Is it even worth the risk to continue YouTube with this COPPA witchhunt going on?

I made some money with a YouTube channel in the past, but I haven't uploaded anything in the last couple years. My videos were fairly popular so my viewers and subscribers kept me afloat when I was inactive until I was recently demonetized due to some copyright BS, which made me even less interested in YouTube.

Lately I was thinking of entering a new niche and revamping my current style so I can start uploading more original content. But now with this whole COPPA sh1+storm striking the horizons I don't know anymore.
And to make matters worse, YouTube wants me to check my content as For Kids or Not For Kids.
And then I see a banner on top of the YouTube page that says all creators must comply with COPPA law (whether creators can monetize their content or not).

This frightens me. Look, as disappointing as this sounds, I don't care if I can never make money with YouTube ever again. I just do not want to be fined $42,000 per video because the FTC and YouTube mistake my content as being for kids (which it's not). I abhor the thought of dealing with a harem of uppity, slimy, corrupt, self-righteous, old and out-of-touch pricks in the federal court while defending myself from them so I can prove my innocence.

I'm thinking of just deleting my channel. Should I just delete all of my videos before next year just to be safe? What site can I use to start over? Because YouTube and the future of it seems bleak and a pathway to bankruptcy. Damn it. Just when I wanted to test and promote my creativity.

You didn't make clear in your post if your content is kids related or not.

If it is, there is still plenty of money to be made in that niche even with ads turned off. By far the biggest money maker for YouTubers who put the effort in, is brand deals.

Depending on the geo of your audience, that determines the rates, and most brands now are wanting to hook directly in to your channel analytics to verify.

But if your traffic is mostly tier 1 countries, like at least 50%, you can make $.02 to $.05 per view, and upwards beyond $.10 for full 360 deals if you prove valuable to the brand.

That's considerably more than you'd ever make with AdSense.

Anyways, regarding COPPA, there are two ways to look at it, pessimistically or as an opportunity. I feel the 42k fine stuff has been blown way out of proportion and has just been something repeated ad nauseum by a whole host of FUD types. But COPPA is indeed causing massive unrest in this niche. Who are going to be the aggressive channels that fill a massive vacuum because other channels are just going to give up?

so much nonsense in the above post... funny how this guy calls himself a "youtube marketer" and then posts garbage like that.

kids channels not only get demonetized. they also cant receive comments, wont show up on any recommendations, wont notify subscribers of new videos, cant use end screens or info cards. basically, the channel is dead.

Good luck finding brands interested in this.

nufaman said:

so much nonsense in the above post... funny how this guy calls himself a "youtube marketer" and then posts garbage like that.

kids channels not only get demonetized. they also cant receive comments, wont show up on any recommendations, wont notify subscribers of new videos, cant use end screens or info cards. basically, the channel is dead.

Good luck finding brands interested in this.

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My content is not intended for children. 95% of my audience are over 13.
But still: Should I delete my videos just to be safe? Will I get fined? Would you chance it? If so or not, then why?