How is This Not Family Safe Content?

I frequently upload videos to YouTube for cameras and other gadgets here at Tech Tilt, as well as Photography Bay.  The above video is intended to demonstrate the high-speed frame rate of the new Nikon P100 superzoom camera.  This produces a cool slow motion effect.  YouTube thinks it is not family safe content.

For those not familiar with how the revenue sharing works on YouTube, after a video becomes mildly popular YouTube will send an email to you encouraging you to apply for a revenue share of advertising that appears alongside the video.  YouTube then reviews the video, along with your statement of ownership to make sure you are blatently ripping off someone else’s content.

In the above case, I filmed a couple of short segments of an orange and water jug exploding by shooting them, and that’s what I disclosed to YouTube after they emailed me to notify me that the video was eligible for its revenue sharing program.

A couple of hours later, I get the following email from YouTube:

Necessary rights to video material and music?  There is no music, and I told them that I shot the video.  How can I be more specific?

Family safe content?  Huh?

It’s an orange and a water jug exploding.

Thanks for my understanding?  Sorry, but I don’t quite understand.

If you mean that the discharge of a firearm is not family safe in any circumstance, then ok, I guess I’m guilty for shooting an orange to demonstrate the slow motion capability of a video camera.  But at least have the guts to come out and say that you are making a political statement against any depiction of firearms (even the sound of a shot off camera).

A good chunk of Americans live out in the country where firearms are a safe and natural part of our everyday lives.  We teach our kids how to hunt and shoot at an early age and how to handle firearms in a safe and responsible manner.  That’s the way I was raised, and that’s the way I’m raising my kids.  To me, and my friends and family, there is nothing inherently wrong or ‘family unsafe’ with firearms.

I’ve spent the better part of an hour trying to find a way to inquire for more details as to why this video has been removed from revenue sharing; however, I don’t see a way to do that.  The email address YouTube sent the above email from is a ‘no-reply’ email address.  And going to the help section on YouTube provides a lot of info that is irrelevant to my question, and no additional way to contact YouTube with my question.

As far as the revenue share issue goes, I could care less.  I don’t make any significant sums from YouTube, so I’m not really going to miss anything here.  I am speaking with the assumption that YouTube is taking issue with me shooting an orange.  And, it’s the principle of that rejection that chaps my rusty so much.

So, if anyone has any thoughts about why the above video isn’t family safe content or what YouTube might be thinking about inadequate rights to the content, I’d love to hear what you have to say.

Tagged as: digital cameras, firearms, nikon p100, revenue share, revenue share rejection, slow motion, youtube