence Others
People can perhaps use their fame to influence people. But that is risky of course. And possibly rewarding. It may depend to some extent on the kid as different kids are different and some kids do things that are pretty public at a young age.
Kids in Gymnastics
Like if you had a kid perform in gymnastics at the age of 8 for example, the public performance might be uploaded to the Internet. So, if the parents don't publish the performance, others in the audience might.
If It is Already Public
Because it was done in the public. I would say it would benefit the family if they were to publish it as opposed to just letting some random person publish it.
What Happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas
But then, the home videos can remain offline.
Star Wars
It is similar to how Star Wars started publishing movie trailers to YouTube. Otherwise, random YouTubers upload the trailers and get all views. So, around like 2014, Star Wars started doing that on their official channel on YouTube. In doing that, they would get the most amount of views for those trailers. Otherwise, random channels get all the free publicity. So, in other words, parents could choose to publish whatever that is already public. If your children do things in the public, then you might as well publish that. Anything done privately could remain private for the moment if you want.
It Depends I Guess
Again, it depends on the kid, the family, where you might live, whether or not it is safe or not to do this or to do that, etc.
One thing I've seen for certain is the FTC promising to go after content-creators and channel-owners directly, with both fines and lawsuits. They were asked specifically, because as you say, people are confused. The answer is, 100% for sure, they will target YouTubers, not YouTube.
Now, they may be lying about that, I don't know. But they definitely say they intend to sue content-creators directly.