When I post my videos to YouTube, I always choose the "not for kids" setting, as there are only two possible options ("for kids" and "not for kids"). I do this because I believe that my videos are for everyone, not just children. In addition, if the video is marked as "intended for children", then no comments are possible on that video.

Today, however, I received an email from YouTube stating:

Hello, Mister No,

We would like to inform you that we have manually reviewed your content and determined that it is intended for children based on our policies. Therefore, in the following video, we've updated your audience setting for "Kids":

Video: THOMAS & FRIENDS - ALL ENGINES GO 29: Percy's Passenger Run | Push Along Set

If you think we made a mistake, click the video link above on your computer and follow the instructions. You need to be logged in to the following account: Mister No

From now on, check your audience settings for your channel and / or individual videos. Regardless of your location, you must comply with the provisions of the Children's Internet Privacy Act (COPPA) and / or other laws. If you don’t set the right audience for your content, you may face legal consequences or consequences on YouTube. We can also take action at the channel level, which may include closing the channel if we find recurring errors or abuse.

Additional information on child content guidelines can be found in the following resources:

FTC Guidelines for YouTube Channel Owners
Children's Internet Privacy Act (COPPA)
YouTube Help: Determining whether the content is intended for children
YouTube Help: Set audiences for a channel or video
YouTube Channel for Authors: COPPA Compliance

If you have additional questions, you can contact us here.

With respect,
YouTube team

They are referring to this video of mine.
But actually, they could have taken just about any other.

"From now on, check your audience settings!" What a language!

They manually reviewed my video? And then they come with the undisguised threat: "If you don’t set the right audience for your content, you may face legal consequences or consequences on YouTube. We can also take action at the channel level, which may include closing the channel if we find recurring errors or abuse."

What have I done to deserve such threats? Additionally, YouTube deleted all comments below the video in question and locked it, i.e. disabled comments.

So there are two things: (1) their Guidelines, and (2) the law in question. I consider it completely unacceptable to threaten someone with legal consequences for violating the law, without even stating which article of the law in question has been violated. This behaviour is disturbing because it causes legal uncertainty. Anyone who breaks any law must know what he is accused of before any action is taken against him. Given the above, it seems that those on YouTube do not stick to that.

Legal uncertainty is also fuelled by their “guidelines” because everything there is written using broad general clauses under which much can be subsumed. In other words, something similar can happen to almost anyone.

Its rules explicitly state the following: Content intended for all is content that may be appealing to all audience groups but is not specifically intended for children, or content that is intended for teenagers or older audiences. Content intended for all should be set as "not intended for children". I firmly believe that my videos fall into that category. They obviously don't.

Now what? When they “manually review” videos, if they think the content is “child-friendly,” they may decide to "update" video settings and are free to send such threats to YouTubers.

If they find "recurring errors or abuse" (again, language!), as they marked my actions, they could close my channel. Does this mean that I should now review 182 of my videos again, guess which of them the “YouTube Team” might think are intended for children and change the settings accordingly, or face the legal consequences and deletion of my channel?

Since there are indeed a lot of videos like mine, and many of you record similar videos yourself without marking them as "intended for kids", I would like to ask you:
Have you ever received a similar email from YouTube?
Did they "updated" your video settings to "Kids"?
If so, did you appeal the decision and with what result?

Thank you.