Connected Without Compromise: Creator Mode

Lancaster Solutions LLC Safety Education Team

Lancaster Solutions LLC

2026-07

Copyright 2026 Lancaster Solutions LLC. All rights reserved.

Copyright, Permissions, and Updates

Second Publication Edition - July 2026

Prepared and edited by the Lancaster Solutions LLC Safety Education Team.

Copyright © 2026 Lancaster Solutions LLC. All rights reserved.

Educational-use permission: educators, libraries, counselors, and nonprofit youth-serving organizations may reproduce the checklists, discussion prompts, worksheets, and pocket action cards for noncommercial instruction when the material is unmodified and attribution is retained.

Free website edition license: the complete PDF may be shared without charge only in its original, unmodified form. It may not be sold, rebranded, altered, or represented as legal, medical, mental-health, financial, tax, or individualized safety advice.

Product, platform, game, company, and service names are used descriptively. Their owners retain their respective trademarks. No platform, publisher, school, government agency, or child-safety organization endorses this book unless a written endorsement states otherwise.

Facts, laws, school rules, platform settings, and reporting processes change. Use the update center before relying on a platform-specific instruction.

Updates and corrections: Connected Without Compromise update center

Accessibility: this edition uses structured headings, descriptive navigation, high-contrast text, and tagged-PDF export. Readers who need another format may contact the publisher through the Lancaster Solutions LLC website.

ISBN: not assigned for this website educational edition.

Publication and Safety Note

This book is educational. It is not legal, financial, tax, medical, or mental-health advice. Platform rules, monetization requirements, laws, school policies, and reporting systems change. Verify current requirements before acting, especially when money, contracts, taxes, copyright, or a minor’s safety is involved.

All scenarios are fictional composites. They are designed to feel realistic without describing an identifiable person. The book uses “creator” broadly to include YouTubers, Twitch streamers, short-form video creators, podcasters, gaming streamers, VTubers, and young people who publish or livestream to an audience.

! IMMEDIATE DANGER

Call emergency services if anyone is in immediate physical danger. In the United States, call 911. If a young person is in emotional crisis or at risk of self-harm, call or text 988. If a minor is being sexually exploited, enticed, or threatened with intimate material, contact the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children CyberTipline and involve a safe adult.

GO DARK: The Emergency Creator Response

Creators are trained to stay live, keep talking, and protect the show. During a safety incident, that instinct can make things worse. GO DARK is the opposite: protect the person before the content, the audience, or the algorithm.

G GET OFFLINE — End the stream, stop replying, and move away from the public conversation.

O OBTAIN EVIDENCE — Save URLs, usernames, timestamps, screenshots, emails, transaction records, and platform report numbers without redistributing harmful material.

D DEFEND ACCOUNTS — Change compromised credentials from a trusted device, revoke sessions, secure the primary email, and protect payment accounts.

A ALERT A SAFE ADULT — Tell a parent, guardian, school professional, manager, or another usable adult who can act calmly.

R REPORT THE HARM — Use the platform’s reporting tools and contact law enforcement or specialized services when threats, exploitation, stalking, swatting, or financial crime are involved.

K KEEP FOLLOWING UP — Record what happened, check for reuploads or new accounts, support emotional recovery, and revise the safety plan.

■ THE RULE THAT COMES BEFORE EVERY RULE

Your channel can pause. Your audience can wait. A sponsorship can be delayed. Evidence can be preserved. Safety comes first, even when the incident happens in front of viewers.

The Series Safety Backbone

Every response framework in the Connected Without Compromise series maps to the same five actions. The mode-specific acronym helps you remember the context; the backbone helps you act even when you forget the acronym.

1. PAUSE OR LEAVE - Stop the interaction, stream, lobby, payment, upload, or automated action.

2. PRESERVE EVIDENCE - Save usernames, links, timestamps, messages, transaction records, and report numbers without redistributing harmful material.

3. SECURE ACCESS - Protect the primary email, accounts, devices, sessions, recovery methods, and payment tools.

4. TELL A USABLE ADULT - Bring in a calm adult or qualified professional who can help without making disclosure feel like punishment.

5. REPORT AND FOLLOW UP - Use the correct platform, school, bank, child-safety, crisis, or law-enforcement route, then record what happens next.

Memory line: Stop the pressure. Save the facts. Secure the door. Bring in help. Keep following up.

A Note to Teen Creators

Creating online can be real work and real art. You may be teaching, entertaining, reviewing, performing, documenting a hobby, building a business, or finding people who understand what you care about. This book will not treat your channel like a silly phase. It will treat it like a public project that deserves professional habits.

Professional does not mean pretending to be an adult. It means building systems so one exciting moment, cruel comment, fake sponsor, leaked address, or stolen account does not get to control your life. You do not have to share everything to be authentic. You do not have to answer every viewer to be kind. You do not have to stay live to prove you are tough.

The central promise of this book is simple: you can grow a public voice without giving the public ownership of you.

KEEP THIS SENTENCE

A mistake does not cancel your right to help. The next safe move matters more than the last unsafe one.

A Note to Parents and Caregivers

A teen creator needs more than permission or prohibition. They need an adult who can distinguish ordinary creative risk from danger, protect legal and financial interests, and stay usable when something goes wrong. A teenager who expects humiliation, punishment, or automatic channel deletion may hide the exact incident that requires adult help.

The parent section is not a guide to becoming the executive producer of your child’s identity. It is a guide to building guardrails, clarifying ownership, supervising what legally requires an adult, and protecting sleep, school, relationships, money, and safety while preserving the teen’s creative lane.

The goal is not zero risk. The goal is informed risk, early disclosure, rehearsed response, and a relationship that survives both success and mistakes.

How to Use This Book

Teen creators can read Parts I–IV in order or begin with the chapter closest to a current problem. Parents can read Part V first, then use the chapter drills and templates together. Each chapter includes a scenario, practical guidance, a summary, a checklist, discussion questions, and a Make It Stick exercise designed to turn information into action.

Do not use the discussion questions as an interrogation. Talk about the fictional person first. Ask which choice would feel realistic, what pressure makes the safer option difficult, and what support would make that option easier.

PLATFORM-RULE SNAPSHOT: JULY 2026

YouTube currently requires creators to be at least 16 to livestream alone. A creator under 16 may participate from an adult-owned account when the adult is visibly present and genuinely co-creating. Twitch requires users to be at least 13, and minors may use the service under parent or guardian supervision; teen Affiliates need parent or guardian consent. AdSense for YouTube requires the payee to be 18, so an under-18 creator must use an approved parent or guardian account for monetization. These rules may change; verify them before launch or monetization.

PART I - Build A Channel That Does Not Expose Your Life

The safest channel is designed before the audience arrives.

CHAPTER 1

Creator Is a Role, Not Your Whole Identity

QUICK RECALL BEFORE YOU READ

Name three parts of your life that an audience does not need in order to enjoy your work.

SCENARIO

Ava is fifteen and posts drawing tutorials. Her first video to pass ten thousand views includes a joke about being “the awkward art kid from Westfield.” Viewers find her school’s art-club page, then her personal account, her brother’s team photos, and her mother’s workplace. Nothing was hacked. Ava had used the same name, face, biography, and profile picture everywhere. Her channel grew, but so did public access to the rest of her life.

A public identity is a tool

Being authentic does not require making every part of your life searchable. A creator identity is the version of you built for a public purpose: the name viewers use, the subjects you cover, the tone of your videos, and the boundaries you keep. It can be honest without being complete.

Think of a stage name, jersey, work uniform, or school-news byline. Each is real, but none gives strangers unlimited access. Your creator identity should help the audience recognize your work while making it harder to trace your family, school, routines, private accounts, and home.

Separate the five identities

A young creator usually has at least five identities operating at once: personal, school, family, creator, and business. Problems begin when one account becomes the key to all five.

Your personal identity includes close friends and ordinary life. Your school identity includes schedules, teams, teachers, and classmates. Your family identity includes relatives and home information. Your creator identity is what viewers see. Your business identity handles sponsors, invoices, platform notices, and collaborations. Separation does not have to be perfect, but it should be intentional.

Build an information budget

An information budget is the amount of personal detail you are willing to spend publicly. Every disclosure has a cost. Your first name might be low cost. Your full legal name, exact birthday, school, street, daily route, and parent’s workplace are high cost because they can be combined.

Before sharing, ask whether the detail improves the content enough to justify the access it gives. “I live in a rural area” may explain a weak connection. Naming the road, nearest store, and school usually adds little. “I have siblings” may be harmless. Showing their faces, names, bedrooms, and schedules gives away their privacy too.

Do not make your pain the admission price

Viewers may reward vulnerability. A story about failure, grief, identity, conflict, or mental health can create genuine connection. It can also become content you cannot pull back after the emotional moment passes.

Use a delay rule for high-emotion posts. Draft the video, wait, show it to a safe person, and decide which details belong to you alone. You can describe what you learned without naming everyone involved. You can say you are struggling without livestreaming the crisis. You can be truthful without making your worst day permanent entertainment.

Protect other people from your audience

Your family and friends did not automatically agree to become characters. Ask before filming, naming, tagging, or telling a story that identifies them. A person may consent to appearing in one video without agreeing to thumbnails, clips, monetized ads, or a permanent series.

When someone says no, do not treat the refusal as betrayal. Good creators learn to tell stories with composites, changed details, voice-over, objects, or their own perspective instead of turning private people into public material.

Chapter 1 Summary

• A creator identity can be real without exposing your entire identity.

• Personal, school, family, creator, and business accounts should not all lead directly to one another.

• Every personal detail spends part of an information budget.

• Vulnerability should be delayed and reviewed before it becomes permanent content.

• Consent applies to the people who appear in your stories, backgrounds, clips, and photos.

Chapter 1 Safety Checklist

☐ Choose a creator name that does not reveal my full legal identity.

☐ Use different profile images or usernames for public and private accounts.

☐ Remove school, team, neighborhood, and routine clues from public bios.

☐ Create a separate business contact address.

☐ Ask before filming or identifying another person.

☐ Use a delay rule for highly emotional content.

☐ Search my creator name and see what it connects to.

Chapter 1 Discussion Questions

1. What makes a creator feel authentic without revealing everything?

2. Which details are useful to an audience and which only make a person easier to locate?

3. Who else can be exposed when one teen becomes public?

4. How should a creator handle a story that involves another person’s private life?

5. What would make it easier to remove a video after changing your mind?

Make It Stick

MEMORY ANCHOR

THE AUDIENCE GETS THE WORK, NOT THE KEYS. Your viewers can know your style, values, humor, and expertise without receiving the keys to your school, family, private accounts, or emotional life.

PRESSURE TEST

A viewer says, “Real fans deserve to know your real name and school. Otherwise you are fake.” The comment receives hundreds of likes.

A. Post the information so the audience trusts you.

B. Ignore the pressure and restate the channel boundary.

C. Argue with every person who repeats the demand.

SAFEST FIRST MOVE

Choose B. Trust is built through consistent work and honest communication, not through surrendering identifying information. A brief boundary is stronger than a public debate.

60-SECOND DRILL

Open a search engine in a private window. Search your creator name, username, profile photo description, and a phrase from your bio. Write down every path that reaches your school, family, personal account, or location.

PRACTICE SAYING

“I share what supports the channel. My legal name, school, family details, and private accounts are not part of the content.”

Closed-book recall

1. What are the five identities a teen creator may need to separate?

2. What is an information budget?

3. What should happen before publishing a highly emotional story?

CHAPTER 2

Build a Safe Creator Identity

QUICK RECALL BEFORE YOU READ

What three clues in a username can turn a nickname into a real-world identity?

SCENARIO

Eli wants a gaming channel name that sounds personal, so he combines his first and last initials, birth year, town abbreviation, and jersey number. A viewer in chat correctly guesses his full name within an hour. The guess feels impressive until the viewer begins posting old youth-league photos and asking whether Eli still lives near the same park.

Choose names for durability, not clues

A strong creator name is memorable, pronounceable, searchable, and not packed with personal facts. Avoid full legal names, exact birth years, graduation years, school initials, postal codes, street numbers, team numbers, and combinations you use privately.

Check the name across major platforms before committing. Search for confusingly similar creators, companies, trademarks, and usernames. You are not performing a formal trademark clearance, but you can avoid obvious conflicts and impersonation risk. Reserve the same or similar public handle where practical, then keep private handles different.

Create a public contact system

Do not place a personal email, phone number, or family address in your channel bio. Create a business email used only for platform notices, sponsors, collaboration requests, and account recovery. Use an address that does not reveal a legal name when privacy matters.

For physical mail, fan packages, or products, use a parent-managed business address, commercial mailbox, or other lawful alternative that does not expose the home. Never improvise by publishing a relative’s address without permission. A package opening can reveal labels, tracking numbers, return addresses, medication, and nearby landmarks, so film it after removing identifying material.

Control the profile picture trail

Using the same face photo on a public channel, private social account, school page, and family account makes reverse-image searching easy. Consider a channel logo, illustration, cropped studio image, or creator photo not used elsewhere. Remove hidden details in reflections, badges, windows, and file names.

A face is not automatically unsafe. Many creators appear on camera. The goal is to prevent one image from becoming a direct index to every other part of your life.

Set a boundary biography

A creator biography should answer: What do you make? Who is it for? When do you publish? How can legitimate business contacts reach you? It does not need your age, exact location, school, relationship status, family structure, medical history, or daily schedule.

Use broad descriptions when location matters: “Appalachian maker,” “Midwest student musician,” or “East Coast gamer.” Do not announce that you are home alone, where you will be after school, or which adult is away.

Plan for impersonation

Public names and images can be copied. Place a simple statement on your channel identifying your official accounts and explaining that you never request passwords, verification codes, private images, or off-platform payments. Keep proof that you control the name: original graphics, dated project files, platform emails, and registration records.

When an impersonator appears, do not turn followers into a vigilante group. Save the profile URL and examples, report it through the platform, warn your audience without repeating harmful material, and involve an adult if the account targets a minor or requests money or sexual content.

Chapter 2 Summary

• A safe creator name avoids facts that identify age, school, town, or routines.

• A separate business email and address system keeps public contact away from personal accounts and home.

• Reused profile images can connect public and private identities.

• A channel bio should explain the work, not publish a personal file.

• Prepare for impersonation before it happens.

Chapter 2 Safety Checklist

☐ Search my proposed channel name and similar spellings.

☐ Remove birth years, school initials, town codes, and jersey numbers from public handles.

☐ Create a creator-only business email.

☐ Use a public profile image that does not appear on private accounts.

☐ Publish a short official-accounts and anti-scam statement.

☐ Keep original logo and channel files as proof of control.

☐ Use a safe mailing solution before accepting packages.

Chapter 2 Discussion Questions

1. Why is a separate business email more than an organizational convenience?

2. How can a profile photo reveal private accounts?

3. What information belongs in a useful channel bio?

4. What should a creator do when an impersonator asks followers for money?

5. When might a face-forward channel still use a logo as its main profile image?

Make It Stick

MEMORY ANCHOR

MAKE THE CHANNEL EASY TO FIND AND YOUR PRIVATE LIFE HARD TO TRACE.

PRESSURE TEST

A small brand offers free equipment but says it can only ship to your home and needs your personal phone number “for the courier.”

A. Publish the home address because the equipment is valuable.

B. Ask a parent to verify the company and use an approved business mailing option.

C. Give a friend’s address without telling them.

SAFEST FIRST MOVE

Choose B. A legitimate opportunity can survive verification and a safe delivery process. The value of a package does not reduce the risk of exposing a minor’s home.

60-SECOND DRILL

Rewrite your current or planned bio in four lines: what you create, who it helps or entertains, your posting rhythm, and a safe business contact. Delete every fact that does not serve those four jobs.

PRACTICE SAYING

“For safety, I use a business contact system and do not provide my home address or personal number.”

Closed-book recall

1. Which facts should not be embedded in a username?

2. What should an official-accounts statement warn viewers about?

3. Why should package labels be removed before filming?

CHAPTER 3

The Camera Sees More Than You Think

QUICK RECALL BEFORE YOU READ

Look around the room you would film in. Which object could reveal a name, location, schedule, account, or private condition?

SCENARIO

Nia films a study-with-me video in her bedroom. The shot looks clean. A viewer pauses the video and reads the school name on a lanyard hanging from the mirror. Another notices a prescription label on the desk. A third identifies the neighborhood from the view through the window. None of those details were the subject of the video, but the camera recorded them at full resolution.

Audit the whole frame

Viewers can pause, zoom, brighten, crop, transcribe, and compare frames. Before recording, inspect the foreground, background, reflective surfaces, windows, shelves, papers, screens, packages, clothing, and sounds.

Look for mail, certificates, school logos, calendars, medication, family photographs, vehicle plates, house numbers, Wi-Fi names, device notifications, homework with a surname, and whiteboards with schedules. Listen for someone saying a name, a school bus announcement, a smart speaker response, or a family argument.

Build a controlled set

A controlled set is safer than repeatedly trying to clean a normal room. Use a plain wall, curtain, folding screen, shelf arranged only for filming, or virtual background that you have tested. Mark camera and chair positions so the frame stays consistent. Keep private materials outside that zone.

A bedroom is a private space and may reveal more than any other room. YouTube’s child-safety guidance specifically warns about content featuring minors filmed in private spaces such as bedrooms or bathrooms. Even when a platform permits a video, ask whether the setting attracts the wrong kind of attention or exposes the teen’s routines.

Treat screens as part of the set

Screen recordings can reveal email tabs, bookmarks, file paths, legal names, school portals, private servers, payment balances, IP addresses, map searches, direct messages, and notifications. Create a clean browser profile and a separate desktop for recording. Close password managers, cloud drives, messaging apps, and personal tabs.

Disable notification previews and test the capture source before going live. Capture a single application window rather than the whole desktop when possible. Remember that alt-tab, open-file dialogs, autocomplete, and recent-document lists can expose material even when the intended window is clean.

Protect location and timing

Do not stream a clear view from a window or exterior that reveals a home, street, bus route, weather pattern, landmark, or nearby business. Delay videos that announce an empty house, vacation, school dismissal time, work shift, or regular route.

Metadata can also contain dates, device information, and location. Major platforms may remove some metadata, but originals sent by email, cloud drive, collaboration tools, or file-transfer systems may preserve more. Review and remove location data before sharing original files.

Use a preflight scan

Pilots do not rely on remembering everything during takeoff. Creators should not rely on memory when excited to record. Use the same preflight sequence every time: frame, reflections, screens, sound, notifications, identities, location, and people.

Record ten seconds, stop, and watch it on a larger screen. Pause on several frames. Listen with headphones. This small test catches problems that are invisible from behind the camera.

Chapter 3 Summary

• A viewer can analyze details that pass unnoticed in real time.

• A controlled set reduces repeated privacy mistakes.

• Screen capture can leak as much as a camera.

• Windows, exterior shots, timing, and metadata can reveal location.

• A written preflight scan is more reliable than memory.

Chapter 3 Safety Checklist

☐ Create a dedicated filming zone.

☐ Remove mail, medicine, school items, schedules, badges, and family photos.

☐ Check mirrors, windows, glossy surfaces, and device screens.

☐ Use a clean browser profile and creator desktop.

☐ Disable notification previews before recording.

☐ Record and review a ten-second test.

☐ Ask everyone nearby whether they are comfortable being heard or seen.

Chapter 3 Discussion Questions

1. Why can a background be more revealing than a spoken introduction?

2. What is the advantage of a dedicated filming zone?

3. Which leaks can occur during screen sharing?

4. Why might delaying a post improve physical safety?

5. What should a creator do when another person’s voice is captured unexpectedly?

Make It Stick

MEMORY ANCHOR

THE CAMERA RECORDS THE ROOM, NOT JUST THE SUBJECT.

PRESSURE TEST

You are live when a private message notification appears with a classmate’s full name and part of the message.

A. Read it aloud and joke about the interruption.

B. End or cover the capture, save the incident details, and remove the replay segment if possible.

C. Pretend it did not happen and keep streaming for two more hours.

SAFEST FIRST MOVE

Choose B. Reduce further exposure first. Protect the other person, then review the archive, clip, and notification settings.

60-SECOND DRILL

Place your camera where you plan to record. Take a still image and inspect it in eight zones: center, four corners, mirrors, windows, and screens. List every object to remove, cover, or blur.

PRACTICE SAYING

“I need a moment to protect private information. The stream is pausing now.”

Closed-book recall

1. Name four categories of background clues.

2. Why is a clean browser profile useful?

3. What should happen before every recording or stream?

CHAPTER 4

Lock the Control Room

QUICK RECALL BEFORE YOU READ

Which account can reset most of your other accounts? That account is your control room.

SCENARIO

Marcus has a channel with four thousand subscribers. A “sponsor manager” emails a contract as a compressed file and says the campaign expires in one hour. Marcus opens it on the same computer where he is logged into his primary email and channel. The file installs an information-stealing program. By the time he realizes the contract was fake, the attacker has changed recovery details, started a scam livestream, and deleted several videos.

Secure the primary email first

Your main email often controls password resets, platform alerts, payment accounts, cloud files, and business conversations. Give it a unique password or passkey, strong multifactor authentication, current recovery details, login alerts, and saved recovery codes.

Do not use the public business email as the only recovery address for the channel. If a scammer takes one, the second should help you recover the first. Review forwarding rules and filters after suspicious activity; attackers sometimes hide security messages or quietly copy mail.

Use roles instead of shared passwords

A parent, editor, manager, or moderator may need access. Use official channel roles and permissions rather than sending the owner password. Give each person only the access needed for the job. Remove access when the relationship changes.

Shared passwords destroy accountability. You cannot tell who logged in, and one person’s compromised device can expose everyone. A collaborator who needs to upload does not automatically need payment, deletion, or ownership rights.

Make sponsor files prove themselves

Fake sponsorships often arrive as contracts, media kits, game builds, screen savers, browser extensions, remote-access tools, or “private preview” files. A polished email and real company logo do not prove the sender is legitimate.

Verify the company through a website and contact method you find independently. Compare the sending domain carefully. Ask why a file is needed and request a cloud document or PDF when possible. Do not disable security warnings or install software to view a proposal. Open uncertain files on a separate, non-privileged device only with adult or professional guidance.

Protect the creator computer

Keep the operating system, browser, streaming software, plugins, games, and security tools updated. Remove abandoned extensions and cracked software. Use a standard user account for ordinary work when possible and require approval for installations. Back up project files and finished videos to a location that ransomware or account theft cannot easily erase.

Separate creator work from family administration, banking, medical records, and school accounts. A computer used for untested games and creator downloads should not also hold the only copies of tax documents and family photos.

Practice recovery before success

Write down the official recovery routes for the channel, email, payment provider, and domain name. Save channel IDs, account creation details, original videos, invoices, and proof of ownership. Record emergency contacts and the steps for revoking sessions.

A recovery plan is not pessimism. It is the difference between panicking through a scam livestream and following a checklist while evidence is still available.

Chapter 4 Summary

• The primary email is the center of channel security.

• Official roles are safer than shared owner passwords.

• Sponsor attachments and software should be independently verified.

• Creator devices need updates, backups, and separation from sensitive family systems.

• Recovery evidence should exist before an account is stolen.

Chapter 4 Safety Checklist

☐ Use a unique password or passkey on the primary email.

☐ Enable phishing-resistant MFA where available.

☐ Save recovery codes away from the device they unlock.

☐ Review channel roles and remove unnecessary access.

☐ Verify sponsor domains through independent contact information.

☐ Back up raw projects and finished videos.

☐ Create a written account-recovery sheet with a parent or safe adult.

Chapter 4 Discussion Questions

1. Why should email recovery be the first priority after a channel takeover?

2. What is the difference between channel roles and password sharing?

3. Which file types or requests should make a sponsorship suspicious?

4. Why can a creator-only computer reduce risk?

5. What evidence helps prove account ownership?

Make It Stick

MEMORY ANCHOR

THE EMAIL IS THE CONTROL ROOM; MFA IS THE SECOND LOCK; RECOVERY IS THE EXIT.

PRESSURE TEST

A known creator sends a direct message asking you to install a “collab plugin.” Their account looks real, but they refuse to explain the permissions.

A. Install it because the account is famous.

B. Verify through another channel and refuse software that cannot be independently validated.

C. Send the plugin to several friends and see whether their computers break.

SAFEST FIRST MOVE

Choose B. A compromised famous account is still compromised. Reputation is not a substitute for verification.

60-SECOND DRILL

Open your primary email security page. Check MFA, recovery phone, recovery email, active sessions, forwarding rules, third-party access, and backup codes. Fix one weakness now.

PRACTICE SAYING

“I do not install collaboration software or open unusual files until the sender and file are independently verified.”

Closed-book recall

1. What three parts make up the chapter’s memory anchor?

2. Why should collaborators receive least-privilege roles?

3. What should be saved as proof of channel ownership?

CHAPTER 5

Plan Before You Go Live

Last verified July 2026: YouTube live-stream age and adult-presence rules; Twitch minimum-age and minor-supervision rules.

QUICK RECALL BEFORE YOU READ

What will end your stream even if viewers want you to continue? Decide before going live.

SCENARIO

Sam is sixteen and starts a late-night stream after a difficult day. There is no moderator, end time, or topic plan. Chat asks increasingly personal questions. A viewer offers a large donation if Sam calls an ex on stream. Another asks Sam to show the view outside. Tired and excited by the attention, Sam nearly does both.

Live removes the editing room

Recorded content gives you time to remove names, rethink jokes, check music, blur a screen, ask permission, and decide not to publish. Live content turns mistakes into public events. Viewers can record a stream even when you delete the replay.

That does not mean teens should never stream. It means live work requires stronger preparation, clearer limits, and adult awareness than an ordinary upload.

Know the current age rules

Platform snapshot - verified July 2026: YouTube requires creators to be at least sixteen to livestream alone. A creator under sixteen may participate from an adult-owned account only when the adult is visibly present and meaningfully co-creating. Twitch is unavailable to anyone under thirteen and also requires users to meet any older minimum age that applies in their jurisdiction. Minors may use Twitch only under parent or guardian supervision and agreement, and creators ages thirteen through seventeen need parent or guardian consent and supervision to join the Affiliate Program. AdSense for YouTube requires an adult payee; a creator under eighteen can monetize only by linking to an approved parent or guardian account. Rules and rollout details can change, so use the update center and current official platform pages.

Do not enter a false birth date to bypass a restriction. That can weaken account recovery, violate terms, create payment problems, and place the teen in a space that was designed for older users.

Write the stream card

Before going live, write one small card with: topic, start time, hard stop, approved games or guests, forbidden subjects, emergency signal, moderator names, adult contact, and the action that ends the stream.

The card protects you from decisions made under pressure. A donation does not change the no-prank rule. A raid does not extend the stream past the hard stop. A guest cannot reveal private information because the boundary was agreed before the microphone opened.

Use layered delay and moderation

Enable chat filters, follower or subscriber limits where appropriate, blocked terms, slow mode, link restrictions, and trusted moderators. A short broadcast delay can create time to cut away from an accidental leak or dangerous event, though delay is not a complete shield.

Moderators need a private way to reach the creator and a clear escalation ladder: warn, delete, timeout, ban, end chat, end stream, contact the adult. Do not make one teen moderator responsible for handling sexual threats, swatting claims, or credible stalking alone.

Protect body and judgment

Streaming while exhausted, hungry, panicked, angry, intoxicated, or in crisis changes judgment. Set limits for school nights, meals, hydration, medication routines, breaks, and sleep. Use a starting and stopping ritual so the creator’s brain knows when the performance ends.

The strongest boundary may be a sentence said before the stream: “No amount of money changes the rules.” Donations, gifted subscriptions, and viewer counts do not purchase access to your private life.

End cleanly

A safe ending includes stopping the broadcast, checking that the stream is actually offline, closing voice chat, disabling screen capture, reviewing clips and replay settings, logging incidents, and telling the adult or moderation team what happened.

Do not continue private conversations with a viewer simply because the public stream ended. High-pressure viewers often use the end of a stream to move the creator into private messages.

Chapter 5 Summary

• Live content removes the chance to edit before exposure.

• Age and supervision requirements must be followed honestly.

• A written stream card pre-decides boundaries and the hard stop.

• Moderation tools and a trained team reduce pressure on the creator.

• Sleep, food, emotion, and physical condition affect safety judgment.

• Ending the stream includes checking clips, voice chat, and private follow-up.

Chapter 5 Safety Checklist

☐ Verify current age and supervision rules.

☐ Tell a safe adult when, where, and with whom I am streaming.

☐ Write the topic, hard stop, forbidden subjects, and end condition.

☐ Assign at least one trained moderator for public streams.

☐ Enable blocked terms, link limits, slow mode, and other available controls.

☐ Use a clean set, clean screen, and test recording.

☐ End if private information, sexual pressure, credible threats, or loss of control occurs.

Chapter 5 Discussion Questions

1. Why does live content require more preparation than uploads?

2. What should appear on a stream card?

3. How can donations pressure a young creator?

4. What is the moderator’s escalation ladder?

5. Why is checking that the stream is truly offline part of safety?

Make It Stick

MEMORY ANCHOR

PLAN THE END BEFORE YOU PRESS GO LIVE.

PRESSURE TEST

Your viewer count suddenly triples. Chat demands an extra hour, but your stream card says stop at ten and you have school in the morning.

A. Keep streaming because growth may never happen again.

B. End at the planned time and thank the new viewers.

C. Ask chat to vote on whether your sleep matters.

SAFEST FIRST MOVE

Choose B. Consistency and health are part of a sustainable channel. An audience that only stays when you abandon your limits is not controlling the right thing.

60-SECOND DRILL

Create a one-page stream card now. Include the topic, hard stop, three forbidden subjects, two end conditions, moderator contact, adult contact, and your after-stream check.

PRACTICE SAYING

“I appreciate the support, but the stream ends at the planned time. The schedule protects my school, health, and future streams.”

Closed-book recall

1. What changes when content is live?

2. Name four items on a stream card.

3. Which events should end a teen’s stream immediately?

PART II - Run The Stream; Do Not Let It Run You

A healthy community is designed, moderated, and allowed to hear no.

CHAPTER 6

Chat Is a Crowd

QUICK RECALL BEFORE YOU READ

What behavior earns an immediate ban in your community? A rule that exists only in your head cannot guide a moderator.

SCENARIO

Ari's first streams average twelve viewers, so chat feels like a small group of friends. One night a raid brings two hundred people. A few viewers flood the chat with slurs, sexual comments, and demands that Ari react. Ari tries to answer every message while a teen moderator deletes them one at a time. The stream becomes a contest between the creator and the worst people in the room.

The creator sets the room

Chat is not a neutral river of comments. It is a room connected to your name, and the audience learns its culture from what you reward, ignore, laugh at, or remove. A creator does not need to debate every person before enforcing a boundary. Moderation is not censorship of the whole internet. It is management of one community.

Write rules in behavior language: no sexual comments about minors, no private information, no threats, no slurs, no repeated pressure for personal answers, no links without approval, and no directing harassment toward anyone. "Be nice" is too vague for a moderator under pressure.

Use tools before people are overwhelmed

Use blocked terms, AutoMod or comparable filters, slow mode, follower-only or verified-account settings, link controls, and chat delay where available. Filters are imperfect, but they reduce the number of decisions a human must make.

Prepare a response ladder: remove the message, timeout, ban, lock chat, switch to a safer mode, end the stream, and alert the adult. Some conduct skips directly to the final steps. Credible threats, doxxing, sexual exploitation, swatting claims, and coordinated harassment should never become a debate in public chat.

Moderators need scope and backup

A moderator should know what they may remove without asking, which incidents require screenshots, and how to reach the creator privately. Avoid making a close friend prove loyalty by absorbing abuse for hours. Rotate moderators, schedule breaks, and debrief after difficult streams.

Minors should not be the only people responsible for reviewing sexual messages, threats, or graphic material. A trusted adult should handle or supervise serious evidence and platform reports. Moderators also need permission to step away when the work affects them.

Do not feed the performance

Some users want the creator's attention more than they want access to the channel. Arguing, reading the username aloud, displaying the message on screen, or asking the audience to attack them can reward the behavior and spread it.

Use a low-drama script: "That breaks the rules. Moderators are handling it." Then return to the content. Quiet, consistent enforcement is usually stronger than turning every disruption into an episode.

Protect the audience too

Creators are responsible for not directing viewers toward a target. Do not send followers to "educate" someone, post an address, mass-report without evidence, or flood a smaller creator's comments. Even a joking command can become a dogpile when hundreds of viewers act at once.

When discussing conflict, remove identifying details that are not necessary. Critique conduct or ideas rather than offering a person to the crowd.

Chapter 6 Summary

• Chat culture is created by repeated enforcement, not by a rule page alone.

• Specific behavior rules are easier to moderate than vague requests to be nice.

• Automation, trained moderators, and an escalation ladder work together.

• Serious threats and exploitation require adult and platform escalation.

• Do not reward disruption with attention or send the audience after a target.

Chapter 6 Safety Checklist

☐ Publish clear chat rules before streaming.

☐ Create blocked-term and link-control settings.

☐ Give moderators written authority and a private contact route.

☐ Define which conduct skips directly to a ban or stream end.

☐ Schedule moderator breaks and post-stream debriefs.

☐ Keep a trusted adult available for serious incidents.

☐ Never direct viewers to harass, expose, or mass-contact another person.

Chapter 6 Discussion Questions

1. Why is "be respectful" difficult to enforce?

2. Which behaviors should skip a warning?

3. How can a creator avoid rewarding a troll?

4. What support does a teen moderator need after a difficult stream?

5. When can a creator become responsible for a dogpile?

Make It Stick

MEMORY ANCHOR

RULES NAME THE LINE. MODERATORS HOLD THE LINE. THE CREATOR BACKS THE LINE.

PRESSURE TEST

A viewer posts what appears to be your school name, then says it is only a joke and asks why your moderators are so sensitive.

A. Debate whether the school name is correct.

B. Remove the message, ban the account, preserve evidence, and check whether other identifying details are spreading.

C. Ask chat to guess which school is real.

SAFEST FIRST MOVE

Choose B. Publicly confirming or denying the clue gives it more attention. Contain the information first, then investigate privately.

60-SECOND DRILL

Write five automatic-ban behaviors and three situations that end the stream. Give the list to every moderator and adult safety contact.

PRACTICE SAYING

“That message crosses our safety rules. We are not discussing private information on stream.”

Closed-book recall

1. What three parts make up the memory anchor?

2. Why should moderators have a private contact route?

3. How can a creator protect a person they are criticizing from a dogpile?

CHAPTER 7

Parasocial Pressure and Private Messages

QUICK RECALL BEFORE YOU READ

What access does a viewer receive for following, subscribing, donating, or buying merchandise? Write the answer before anyone asks for more.

SCENARIO

Leah posts music covers and recognizes the same usernames every week. One viewer donates often, sends encouraging messages, and says Leah is the only person who understands him. He becomes angry when she does not answer direct messages, then says his donations should earn a private call. Leah feels ungrateful for wanting distance.

Connection is real; entitlement is not

A parasocial relationship is a one-sided sense of closeness with a public figure. The viewer may know the creator's stories, schedule, jokes, and emotions, while the creator knows little about the viewer. This can support community and belonging, but it can also create expectations that no creator can safely meet.

A follow, subscription, donation, gift, or long history in chat does not purchase friendship, romance, private contact, emotional caretaking, or control. Gratitude and boundaries can exist at the same time.

Use public lanes for audience contact

Keep ordinary viewer interaction in public or moderated spaces: comments, channel posts, scheduled community events, or a business inbox reviewed with an adult. Avoid moving unknown viewers into disappearing messages, personal phone numbers, private gaming servers, or late-night calls.

A creator-only contact account reduces exposure, but it is still a public-facing space. Turn off read receipts where helpful, limit who may send files or links, and use an auto-response explaining response times and boundaries.

Do not become the audience therapist

Viewers may disclose abuse, self-harm, loneliness, or crisis. Respond with care but do not promise secrecy, continuous availability, or personal rescue. A teen creator is not qualified to manage another person's emergency and should not carry it alone.

Use a prepared message: "I am sorry you are hurting. I cannot provide crisis support, but please contact a trusted person or emergency resource now." Alert a safe adult and use platform reporting tools when a message describes imminent harm.

Recognize escalation

Warning signs include repeated demands for replies, jealousy toward other viewers, tracking the creator across platforms, gifts tied to conditions, threats of self-harm if blocked, attempts to isolate the creator from family, and anger when the creator follows a schedule.

Do not negotiate the price of a boundary. Save evidence, stop private contact, block or restrict the account, and involve the adult safety contact when behavior becomes threatening or persistent.

Protect authentic sharing

Authenticity does not require total access. Share processed experiences rather than live crises. Decide which stories are public, which are delayed, and which remain private. Avoid teaching the audience that intense personal disclosure is the fastest way to receive your attention.

A creator persona can be warm, funny, honest, and emotionally real while still keeping family conflict, relationships, health details, and private recovery outside the content.

Chapter 7 Summary

• Audience closeness does not create a right to private access.

• Public or moderated lanes are safer for viewer contact.

• Teen creators should refer crisis disclosures rather than becoming the viewer’s therapist.

• Conditional gifts, jealousy, tracking, and anger at boundaries are escalation signs.

• Authenticity is truthful choice, not unlimited disclosure.

Chapter 7 Safety Checklist

☐ State what subscriptions, donations, and memberships do and do not provide.

☐ Use creator-only public contact accounts.

☐ Avoid disappearing messages and private calls with unknown viewers.

☐ Prepare a crisis-referral response.

☐ Save and report repeated boundary violations.

☐ Tell a safe adult when a viewer becomes possessive or threatening.

☐ Choose which personal topics are never discussed live.

Chapter 7 Discussion Questions

1. Why can a frequent viewer feel closer to a creator than the creator feels to them?

2. How can donations create pressure?

3. What should a teen creator do with a self-harm disclosure?

4. Which behaviors show entitlement rather than support?

5. How can a creator be authentic without broadcasting a live crisis?

Make It Stick

MEMORY ANCHOR

SUPPORT DOES NOT BUY ACCESS. CARE DOES NOT REQUIRE PRIVATE RESCUE.

PRESSURE TEST

A longtime subscriber says he will hurt himself unless you join a private video call immediately.

A. Join the call alone and promise secrecy.

B. Tell a trusted adult, send a crisis-referral message, preserve the message, and use platform emergency reporting if available.

C. Block him without telling anyone because it is probably manipulation.

SAFEST FIRST MOVE

Choose B. The threat may be genuine, manipulative, or both. Either way, it belongs with adults and crisis professionals, not on one teen creator’s shoulders.

60-SECOND DRILL

Draft two auto-responses: one for ordinary viewer messages and one for crisis disclosures. Save them where you and your moderators can reach them.

PRACTICE SAYING

“I appreciate your support, but donations and subscriptions do not include private calls or personal access.”

Closed-book recall

1. What does a viewer purchase with a donation?

2. Name three escalation signs.

3. What is the creator’s role when a viewer reports imminent danger?

CHAPTER 8

Grooming, Sexual Pressure, and Sextortion

QUICK RECALL BEFORE YOU READ

If someone threatens to expose an image, what are the first four safe actions? Do not wait for a crisis to learn them.

SCENARIO

A talent scout account tells fifteen-year-old Devin that his comedy clips could lead to paid work. The scout asks for private audition videos, moves the conversation to an encrypted app, and gradually requests shirtless shots to "check camera confidence." When Devin refuses the next request, the scout threatens to send earlier images to his followers and school.

Creators have predictable access points

Public contact information, livestream chat, fan servers, collaboration offers, auditions, modeling claims, and sponsorship messages give offenders a believable reason to approach a young creator. They may praise talent, offer equipment, promise introductions, or claim that secrecy is standard in the industry.

Judge the pattern, not the title in the profile. A legitimate adult professional can involve a parent, communicate through business channels, explain the project in writing, and respect a no.

Grooming changes the rules slowly

Grooming often moves from attention to special treatment, then secrecy, sexualization, isolation, and control. The first request may be harmless: move to another app, stay up late, share an unlisted video, or prove identity. Each accepted step becomes the reason for the next.

Red flags include "mature for your age," requests to hide the contact, sexual jokes after a professional opening, gifts tied to private access, requests for specific poses or clothing, and threats to damage the creator's reputation.

Use STOP - SAVE - TELL - REPORT

Stop replying and do not send money, more images, passwords, or an explanation. Save usernames, profile links, dates, threats, payment requests, and report confirmations. Tell a usable adult immediately. Report the account to the platform and report suspected child sexual exploitation to NCMEC’s CyberTipline in the United States.

Do not download or forward intimate images to create evidence. Preserve safer evidence around the material. If an image was taken when the person was under eighteen and remains on the original device, NCMEC’s Take It Down service can create a digital fingerprint without uploading the image itself.

Payment does not end sextortion

Financially motivated offenders often continue or increase demands after payment. Paying can confirm that the victim is frightened and able to send money. The FBI advises victims to seek help rather than send money or more images.

The victim is not in trouble for asking for help. The person making the threat is responsible for the crime. Shame is one of the offender's tools; breaking secrecy removes part of their control.

Protect mental safety immediately

Sextortion can create panic, hopelessness, and fear of public humiliation. Do not leave the young person alone with the device and the threats. Reduce access to payment tools, bring in a calm adult, and ask directly about immediate safety and self-harm.

In the United States, call or text 988 for a mental-health crisis and 911 for immediate danger. Evidence preservation matters, but the person matters more.

Chapter 8 Summary

• Creator opportunities can be used as believable grooming openings.

• Grooming often escalates through secrecy, sexualization, and control.

• Stop, save, tell, and report - do not pay or send more material.

• Do not redistribute intimate images while preserving evidence.

• A young person in sextortion crisis needs immediate adult and emotional support.

Chapter 8 Safety Checklist

☐ Route professional offers through a parent or adult business contact.

☐ Keep early communication on reportable platforms.

☐ Reject secret auditions, sexualized requests, and private proof demands.

☐ Memorize STOP - SAVE - TELL - REPORT.

☐ Know the NCMEC CyberTipline and Take It Down resources.

☐ Do not pay, negotiate, or threaten the offender.

☐ Ask about immediate self-harm risk and contact crisis services when needed.

Chapter 8 Discussion Questions

1. Why are talent and sponsorship offers useful to groomers?

2. What makes a professional request unsafe?

3. Why can paying make financial sextortion continue?

4. What evidence can be saved without forwarding an image?

5. What should an adult say in the first minute after disclosure?

Make It Stick

MEMORY ANCHOR

STOP CONTACT. SAVE THE TRAIL. TELL AN ADULT. REPORT THE OFFENDER.

PRESSURE TEST

Someone threatens to send an intimate image to your followers in ten minutes unless you pay $200.

A. Pay quickly to buy time.

B. Stop replying, tell a safe adult, preserve the threat and account details, and report immediately.

C. Post the image yourself so the offender loses power.

SAFEST FIRST MOVE

Choose B. Payment and further sharing create more harm. Adult support and reporting create options.

60-SECOND DRILL

Write the names and contact routes of three adults you could tell at any hour. Add the CyberTipline, Take It Down, 988, and local emergency number to your safety sheet.

PRACTICE SAYING

“I am being threatened with private material. I need you to stay calm, help me save the evidence, and report it with me.”

Closed-book recall

1. What four actions form the chapter’s memory anchor?

2. Why should the creator not download an image they no longer possess?

3. Which emergency resource is used for immediate emotional crisis in the United States?

CHAPTER 9

Harassment, Doxxing, Swatting, and Stalking

QUICK RECALL BEFORE YOU READ

Which information would law enforcement need before a false emergency call reaches your home? Prepare it before anyone threatens swatting.

SCENARIO

After Kai bans a viewer, new accounts begin posting pieces of Kai's address. Someone orders food to the house, then a message claims police will be sent next. Kai wants to livestream a response proving he is not scared. His parent wants to delete everything immediately.

Separate noise from credible risk

Harassment ranges from insults to conduct that creates physical danger. Evaluate specificity, access, persistence, and escalation. A vague insult is different from a message naming an address, school, family member, weapon, time, or planned action.

Do not require perfect certainty before involving an adult. Doxxing, unwanted deliveries, location tracking, repeated new accounts, threats, and attempts to contact family are escalation signals.

Contain without confirming

Do not argue about whether leaked information is accurate. Public confirmation helps the person refine the attack. Remove posts, restrict chat, pause scheduled content, stop live location clues, and ask family members not to engage.

Search exposed usernames, old bios, public records, cached pages, tagged photos, domain-registration data, and data-broker listings with adult help. Change what can be changed, but preserve evidence before deleting relevant messages.

Make a swatting plan

Swatting is the use of a false emergency report to send armed responders to a target. Twitch and other safety organizations recommend taking threats seriously and contacting local law enforcement when appropriate.

A parent can call the local non-emergency number, explain that a minor public creator has received a swatting threat, and ask how the agency records safety information. Keep identification available, follow officer commands if responders arrive, and do not make sudden movements while trying to explain the internet context.

Document as an incident, not a scrapbook

Create an incident log with date, platform, account, exact behavior, URLs, screenshots, witnesses, report numbers, and actions taken. Save original files securely and avoid repeatedly reviewing abusive content.

One adult should coordinate the evidence so the creator does not have to relive every message. Report credible threats to the platform and law enforcement. A school should be informed when the threat names the school, schedule, bus, or another student.

Change the operating pattern

Temporarily delay uploads, vary public routines, remove live location, use a safer mailing system, and review who has access to private servers. Tell neighbors or relatives only what they need to know. Do not announce the full response plan publicly.

Recovery includes emotional support. Hypervigilance after stalking or swatting threats is understandable. A pause from public content is an operational decision, not a victory for the harasser.

Chapter 9 Summary

• Specificity, access, persistence, and escalation help distinguish ordinary abuse from credible danger.

• Do not confirm leaked information publicly.

• A family can prepare local law enforcement before a swatting incident.

• An incident log preserves useful evidence without forcing repeated exposure.

• Changing routines and pausing content can reduce risk.

Chapter 9 Safety Checklist

☐ Tell a safe adult about doxxing or threats immediately.

☐ Preserve URLs, account names, dates, messages, and report numbers.

☐ Lock or slow chat and pause live location content.

☐ Contact local law enforcement about credible swatting threats.

☐ Inform school safety staff when school information is involved.

☐ Audit public records, old profiles, domain data, and family posts.

☐ Assign one adult to coordinate evidence and follow-up.

Chapter 9 Discussion Questions

1. What makes a threat more credible?

2. Why should a creator avoid confirming leaked data?

3. What should a parent tell the local non-emergency line?

4. How does an incident log improve reporting?

5. Why can a temporary pause be a strong response?

Make It Stick

MEMORY ANCHOR

DO NOT PERFORM BRAVERY FOR THE THREAT. CONTAIN, DOCUMENT, ESCALATE.

PRESSURE TEST

A new account posts your street name and says, "See you after tonight’s stream."

A. Go live early to show you are not afraid.

B. End public activity, alert the adult, preserve evidence, contact the platform and law enforcement, and move to a safer location if advised.

C. Reply with a different street name.

SAFEST FIRST MOVE

Choose B. The message combines location, timing, and implied approach. Treat the person’s safety as more important than the schedule.

60-SECOND DRILL

Create a one-page threat sheet with channel name, legal name, address, parent contacts, recent threats, vehicle information, and local non-emergency number. Store it privately for adult use.

PRACTICE SAYING

“We received a credible threat connected to a minor’s public channel. We have preserved the message and need help with a safety plan.”

Closed-book recall

1. Name the four factors used to assess a threat.

2. Why is public denial still a form of confirmation?

3. Who should coordinate evidence after a serious incident?

CHAPTER 10

Collaborations, Guests, Meetups, and IRL Streams

QUICK RECALL BEFORE YOU READ

Which parts of a collaboration must be confirmed in writing before you travel?

SCENARIO

Mina, sixteen, is invited to collaborate with a creator she has known online for three months. The creator changes the plan from a daytime studio shoot to a hotel room because "the lighting is better." He says bringing a parent would make Mina look unprofessional and offers to send a rideshare.

A collaboration is a work event

Treat collaborations like small productions, not spontaneous friendships. Confirm legal names, adult contacts, location, schedule, content plan, ownership, payment, expenses, transportation, supervision, and what happens if either person cancels.

For a minor, a parent or guardian should know and approve the plan. A legitimate collaborator does not require secrecy from the adult who is legally responsible for the teen.

Control the location and exit

Use a known studio, school, community facility, business, convention area, or busy public place. Avoid hotel rooms, private homes, isolated outdoor locations, and vehicles as first meeting places. Keep independent transportation and enough money, battery, and phone access to leave.

Do not accept a last-minute location change without adult review. Share the itinerary with a second adult and establish check-in times and an exit phrase.

Define camera and body boundaries

Agree on wardrobe, physical contact, pranks, challenges, food, substances, stunts, and what parts of the interaction may be recorded. Consent to collaborate is not consent to sexual jokes, touching, embarrassing footage, or unlimited behind-the-scenes recording.

A creator can withdraw from a scene at any time. The production should stop when someone says no, not after the clip is captured.

Protect rights and raw footage

Decide who records, who owns the raw files, who may post first, how names and likenesses may be used, whether clips can be sold or sponsored, and how takedown requests are handled. For paid work, use a written agreement reviewed by an adult.

Do not sign releases you do not understand on arrival. A broad release can grant rights far beyond one video.

IRL streams multiply exposure

An IRL stream can reveal real-time location, bystanders, license plates, payment screens, staff names, and the route home. Use delay, a trained remote moderator, a route that avoids home and school, and a planned safe location to end the broadcast.

Ask permission before featuring bystanders, especially minors. Do not use the audience to decide where a teen goes next. The route belongs to the safety plan, not to chat.

Chapter 10 Summary

• Collaborations should be planned as work events with adult visibility.

• A minor needs independent transportation and a safe location.

• Consent must cover physical contact, pranks, and recording boundaries.

• Ownership and use of footage belong in writing.

• IRL streaming requires location delay, remote moderation, and a protected route.

Chapter 10 Safety Checklist

☐ Verify collaborator identity and adult contact.

☐ Put location, schedule, payment, content, and ownership in writing.

☐ Bring a parent, guardian, or trusted adult to first meetings.

☐ Keep independent transportation and an exit plan.

☐ Reject private or last-minute location changes.

☐ Agree on body, prank, wardrobe, and recording boundaries.

☐ Use delay and remote moderation for IRL content.

Chapter 10 Discussion Questions

1. Why is "bringing a parent looks unprofessional" a warning sign?

2. What rights should a collaboration agreement address?

3. How can an exit phrase help?

4. Why should chat not choose an IRL route?

5. When can consent to a collaboration be withdrawn?

Make It Stick

MEMORY ANCHOR

VERIFY THE PERSON. CONTROL THE PLACE. KEEP THE EXIT.

PRESSURE TEST

A collaborator arrives with two unannounced adults and says the original location is no longer available.

A. Continue because leaving would be rude.

B. Pause the shoot, contact the parent or guardian, and leave unless the new people and location are independently approved.

C. Ask the livestream audience whether the group looks safe.

SAFEST FIRST MOVE

Choose B. Surprise people and location changes remove the conditions that were approved.

60-SECOND DRILL

Create a collaboration checklist with identity, adult contact, location, transportation, schedule, content boundaries, rights, payment, emergency contact, and cancellation terms.

PRACTICE SAYING

“The approved plan changed. I am leaving now, and we can reschedule after the adults review the new details.”

Closed-book recall

1. What three actions form the memory anchor?

2. Which collaboration terms belong in writing?

3. Why is independent transportation essential?

CHAPTER 11

Screen Sharing, Voice Chat, and Accidental Leaks

QUICK RECALL BEFORE YOU READ

What is the fastest way to remove your screen and microphone from a live broadcast? Practice the controls before you need them.

SCENARIO

During a gaming stream, Owen shares his full monitor instead of the game window. A friend sends a message containing Owen's address, an email tab shows his legal name, and a password manager briefly opens over the stream. The details remain visible for four seconds - long enough for clips and screenshots.

Build a clean broadcast environment

Create a separate operating-system user, browser profile, desktop, and notification mode for streaming. Keep personal email, school portals, banking, family cloud drives, and private servers out of that environment.

Capture a single application or game rather than the entire display when possible. Rename files and folders that reveal legal names. Clear recent-file lists, browser suggestions, and map history before recording.

Use scenes that fail safely

Streaming software should include a standby scene, a privacy scene, and a full blackout scene with muted audio. Assign easy hotkeys that do not conflict with games. Test them while recording locally.

A privacy scene is useful only if the creator can reach it during panic. Put the key on the stream card and give a remote moderator a signal that means switch or end.

Voice chat is an uncontrolled microphone

Friends may reveal a surname, town, school, relationship, or private story without realizing they are live. Tell every participant when recording begins and ends. Use a private voice channel for approved guests and prevent unapproved people from joining.

Do not secretly record minors or private conversations. If a participant cannot follow the privacy rules, remove them from the live voice channel rather than hoping they remember.

Respond to a leak in layers

First remove the source: switch scene, mute, disconnect, or end stream. Then preserve the timestamp and check replay, clips, chat, and mirrors. Remove what the platform allows, but assume someone may have copied it.

Next, secure the exposed item. Change passwords or recovery information, alert the person whose message appeared, contact a bank if financial information was shown, and adjust location safety if an address was exposed.

Debrief without blaming

Accidental leaks are system failures as well as human mistakes. Ask which control failed: the wrong capture source, a missing clean profile, notification previews, an untrained guest, or no blackout key. Fix the system before the next stream.

Do not force the teen to rewatch the leak repeatedly. One adult can review and document the necessary segment.

Chapter 11 Summary

• A separate broadcast environment limits accidental exposure.

• Single-window capture is safer than full-display capture.

• Standby, privacy, and blackout scenes must be tested.

• Voice participants need notice and clear privacy rules.

• Leak response removes the source, reviews copies, and secures exposed information.

Chapter 11 Safety Checklist

☐ Create a separate streaming user and browser profile.

☐ Capture only the required application.

☐ Disable notification previews and clear recent items.

☐ Build and test standby, privacy, and blackout scenes.

☐ Tell voice-chat participants when the stream is live.

☐ Record the leak timestamp and review clips and replay.

☐ Secure any exposed password, account, address, or financial data.

Chapter 11 Discussion Questions

1. Why is a full-display capture dangerous?

2. What should a blackout scene do?

3. How can voice chat expose someone who is not on camera?

4. What are the first two stages after a leak?

5. Why should the system be changed instead of only telling the creator to be more careful?

Make It Stick

MEMORY ANCHOR

CUT THE FEED. FIND THE COPY. SECURE THE CLUE.

PRESSURE TEST

A private email address and partial password appear on screen during a stream.

A. Keep streaming and change it later.

B. Switch to the privacy scene or end the stream, save the timestamp, remove available copies, and change the password and related recovery details.

C. Ask chat not to screenshot it.

SAFEST FIRST MOVE

Choose B. A request to the audience is not containment. Remove exposure and secure the account immediately.

60-SECOND DRILL

Run a local test recording. Trigger one notification, open an upload dialog, alt-tab, and join voice chat. Identify every piece of private information that appears.

PRACTICE SAYING

“Private information appeared on screen. I am ending the stream while we secure it.”

Closed-book recall

1. What three actions form the memory anchor?

2. Which capture type is usually safer?

3. Who should review the necessary evidence after a serious leak?

PART III - Grow Without Selling Yourself

Growth is useful only when the creator can keep their health, honesty, rights, and choices.

CHAPTER 12

Metrics, Algorithms, Burnout, and Sleep

QUICK RECALL BEFORE YOU READ

Which metric can you control directly: views, watch time, or whether you followed your production plan?

SCENARIO

Jules uploads three short videos a day because one viral post doubled the channel overnight. When the next videos perform normally, Jules begins filming before school, checking analytics during class, and editing after midnight. The channel grows, but Jules stops enjoying the subject that started it.

Metrics describe; they do not command

Views, retention, click-through rate, watch time, followers, and revenue can help a creator learn. They cannot decide what is worth sacrificing. Platforms optimize for continued attention, while a teen must also protect education, sleep, health, family, and identity.

Use metrics as evidence after a planned experiment, not as a slot machine checked after every refresh. Set specific review times and remove analytics widgets from the phone home screen when they interrupt school or sleep.

Build a sustainable production ceiling

A ceiling is the maximum amount of creator work allowed in a week, even when the channel is growing. Include scripting, filming, editing, thumbnails, comments, moderation, sponsorship work, and meetings - not only camera time.

Create a minimum viable schedule that survives exams, illness, sports, and family responsibilities. A channel that requires constant emergency labor is not yet a stable system.

Protect sleep as production infrastructure

Sleep affects judgment, memory, mood, reaction time, and impulse control. Late-night streams also attract different audience behavior and reduce access to adults who can help. Set a hard off-device time and avoid using the bed as the primary editing station.

Do not praise sleep loss as proof of commitment. A creator who is too tired to notice a private notification or manipulative offer is not gaining a professional advantage.

Separate experiments from identity

A low-performing video is a result, not a verdict on the creator. Change one variable at a time: title, thumbnail, opening, length, topic, or posting time. Record what happened without rewriting your self-worth.

A viral video can also distort the channel. Decide whether the audience it attracts matches the work you want to continue making. Not every available growth path is your path.

Know the burnout signs

Warning signs include dread before recording, anger at ordinary interruptions, compulsive analytics checking, skipped meals, declining schoolwork, isolation, panic over missed uploads, and feeling unable to take a day off.

The response may include a production pause, reduced schedule, adult help, changed format, moderation support, or professional mental-health care. Rest is not a reward after collapse. It is a planned input.

Chapter 12 Summary

• Metrics inform decisions but do not set personal priorities.

• A weekly production ceiling includes all creator labor.

• Sleep is part of safety and creative quality.

• Experiments should test one variable without becoming judgments of worth.

• Burnout should trigger system changes, not more pressure.

Chapter 12 Safety Checklist

☐ Choose fixed analytics-review times.

☐ Set weekly creator-hour limits.

☐ Protect a hard sleep and device cutoff.

☐ Build a schedule that survives school and illness.

☐ Track experiments one variable at a time.

☐ Schedule days with no publishing or comment review.

☐ Tell an adult when content pressure affects mood, eating, school, or sleep.

Chapter 12 Discussion Questions

1. Why can frequent analytics checking change creative decisions?

2. What work belongs inside a production ceiling?

3. How can virality attract the wrong audience?

4. Which signs suggest burnout rather than ordinary tiredness?

5. Why is rest an input rather than a prize?

Make It Stick

MEMORY ANCHOR

MEASURE THE WORK. LIMIT THE WORK. PROTECT THE PERSON DOING THE WORK.

PRESSURE TEST

A sponsor offers a bonus if you stream until 2 a.m. on a school night.

A. Accept because paid work is more important than sleep.

B. Decline or renegotiate the time based on the family work and sleep rules.

C. Tell the audience to keep you awake.

SAFEST FIRST MOVE

Choose B. A contract or bonus does not erase health, school, or minor-work safeguards.

60-SECOND DRILL

Write a seven-day creator budget in hours. Include planning, filming, editing, moderation, messages, school, sleep, meals, movement, and a full rest block.

PRACTICE SAYING

“That schedule does not fit my school and health limits. I can offer these safer times instead.”

Closed-book recall

1. What three things form the memory anchor?

2. Why should analytics be reviewed at scheduled times?

3. Name four burnout signs.

CHAPTER 13

Criticism, Clips, Dogpiles, and Reputation

QUICK RECALL BEFORE YOU READ

What is the difference between a correction, an apology, and a fight? Decide which one the situation actually needs.

SCENARIO

Rae makes an awkward joke during a two-hour stream. A ten-second clip removes the setup and spreads with a caption claiming Rae attacked a classmate. Thousands of strangers comment before Rae understands what happened. Rae wants to post a furious twenty-minute response naming everyone involved.

Sort feedback before reacting

Separate useful criticism, ordinary dislike, misunderstanding, bad-faith provocation, targeted harassment, and credible threat. Each category needs a different response. Useful criticism may deserve a change. Dislike may require nothing. A threat requires evidence and escalation.

Do not let the loudest category define the whole audience. Ask a trusted person to review the material when the creator is too activated to sort it fairly.

Find the original and full context

Before responding, locate the original stream, timestamp, clip source, reposts, and captions. Save evidence. Determine what is true, what is missing, and whether the clip exposes someone else.

Context can explain a statement without excusing it. If the creator caused harm, an apology should name the conduct, acknowledge impact, explain the change, and avoid blaming viewers for noticing.

Use the smallest effective response

A short correction may outperform a defensive livestream. State the verified facts, link or describe the full context, correct the record, and explain the next step. Do not repeat slurs, private information, or harmful images merely to prove what happened.

Avoid sending followers toward the original poster. A creator with a larger audience can turn a correction into a dogpile even without explicitly asking.

Do not publish while flooded

Anger, panic, and humiliation narrow judgment. Draft the response, sleep when possible, and let an adult or trusted reviewer examine it. Remove threats and personal attacks from the draft.

Silence for a few hours is not an admission. It is often the time needed to preserve evidence and choose a proportionate response.

Build reputation through patterns

One statement matters, but reputation is built through repeated conduct: crediting sources, correcting errors, keeping boundaries, treating collaborators fairly, and responding consistently.

Do not promise that the internet will forget. Instead, create a documented pattern that gives future viewers more accurate material to evaluate.

Chapter 13 Summary

• Different kinds of feedback require different responses.

• Review the original context before correcting or apologizing.

• Use the smallest response that solves the actual problem.

• Do not publish while emotionally flooded.

• Long-term reputation is a pattern of conduct, not one perfect statement.

Chapter 13 Safety Checklist

☐ Save the original clip, timestamp, captions, and repost links.

☐ Ask a trusted reviewer to sort criticism from harassment.

☐ Correct facts without directing a dogpile.

☐ Apologize clearly when harm is real.

☐ Wait before posting an angry response.

☐ Report threats and private-information exposure separately.

☐ Keep a corrections page or change log for significant errors.

Chapter 13 Discussion Questions

1. How does useful criticism differ from harassment?

2. What makes an apology accountable?

3. Why can a large creator’s correction become a dogpile?

4. When is a short response stronger than a long livestream?

5. How can future conduct repair reputation?

Make It Stick

MEMORY ANCHOR

FIND THE FULL CLIP. NAME THE REAL ISSUE. USE THE SMALLEST EFFECTIVE RESPONSE.

PRESSURE TEST

A misleading clip is spreading, but your original joke also used someone’s private experience without permission.

A. Deny everything because the clip is misleading.

B. Correct the false claim and separately apologize for the real boundary violation.

C. Post the classmate’s private messages to prove you had permission.

SAFEST FIRST MOVE

Choose B. More than one thing can be true. Accuracy does not require avoiding accountability.

60-SECOND DRILL

Take a recent criticism and label it: useful, dislike, misunderstanding, provocation, harassment, or threat. Write the appropriate response for that category.

PRACTICE SAYING

“I am reviewing the full context and the real impact before I respond. I will not direct anyone toward another person’s account.”

Closed-book recall

1. What three steps form the memory anchor?

2. Why should a creator save the original context?

3. What builds reputation after a mistake?

CHAPTER 14

Copyright, Music, Reactions, and Fair Use

QUICK RECALL BEFORE YOU READ

Which rights do you receive when you buy a song for personal listening? Do not assume purchase equals permission to publish.

SCENARIO

Noah buys a popular song and uses it under an entire gaming montage. A copyright claim redirects the video’s revenue. Noah disputes it with the message "I paid for the song and gave credit." The dispute is rejected, and a second video receives a takedown notice.

Copyright starts with ownership

The person who creates an original video, song, photograph, illustration, or written work usually owns copyright unless a contract, employment relationship, or other law changes that result. Owning a copy is different from owning publication rights.

Buying music, a movie, a game, or an image does not automatically grant the right to rebroadcast it. Giving credit and writing "no infringement intended" do not create permission.

Use licensed or original material by default

Build a music and asset library with proof of license: creator name, source, date, receipt, license text, permitted platforms, commercial use, attribution, and expiration. Save screenshots or copies because terms can change.

Platform music libraries may grant rights only within certain tools or formats. A song available for a short-form feature may not be licensed for a long video, livestream, podcast, advertisement, or off-platform repost.

Fair use is a legal analysis, not a magic phrase

In the United States, courts consider purpose and character, nature of the work, amount used, and effect on the market. Commentary, criticism, teaching, research, and news reporting can support fair use, but no factor guarantees the result. Other countries use different exceptions.

Use only what is necessary for the new point, interrupt clips with real analysis, and avoid substituting for the original. A reaction that plays nearly the entire work with little added meaning is riskier than focused criticism.

Understand claims, strikes, and counter-notices

A platform claim may affect monetization or visibility without being a formal lawsuit. A takedown can create a strike and may lead to a legal counter-notice process. Do not dispute automatically or submit false information.

A minor should involve a parent and, for serious disputes, a qualified lawyer. Some legal forms share contact information with the other party. Read the process before submitting.

Protect your own work responsibly

Keep dated project files, raw footage, export files, licenses, and publication records. Use platform matching tools to identify copies, then review whether the use may be authorized, licensed, or legally protected before demanding removal.

Do not file takedowns to silence criticism or punish a competitor. Copyright tools are legal processes, not reputation weapons.

Chapter 14 Summary

• Buying or crediting a work does not create publication rights.

• Original and properly licensed assets are the safest default.

• Fair use depends on facts and legal factors, not disclaimers.

• Claims, strikes, and counter-notices have different consequences.

• Creators should protect their own work without abusing takedown systems.

Chapter 14 Safety Checklist

☐ Keep proof for every music, image, font, and clip license.

☐ Check whether a license covers monetized and livestream use.

☐ Use only the portion necessary for commentary or criticism.

☐ Do not rely on credit or disclaimers as permission.

☐ Involve a parent before disputing a serious claim or filing legal forms.

☐ Save raw files and dated project records.

☐ Consider exceptions before filing a removal request.

Chapter 14 Discussion Questions

1. Why does purchasing a song not grant upload rights?

2. What evidence belongs in an asset license library?

3. What four factors are considered in U.S. fair use?

4. How can a counter-notice expose personal information?

5. When can a copyright complaint become abusive?

Make It Stick

MEMORY ANCHOR

OWN IT, LICENSE IT, OR LIMIT IT TO A DEFENSIBLE PURPOSE.

PRESSURE TEST

A game publisher allows streaming, but the game contains licensed music that triggers claims.

A. Assume the publisher’s permission covers every song.

B. Check the publisher’s creator policy, enable streamer-safe music options, and use muted or licensed alternatives.

C. Dispute every claim as fair use.

SAFEST FIRST MOVE

Choose B. Different rights can exist inside one product. Game-stream permission may not include third-party music.

60-SECOND DRILL

Audit one published video. List every asset you did not create and locate the license or permission for each one.

PRACTICE SAYING

“Before I use that clip or song, I need written permission, a license, or a clearly reviewed legal basis.”

Closed-book recall

1. What three choices form the memory anchor?

2. Why is a platform library license limited?

3. Who ultimately decides fair use in a disputed U.S. case?

CHAPTER 15

Sponsorships, Gifts, Scams, and Honest Disclosures

Last verified July 2026: FTC endorsement disclosures must be clear, conspicuous, and placed where the audience will notice them.

QUICK RECALL BEFORE YOU READ

What connection must a viewer know in order to evaluate your recommendation fairly?

SCENARIO

A skin-care company offers sixteen-year-old Tessa free products and $300 for a positive review. The contract says Tessa may not mention side effects and must hide the word "ad" below the description fold. Another email using the same logo asks Tessa to install a private campaign app.

A material connection must be clear

The FTC says creators should disclose financial, employment, personal, family, or other material relationships with a brand. Free products, discounts, trips, affiliate links, and gifts can count even when no cash changes hands.

Put the disclosure where viewers will notice it: in the video or stream near the endorsement and in accompanying text. Use plain language such as "This video is sponsored by..." or "The company sent this product for free." Do not hide disclosure behind vague tags or a "more" button.

The opinion must remain honest

Do not claim experience you did not have, make promises the brand cannot support, or say a product is safe for everyone. A contract that requires only positive statements or forbids truthful material concerns creates both ethical and legal risk.

Keep your testing notes and disclose important limitations. Refuse scripts that turn a personal opinion into an unsupported medical, financial, or performance claim.

Verify the sponsor outside the pitch

Search the company independently, compare the sender’s domain, contact the brand through a number or address you find yourself, and ask for the legal company name. A real logo, signature, or creator reference can be copied.

Do not install campaign apps, browser extensions, remote-control tools, unreleased games, or password-protected archives without technical review. Many channel hijack attempts begin as plausible brand offers.

Gifts create privacy and tax issues

Use a safe business mailing option approved by the adult. Do not display shipping labels, invoices, serial numbers, or the route a courier used. Track the fair value of cash, products, services, and digital assets because non-cash compensation may still be taxable.

Agree in advance whether the creator may keep, return, donate, or give away the item. Giveaways also require clear rules and may be regulated by platform and local law.

Negotiate the full use of your work

A sponsorship agreement should address deliverables, deadlines, revisions, payment, cancellation, disclosure, exclusivity, content ownership, use of the creator’s name and likeness, paid advertising, whitelisting, and how long the brand may use the video.

A small fee for one post should not quietly buy permanent global advertising rights. Minors need adult review and may need legal advice before signing.

Chapter 15 Summary

• Material brand connections must be disclosed clearly and near the endorsement.

• A sponsored opinion must remain truthful.

• Sponsor identity and files require independent verification.

• Free products can create privacy, ownership, and tax duties.

• Contracts should define how the brand may use the creator’s work and likeness.

Chapter 15 Safety Checklist

☐ Disclose cash, gifts, discounts, affiliate links, and family connections.

☐ Put disclosure in the content and accompanying text.

☐ Refuse false claims and hidden-disclosure instructions.

☐ Verify the company through independent contact information.

☐ Do not install unreviewed campaign software.

☐ Track the value of products and payments.

☐ Have an adult review rights, exclusivity, cancellation, and payment terms.

Chapter 15 Discussion Questions

1. Why can a free product require disclosure?

2. What makes a disclosure clear and conspicuous?

3. Which contract term can let a brand turn one video into a long advertisement?

4. Why should product value be recorded?

5. Which sponsor requests suggest an account takeover attempt?

Make It Stick

MEMORY ANCHOR

DISCLOSE THE CONNECTION. VERIFY THE COMPANY. KEEP THE OPINION TRUE.

PRESSURE TEST

A company says the video will look less authentic if you disclose the free product on screen.

A. Hide the disclosure in a comment.

B. Require a clear disclosure and decline if the brand refuses.

C. Call it a "collaboration" without explaining the gift.

SAFEST FIRST MOVE

Choose B. Authenticity is not created by hiding information the audience needs.

60-SECOND DRILL

Write three disclosure scripts: a paid sponsorship, a free product, and an affiliate link. Say each one aloud as it would appear in a video or stream.

PRACTICE SAYING

“This content includes a paid relationship, and I will disclose it clearly to my audience.”

Closed-book recall

1. What three actions form the memory anchor?

2. Name four material connections.

3. Which rights should be limited in a sponsorship contract?

CHAPTER 16

Money, Monetization, Taxes, and Contracts

Last verified July 2026: YouTube adult-payee requirements and Twitch minor Affiliate onboarding. Tax, labor, and contract rules remain jurisdiction-specific.

QUICK RECALL BEFORE YOU READ

Who owns the channel, the revenue account, the equipment, and the finished work? Write the answers before money arrives.

SCENARIO

Evan’s channel begins earning ad revenue, donations, affiliate commissions, and free equipment. The payment account is in a parent’s name, but nobody tracks which money belongs to the channel, who owns the equipment, or how taxes will be paid. When a family argument occurs, both sides believe they control everything.

Monetization turns a project into financial activity

Platform payments, sponsorships, tips, memberships, affiliate commissions, merchandise, licensing, gifts, and digital assets can create taxable income. The IRS states that gig-economy income is taxable even when it is part-time, paid in property, or not shown on an information form.

Do not spend every payment as if it were take-home money. Create categories for taxes, business costs, savings, creator compensation, and reinvestment.

Minor accounts require adult clarity

YouTube’s AdSense system requires the payee to be eighteen; an under-eighteen creator generally needs an approved parent or guardian account. Twitch monetization for teens also requires parent or guardian agreement. The adult may receive tax forms and legal notices even when the teen performs the creative work.

Write down whether the adult is a custodian, account holder, business owner, employer, or partner. Those roles are not interchangeable. State how money is held, reported, spent, and transferred when the teen becomes an adult.

Keep records from the first dollar

Record date, payer, amount, form of payment, purpose, platform fees, refunds, chargebacks, product value, and related expenses. Save contracts, invoices, receipts, mileage records, licenses, and payment statements.

Use a separate business account where legally and practically appropriate. Never mix a teen’s public donations with hidden family expenses. Transparency protects both the creator and the adult.

Read contracts for obligations, not excitement

Identify the parties, deliverables, due dates, approval process, payment date, cancellation, morality clauses, exclusivity, confidentiality, dispute terms, ownership, license scope, and governing law. Watch for automatic renewal, unlimited revisions, permanent likeness rights, and broad indemnity.

A minor may lack legal capacity to enter some contracts, and state law varies. Adult review is essential; meaningful deals may require an attorney and tax professional.

Protect the relationship with written rules

Money can change family dynamics quickly. Decide how much the creator may spend, which purchases require approval, whether family members are paid for work, and how profits are saved. Do not use channel access or earned money as a weapon in unrelated discipline.

The teen should receive age-appropriate financial information. "Adults handle it" is not enough when the teen’s labor and identity produce the revenue.

Chapter 16 Summary

• Creator income can be taxable even without a tax form.

• Adult payment accounts require written roles and transition rules.

• Records should begin with the first dollar or gift.

• Contracts are lists of obligations and rights, not proof that an opportunity is good.

• A family money policy protects both the relationship and the business.

Chapter 16 Safety Checklist

☐ List every revenue source and non-cash gift.

☐ Create tax, expense, savings, pay, and reinvestment categories.

☐ Record who owns the channel, account, equipment, and intellectual property.

☐ Keep contracts, receipts, statements, and invoices.

☐ Use adult review for all monetization agreements.

☐ Set written spending and payment rules.

☐ Plan how account and asset control changes at adulthood.

Chapter 16 Discussion Questions

1. Why can free equipment be financial income?

2. What adult roles might exist in a teen creator business?

3. Which contract clauses can create long-term risk?

4. Why should family members document their work?

5. How can money rules preserve trust?

Make It Stick

MEMORY ANCHOR

NAME THE OWNER. TRACK THE MONEY. READ THE OBLIGATION.

PRESSURE TEST

A brand offers $2,000 today if you sign a contract granting permanent rights to your face, voice, and videos.

A. Sign because the payment is large.

B. Pause and obtain adult and legal review of the rights and duration.

C. Accept the money and ignore the contract later.

SAFEST FIRST MOVE

Choose B. A one-time payment can buy rights worth far more than the fee. Urgency is not a reason to skip review.

60-SECOND DRILL

Create a creator ledger with columns for date, source, cash value, product value, fees, expense, tax reserve, and saved documentation.

PRACTICE SAYING

“I do not sign creator contracts until my adult and, when needed, a qualified professional review the full rights and obligations.”

Closed-book recall

1. What three actions form the memory anchor?

2. Why can an adult payee receive legal and tax responsibilities?

3. What should happen to account control when the teen reaches adulthood?

CHAPTER 17

AI, Deepfakes, Impersonation, and Voice Cloning

QUICK RECALL BEFORE YOU READ

How will your audience verify a real emergency message or business announcement from you?

SCENARIO

A fake account uses Priya’s face and cloned voice to promote a cryptocurrency giveaway. The video sounds like Priya, includes old clips from her channel, and sends viewers to a payment link. At the same time, an anonymous user threatens to generate sexual images unless Priya responds privately.

Plan for convincing fakes

AI can generate or alter voices, faces, captions, images, and livestream-like video. Visual glitches are not a reliable test. Focus on source, account history, official links, independent confirmation, and the request being made.

Publish a verification policy: official accounts, official website or channel page, and what you will never request. Tell viewers that you do not ask for passwords, verification codes, cryptocurrency, secret payments, or private images.

Use an authenticity routine

For urgent family or team requests, use a private code phrase and call back through a saved number. For public announcements, post through more than one established official channel when possible. Keep dated original files and project exports.

Content credentials or provenance tools may help, but missing labels do not prove content is authentic. Screenshots and reposts can remove metadata.

Report impersonation as a coordinated incident

Save the profile URL, post URLs, usernames, dates, payment addresses, screenshots, and messages from confused viewers. Report impersonation, fraud, trademark or copyright misuse where applicable, and financial crime to the relevant provider.

Warn the audience with a calm notice that links to official accounts. Do not send followers to confront the impersonator.

Synthetic intimate abuse is real harm

A fake intimate image can cause genuine trauma, harassment, and reputational harm. Do not forward it. Save surrounding evidence and involve a parent, school, platform, and law enforcement or specialized service as appropriate.

If the depicted person was under eighteen, NCMEC’s CyberTipline and Take It Down resources may help. Laws and platform procedures are changing, so use current official removal channels.

Use AI without giving away private material

Do not upload private messages, identification, school records, unpublished contracts, medical information, or intimate media to an AI service without understanding storage and use. Obtain permission before cloning another person’s voice or likeness.

Fact-check AI-generated scripts, citations, legal claims, health advice, and sponsor research. A confident output is still a claim that requires verification.

Chapter 17 Summary

• Source and independent verification matter more than visual perfection.

• Creators should publish official-account and emergency-verification policies.

• Impersonation evidence includes URLs, payment information, and viewer reports.

• Synthetic intimate material should not be redistributed.

• AI tools require privacy, consent, and fact-checking rules.

Chapter 17 Safety Checklist

☐ Publish a list of official accounts.

☐ State what payments, codes, or private content I will never request.

☐ Use a family or team verification phrase.

☐ Keep original files and dated exports.

☐ Report impersonation, fraud, and copied content through appropriate channels.

☐ Do not forward synthetic intimate images.

☐ Avoid uploading sensitive or third-party private data to AI systems.

Chapter 17 Discussion Questions

1. Why are visual glitches a weak deepfake test?

2. How can viewers verify an urgent message?

3. Which evidence helps report a scam impersonator?

4. Why is a fake intimate image still serious abuse?

5. What private information should not be entered into an AI tool?

Make It Stick

MEMORY ANCHOR

VERIFY THE SOURCE. WARN THE AUDIENCE. DO NOT SPREAD THE FAKE.

PRESSURE TEST

A cloned voice message from your parent says to send money immediately and not call back.

A. Send the money because the voice is exact.

B. End the call and contact the parent through a saved number or another trusted person.

C. Ask the caller to repeat the request more clearly.

SAFEST FIRST MOVE

Choose B. The secrecy and payment demand matter even when the voice sounds perfect.

60-SECOND DRILL

Write a public anti-impersonation statement and a private family verification plan. Test both with the adult safety contact.

PRACTICE SAYING

“My official accounts are listed here. I never request secret payments, login codes, or private images.”

Closed-book recall

1. What three actions form the memory anchor?

2. Why can provenance labels disappear?

3. What should happen before cloning another person’s voice?

PART IV - Recover And Keep Creating

A safety incident is not the end of the creator; it is a test of the recovery system.

CHAPTER 18

When Something Goes Wrong: GO DARK

QUICK RECALL BEFORE YOU READ

Can you perform GO DARK without looking it up? Recovery works best when the steps are rehearsed.

SCENARIO

During a livestream, a viewer posts a home address, another account sends a sexual threat, and a moderator says the primary email is receiving login alerts. The creator tries to keep talking while switching settings, answering messages, and asking chat for advice. Every extra minute creates more copies and more confusion.

G - Get offline

End the stream or switch to a tested privacy scene, mute audio, stop replying, and move the creator away from the public conversation. Check that the broadcast, voice chat, screen share, and mobile stream are actually off.

Do not announce every response step. A public play-by-play can help an attacker adapt.

O - Obtain evidence

Save URLs, account names, timestamps, emails, transaction details, login alerts, clip links, and platform report numbers. Record what happened in sequence. Preserve original messages when safe.

Do not redistribute intimate or graphic material. One adult should coordinate evidence so the young person is not repeatedly exposed.

D - Defend accounts

Secure the primary email first, then channel, payment, domain, cloud storage, and social accounts. Use a trusted device. Change exposed or reused credentials, revoke sessions, review recovery details, remove unknown roles, and inspect forwarding rules.

Contact banks or payment providers immediately when money or identity information is involved.

A - Alert a safe adult

A teen should not run an incident alone. The adult’s first job is to lower panic and protect disclosure: "I am glad you told me. We will take one step at a time." Identify immediate physical, emotional, school, and financial risks.

Bring in the parent, guardian, platform support, school, attorney, therapist, or law enforcement according to the incident.

R - Report the harm

Use the correct category: impersonation, harassment, privacy, sexual exploitation, fraud, copyright, credible threat, or account compromise. Report suspected exploitation of a minor to NCMEC’s CyberTipline in the United States. Contact emergency services for immediate danger.

Save confirmation numbers and follow up when the first report does not solve the problem.

K - Keep following up

Check for new accounts, reuploads, payment attempts, changed search results, and emotional aftereffects. Update moderators, revise the stream card, and correct the system weakness.

Decide when and how to return. A creator can publish a limited statement without exposing investigative details. Recovery has no requirement to rush.

Chapter 18 Summary

• GO DARK prioritizes the person before the performance.

• Evidence should be useful, limited, and coordinated by an adult.

• Primary email and active sessions are early account-defense priorities.

• A calm adult response protects disclosure and decision-making.

• Reporting and follow-up continue after the first platform form.

Chapter 18 Safety Checklist

☐ Print or save the GO DARK card.

☐ Test the blackout and stream-end controls.

☐ Create a secure incident-log location.

☐ List adult, school, platform, bank, and emergency contacts.

☐ Know the account-revocation sequence.

☐ Record every report confirmation number.

☐ Schedule a recovery review before returning live.

Chapter 18 Discussion Questions

1. Why should the creator avoid narrating the response publicly?

2. Which evidence is most useful?

3. Why is the primary email secured first?

4. What should an adult say after a disclosure?

5. What belongs in the keep-following-up stage?

Make It Stick

MEMORY ANCHOR

GET OFFLINE. OBTAIN EVIDENCE. DEFEND ACCOUNTS. ALERT AN ADULT. REPORT. KEEP FOLLOWING UP.

PRESSURE TEST

A threat arrives during the most successful stream the channel has ever had.

A. Stay live until the audience drops.

B. Run GO DARK immediately.

C. Ask the threatening account whether it is serious.

SAFEST FIRST MOVE

Choose B. Audience size does not reduce the safety risk. A successful stream can be restarted; an uncontrolled incident can expand.

60-SECOND DRILL

Run a tabletop drill. One person invents a realistic incident, and the teen, parent, and moderator walk through every GO DARK step with a timer.

PRACTICE SAYING

“The channel is going offline for safety. Our team is handling the situation and will update through official accounts when appropriate.”

Closed-book recall

1. What does each letter in GO DARK mean?

2. Who should coordinate harmful evidence?

3. What must be reviewed before the creator returns?

CHAPTER 19

Account Takeover and Channel Hijacking

QUICK RECALL BEFORE YOU READ

Which device and account will you use if your normal creator computer is infected or locked out?

SCENARIO

A creator wakes to find the channel renamed, old videos hidden, and a fake investment livestream running. Recovery emails were deleted and a new manager was added overnight. Viewers believe the creator is promoting the scam.

Use a clean recovery path

Do not continue signing in from a device that may contain malware. Use a trusted updated device and official recovery pages reached independently. Secure the primary email, reset credentials, and revoke unknown sessions and applications.

If session theft or malware is suspected, changing a password alone may not be enough. Remove malicious software, review browser extensions, and consider professional technical support.

Preserve proof of ownership

Keep the channel ID, creation date, original registration email, payment records, tax information, raw videos, thumbnails, contracts, and screenshots of channel settings. These records can help support verify ownership.

Do not publish sensitive proof publicly. Send it only through verified support routes.

Stop the scam around the channel

Use other official accounts and trusted collaborators to warn viewers not to send money or follow links. Report the fraudulent livestream and any impersonation accounts. Contact payment or cryptocurrency services when addresses or merchant accounts are visible.

Avoid making claims about the attacker’s identity without evidence. Focus on stopping harm and restoring control.

Audit everything after restoration

Review owners, managers, editors, recovery addresses, phone numbers, app passwords, forwarding rules, API access, payment settings, scheduled posts, unlisted videos, community posts, live keys, and connected merchandise tools.

Restore public content from known backups rather than assuming every current file is trustworthy.

Tell the truth without oversharing security details

A post-incident statement can explain that the channel was compromised, identify the scam, tell viewers what action to take, and describe the protections added in general terms.

Do not reveal exact recovery answers, backup locations, security keys, or investigative details. Transparency should help viewers recover, not give future attackers a diagram.

Chapter 19 Summary

• Recovery should use a clean device and official routes.

• Proof of ownership belongs in a private recovery file.

• Other official accounts can warn viewers while the channel is unavailable.

• Restoration requires a full access and settings audit.

• A public statement should explain the harm without publishing security details.

Chapter 19 Safety Checklist

☐ Identify a clean backup recovery device.

☐ Store channel ID and proof-of-ownership records.

☐ Back up raw and finished content.

☐ List official support and payment-provider routes.

☐ Prepare a viewer warning template.

☐ Audit roles, sessions, apps, payments, and live keys after recovery.

☐ Document the incident and security improvements.

Chapter 19 Discussion Questions

1. Why can password change be insufficient after malware?

2. What proves channel ownership?

3. How should viewers be warned during a hijack?

4. Which settings require audit after restoration?

5. What should remain out of a public incident statement?

Make It Stick

MEMORY ANCHOR

CLEAN DEVICE. PROVE OWNERSHIP. REVOKE EVERYTHING UNKNOWN.

PRESSURE TEST

Support asks for ownership evidence through a direct message account that contacted you first.

A. Send identification immediately.

B. Use only the official support route you reached independently and verify the request.

C. Post the documents publicly to speed verification.

SAFEST FIRST MOVE

Choose B. Attackers often imitate support during a crisis. Recovery evidence is highly sensitive.

60-SECOND DRILL

Build a sealed recovery folder containing channel IDs, original files, payment records, role list, support links, and the GO DARK account sequence.

PRACTICE SAYING

“I will provide recovery evidence only through a verified official support process.”

Closed-book recall

1. What three steps form the memory anchor?

2. Why is a clean device important?

3. Which access settings must be checked after restoration?

CHAPTER 20

Build a Safety Team and a Long-Term Creator Plan

QUICK RECALL BEFORE YOU READ

Who has authority to end a stream, remove access, contact law enforcement, and approve a contract?

SCENARIO

Sofia’s channel has grown from a weekend project into a demanding operation. Her parent handles money, a friend moderates, a freelance editor has broad account access, and nobody knows who makes final decisions during an emergency. Success has outgrown the informal system.

Define roles before conflict

Name the creator, parent or guardian, account owner, payment administrator, lead moderator, backup moderator, editor, business contact, and emergency lead. One person may hold several roles, but the authority should still be written.

Use least-privilege access and review it quarterly. Friendship is not an access-control system.

Hold a monthly safety review

Review incidents, blocked terms, recurring harassment, account sessions, recovery details, public information, upcoming travel, sponsorships, workload, and emotional health. Choose one system improvement each month.

Do not make the review only about what the teen did wrong. Adults, moderators, platforms, and production systems can also fail.

Create thresholds for professional help

Define when to consult an attorney, accountant, therapist, cybersecurity professional, manager, or law enforcement. Examples include significant contracts, recurring income, taxes, credible threats, stalking, exploitation, litigation notices, and repeated account compromise.

Professional help should solve a defined problem. A manager is not automatically entitled to ownership, passwords, or permanent control.

Plan for growth and exit

Decide what happens if the channel becomes a business, stays a hobby, pauses for school, changes topics, or ends. Preserve the teen’s ability to step back. Build an archive and account-transfer plan for adulthood.

A successful creator may later regret content made at fourteen. Establish a process for reviewing old videos, privacy, consent, and long-term licensing.

Measure success broadly

Track skills, finished projects, community quality, income stability, school performance, sleep, relationships, and enjoyment - not only followers. A smaller channel with a healthy system may be more successful than a larger channel built on panic.

The creator should be able to answer: "What is the channel helping me build, and what will I refuse to lose for it?"

Chapter 20 Summary

• Written roles make emergency decisions faster.

• Least privilege and quarterly access reviews protect growing channels.

• Monthly reviews should improve systems without shaming the teen.

• Professional help is triggered by defined thresholds.

• Long-term planning includes adulthood, old content, pauses, and exit.

Chapter 20 Safety Checklist

☐ Write a team role and authority chart.

☐ Review access every quarter.

☐ Hold a monthly safety and workload meeting.

☐ Define thresholds for legal, tax, security, and mental-health help.

☐ Create an adulthood transfer plan.

☐ Review old content and permissions annually.

☐ Measure health, learning, and community alongside growth.

Chapter 20 Discussion Questions

1. Why should authority be written when everyone trusts each other?

2. What belongs in a monthly safety review?

3. When might a creator need professional help?

4. Why should an exit plan exist during growth?

5. Which non-audience measures indicate success?

Make It Stick

MEMORY ANCHOR

NAME THE ROLE. LIMIT THE ACCESS. REVIEW THE SYSTEM.

PRESSURE TEST

A new manager says they need the owner password and permanent rights in order to help the channel grow.

A. Agree because managers are professionals.

B. Use a written contract, limited role permissions, and independent adult or legal review.

C. Give the password temporarily and change it later.

SAFEST FIRST MOVE

Choose B. Professional support should reduce risk, not require unnecessary control.

60-SECOND DRILL

Draw a team map with names, roles, access, emergency authority, backup person, and review date. Remove one access grant that is no longer necessary.

PRACTICE SAYING

“We use written roles and platform permissions. No team member receives more access than the work requires.”

Closed-book recall

1. What three actions form the memory anchor?

2. What should be measured besides growth?

3. Why does a creator need an adulthood transfer plan?

PART V - Parent Field Guide

Support the creator, supervise the risk, and keep the relationship usable.

CHAPTER 21

Support Without Taking Over

QUICK RECALL BEFORE YOU READ

Which decisions belong to the teen’s creative lane, and which belong to the adult safety and legal lane?

SCENARIO

A parent agrees to help with a teen’s channel, then begins rewriting scripts, reading every message, choosing topics, and threatening to delete the channel after disagreements. The teen responds by creating secret accounts and hiding sponsor contacts.

Be a usable adult

A usable adult stays calm enough that the teen can disclose a mistake before it becomes a crisis. Begin with safety, not punishment: "Thank you for telling me. Are you safe right now? Let us preserve what happened and decide the next step."

Consequences may still be needed, but they should not erase the reporting pathway.

Separate creative authority from adult responsibility

The teen should usually lead voice, format, topic, performance, and ordinary community style. The adult must supervise legal consent, contracts, payment systems, taxes, travel, high-risk contact, platform age rules, and serious incidents.

Write the lanes down. Constant adult editing can turn support into ownership of the teen’s identity.

Use transparent supervision

Explain which accounts, messages, reports, or analytics the adult may review, why, and how often. Avoid secret monitoring except in a genuine immediate-safety situation. Use business inboxes and moderation logs rather than reading every personal conversation.

The teen should know what would increase or reduce supervision.

Coach instead of commandeer

Ask questions: What is the goal? What could viewers infer? Which rule applies? What happens if the video goes viral? Let the teen solve age-appropriate problems.

Take control only when safety, law, money, or contractual authority requires it, and return control when the immediate need ends.

Protect the relationship from the business

Schedule family time in which the channel is not discussed. Do not use revenue or access as leverage in unrelated conflict. Recognize the teen as a developing person, not a family brand.

A channel can be paused or ended. The parent-child relationship must continue after the account does.

Chapter 21 Summary

• A calm first response keeps the adult usable.

• Creative authority and adult legal responsibility should be separated.

• Supervision should be transparent and proportional.

• Coaching builds judgment better than constant takeover.

• Family relationships need spaces outside the channel.

Chapter 21 Safety Checklist

☐ Promise a calm reporting response.

☐ Write the teen and adult decision lanes.

☐ Explain all monitoring and access.

☐ Use shared business systems instead of secret surveillance.

☐ Schedule channel-free family time.

☐ Do not use earned money or channel deletion as unrelated punishment.

☐ Return control after an emergency ends.

Chapter 21 Discussion Questions

1. What makes an adult usable?

2. Which decisions require adult authority?

3. How can supervision be transparent?

4. When should a parent take temporary control?

5. How can the family protect its relationship from the business?

Make It Stick

MEMORY ANCHOR

STAY CALM. NAME THE LANES. RETURN CONTROL WHEN SAFETY ALLOWS.

PRESSURE TEST

Your teen admits opening a fake sponsor file after previously being warned not to.

A. Begin with punishment and demand the device.

B. Secure the device and accounts, thank the teen for disclosing, then address the rule and consequence after containment.

C. Ignore it so the teen keeps talking to you.

SAFEST FIRST MOVE

Choose B. Safety and evidence come first; accountability follows when the crisis is contained.

60-SECOND DRILL

Practice the first five sentences you would say after a disclosure involving money, sexual pressure, or a threat.

PRACTICE SAYING

“I am glad you told me. You are not handling this alone. First we protect you and the evidence; then we will address what needs to change.”

Closed-book recall

1. What three actions form the memory anchor?

2. Why can automatic channel deletion reduce safety?

3. Which family space should remain free of creator work?

CHAPTER 22

Is My Teen Ready to Create Publicly?

QUICK RECALL BEFORE YOU READ

Readiness is not one yes-or-no trait. Which skill is strong, and which skill needs practice before public exposure?

SCENARIO

A thirteen-year-old wants to livestream because friends already do. The teen is creative and technically skilled but becomes highly distressed by criticism, shares personal details impulsively, and refuses adult involvement. The parent feels forced to choose between a total ban and immediate permission.

Assess skills, not popularity

Readiness includes following age rules, pausing under pressure, protecting private information, accepting moderation, ending a stream, handling ordinary criticism, reporting mistakes, keeping school and sleep routines, and involving an adult.

A large desire to create is not the same as readiness for live public interaction.

Use a graduated launch

Begin with offline recording, private family review, unlisted sharing, a small approved audience, prerecorded public videos, moderated premieres, and only later livestreaming when age and skills allow.

Each stage should have clear success criteria. The purpose is practice, not indefinite postponement.

Match format to development

Some teens thrive with edited tutorials but struggle with spontaneous chat. A faceless craft channel, narrated screen recording, podcast with an adult, or prerecorded gaming analysis may fit better than face-forward live content.

Choose the lowest-risk format that still supports the creative goal.

Look at recovery behavior

The most important readiness question may be: What happens after a mistake? A teen who can disclose, follow a containment plan, and learn from the incident may be safer than one who appears cautious but hides problems.

Practice minor failures in advance: accidental notification, rude comment, unexpected guest, copyright claim, and lost password.

Reassess over time

Readiness changes with maturity, mental health, school stress, audience size, platform features, and recent incidents. A permission can include a review date and can be narrowed without becoming permanent punishment.

Explain which skill needs improvement and how the teen can demonstrate it.

Chapter 22 Summary

• Readiness is a group of observable safety and self-management skills.

• A graduated launch lets the teen practice before high exposure.

• The format should match developmental strengths.

• Recovery and disclosure behavior are central readiness indicators.

• Permissions should be reviewed as conditions change.

Chapter 22 Safety Checklist

☐ Verify the platform’s current age rules.

☐ Score privacy, impulse control, criticism response, reporting, and schedule skills.

☐ Start with a lower-risk publishing stage.

☐ Choose a format that reduces the teen’s weakest risk area.

☐ Run practice incident drills.

☐ Set a review date and advancement criteria.

☐ Explain restrictions as skill goals, not character judgments.

Chapter 22 Discussion Questions

1. Which readiness skills can be observed?

2. Why is prerecorded content safer than live for some teens?

3. What does a graduated launch look like?

4. Why is disclosure after a mistake a readiness skill?

5. How should a parent explain a temporary restriction?

Make It Stick

MEMORY ANCHOR

START SMALL. PRACTICE FAILURE. ADVANCE BY SKILL.

PRESSURE TEST

The teen can edit well but repeatedly reveals names and locations during spontaneous conversation.

A. Allow unrestricted livestreaming to build confidence.

B. Begin with edited content and privacy review while practicing scripted or supervised live sessions.

C. Ban all content creation forever.

SAFEST FIRST MOVE

Choose B. The format preserves creativity while targeting the weak skill.

60-SECOND DRILL

Complete a readiness matrix from one to five for privacy, account security, emotional regulation, schedules, adult reporting, moderation, and recovery.

PRACTICE SAYING

“You are ready for the next stage when you can demonstrate these specific skills consistently.”

Closed-book recall

1. What three steps form the memory anchor?

2. Which skill may matter more than avoiding every mistake?

3. Why should readiness be reassessed?

CHAPTER 23

The Three-Lane Family Creator Agreement

QUICK RECALL BEFORE YOU READ

Can each person explain the three decision lanes without looking at the agreement?

SCENARIO

A family says they have rules, but each person remembers them differently. The teen believes sponsorship decisions are private creative choices. The parent believes every comment can be read. A conflict begins only after money and a risky collaboration arrive.

Lane one: teen creative control

List the choices the teen can make independently: channel voice, ordinary topics, editing style, upload ideas, set design, and safe community traditions. Define any age-appropriate budget or posting limits.

Respecting this lane keeps the project genuinely theirs.

Lane two: shared decisions

Use shared approval for schedules, new platforms, live features, collaborations, travel, public appearances, paid promotions, merchandise, major equipment, and changes that increase exposure.

State how disagreements are resolved and when a decision is reviewed again.

Lane three: adult-required decisions

The adult controls or must approve legal contracts, payment accounts, tax filings, high-risk reports, law-enforcement contact, adult communications involving exploitation, and activity prohibited by age rules.

Adult authority should be connected to a defined duty, not used to control harmless creative preference.

Add emergency override and restoration

Describe events that allow the adult to end a stream, secure devices, suspend posting, or revoke access. Include credible threats, exploitation, doxxing, account compromise, severe sleep loss, or inability to follow the incident plan.

Every override should trigger a review: what happened, what condition restores ordinary control, and when the family will decide again.

Treat the agreement as a living document

Include privacy boundaries, work hours, school standards, money rules, message review, moderators, password custody, content involving siblings, conflict resolution, and exit rights.

Sign and date the agreement, then review it monthly at first and quarterly once stable.

Chapter 23 Summary

• The agreement separates teen, shared, and adult-required decisions.

• Adult authority should be tied to safety, law, and financial duties.

• Emergency override needs clear restoration conditions.

• Privacy, schedules, money, siblings, and exit rights belong in writing.

• The agreement should change as the teen and channel grow.

Chapter 23 Safety Checklist

☐ List decisions in all three lanes.

☐ Define adult emergency-override events.

☐ State how ordinary control is restored.

☐ Set message and account-review boundaries.

☐ Address siblings and other family members on camera.

☐ Include money, workload, and school standards.

☐ Sign, date, and schedule review.

Chapter 23 Discussion Questions

1. Which decisions belong in each lane?

2. Why should an override include restoration conditions?

3. How can the agreement protect siblings?

4. What happens when the teen and parent disagree?

5. How often should the agreement be reviewed?

Make It Stick

MEMORY ANCHOR

TEEN LANE. SHARED LANE. ADULT DUTY LANE.

PRESSURE TEST

A parent dislikes the teen’s harmless music style and threatens to use account ownership to change it.

A. Use the adult lane because the parent owns the payment account.

B. Keep the choice in the teen creative lane unless it creates a specific safety or legal issue.

C. Delete the channel.

SAFEST FIRST MOVE

Choose B. Legal account responsibility does not transfer every creative decision to the adult.

60-SECOND DRILL

Draft ten decisions and place each in a lane. Discuss the two placements on which family members disagree most.

PRACTICE SAYING

“That choice belongs in your creative lane. My role is to address the specific safety, legal, or financial issue - not replace your voice.”

Closed-book recall

1. What are the three lanes?

2. Which events justify emergency override?

3. What must the agreement say about restoration?

CHAPTER 24

Technical Safety, Moderation, and Supervision

QUICK RECALL BEFORE YOU READ

Who holds recovery access, who moderates, and who acts when the teen is unavailable?

SCENARIO

A parent assumes the teen knows technology better and leaves all account security to them. The teen assumes the parent will handle serious reports. A volunteer moderator has the owner password because it was the easiest setup. Nobody has recovery codes.

Build adult technical literacy

The parent does not need to become a streamer, but should understand the primary email, MFA, roles, moderation settings, replay and clip controls, payment accounts, public contact routes, and recovery process.

Complete the security setup together rather than asking the teen to summarize it later.

Use shared visibility without shared passwords

Use platform roles, shared moderation logs, business email access, and documented recovery custody. Do not circulate owner credentials among family and friends.

Store backup codes securely and record which adult can act if the teen loses the device or is in crisis.

Train moderators as a team

Provide rules, escalation levels, evidence instructions, shift limits, private contact routes, and adult backup. Review moderator age and suitability. A teen friend may handle spam but should not be solely responsible for sexual abuse or credible threats.

Remove moderators promptly when the relationship changes.

Supervise the risk surface

Review new apps, plugins, sponsor files, linked accounts, mailing systems, public schedules, and travel plans. Perform a quarterly privacy search for names, usernames, images, addresses, and old accounts.

Supervision should focus on high-impact systems rather than every harmless conversation.

Test the emergency controls

Practice ending streams, revoking sessions, removing roles, changing recovery information, locking chat, reporting an account, contacting a bank, and finding local emergency numbers.

A written plan that no one can execute under pressure is only a document.

Chapter 24 Summary

• Parents need enough technical literacy to execute recovery.

• Roles and shared systems are safer than shared passwords.

• Moderators need training, limits, and adult backup.

• Supervision should focus on high-risk access and exposure.

• Emergency controls must be tested.

Chapter 24 Safety Checklist

☐ Review security settings together.

☐ Use platform roles and least privilege.

☐ Store recovery codes with clear adult custody.

☐ Train moderators and set shift limits.

☐ Audit connected apps and sponsor files.

☐ Run quarterly privacy searches.

☐ Practice the emergency controls twice a year.

Chapter 24 Discussion Questions

1. Which technical settings should a parent understand?

2. Why are platform roles safer than shared passwords?

3. Which incidents exceed a teen moderator’s role?

4. What is a risk-surface review?

5. Why should emergency controls be practiced?

Make It Stick

MEMORY ANCHOR

UNDERSTAND THE SYSTEM. LIMIT THE ACCESS. TEST THE RECOVERY.

PRESSURE TEST

The only moderator with account access has a falling-out with the teen.

A. Wait to see whether they misuse it.

B. Remove access immediately, rotate affected credentials, and review actions and sessions.

C. Ask them to promise not to log in.

SAFEST FIRST MOVE

Choose B. Access should follow current responsibility, not past trust.

60-SECOND DRILL

Complete a parent technical walkthrough in which the teen says nothing unless the parent cannot find or execute a required safety control.

PRACTICE SAYING

“We use roles, not shared passwords, and access ends when the job ends.”

Closed-book recall

1. What three actions form the memory anchor?

2. Who should hold backup recovery access?

3. Which systems deserve quarterly review?

CHAPTER 25

Money, Contracts, Ownership, and Workload

QUICK RECALL BEFORE YOU READ

Can the teen stop creating without losing access to money already earned?

SCENARIO

A teen channel earns enough to pay household bills. The family increases the upload schedule, assigns siblings to appear, and signs a long sponsorship without independent review. The teen worries that saying no will hurt the family financially.

The child is not the family payroll

Revenue may help the family by agreement, but a minor should not carry responsibility for household survival. Financial dependence can make consent to filming, sponsorships, and workload impossible to evaluate honestly.

Protect a meaningful portion of earnings for the teen and document every use.

Clarify ownership

Write who owns the channel, accounts, trademarks, equipment, raw footage, edited videos, merchandise, mailing lists, and revenue. Address content created jointly and the use of siblings’ likenesses.

Plan transfer or restructuring when the teen reaches adulthood.

Use independent review

A parent who benefits financially may still act responsibly, but significant contracts deserve an outside attorney or qualified adviser. Tax work should be handled by someone who understands creator income and minor ownership.

Do not rely on a brand’s explanation of its own contract.

Track labor and protect limits

Record all work hours, including preparation, reshoots, editing, travel, and appearances. Check state child-entertainment and labor requirements, permits, school rules, and hour restrictions where applicable.

No sponsor deadline should override health, education, or law.

Preserve the right to say no

The teen and any sibling should be able to refuse a scene, topic, prank, physical contact, or disclosure. Establish what happens to already scheduled work and how the family communicates a cancellation.

Compensation does not purchase unlimited access to a child’s identity.

Chapter 25 Summary

• A minor should not be made responsible for family financial survival.

• Ownership of accounts, work, and equipment must be written.

• Significant contracts benefit from independent review.

• Creator labor includes off-camera work and may be regulated.

• Every child involved must retain meaningful consent.

Chapter 25 Safety Checklist

☐ Create a written earnings and savings policy.

☐ Document ownership of all assets and accounts.

☐ Use independent legal and tax review for significant deals.

☐ Track all creator work hours.

☐ Check applicable state minor-entertainment rules.

☐ Give siblings clear consent and compensation terms.

☐ Protect the teen’s right to pause or stop.

Chapter 25 Discussion Questions

1. How can family dependence distort consent?

2. Which assets require ownership rules?

3. Why should contract review be independent?

4. What work counts as creator labor?

5. How can siblings withdraw consent?

Make It Stick

MEMORY ANCHOR

PROTECT THE EARNINGS. DEFINE THE OWNERSHIP. LIMIT THE LABOR.

PRESSURE TEST

The family needs the sponsor payment, but the teen says the campaign makes them feel unsafe.

A. Require completion because the contract is signed.

B. Pause, review safety and cancellation terms, obtain advice, and protect the teen from the unsafe work.

C. Tell the teen not to mention the discomfort publicly.

SAFEST FIRST MOVE

Choose B. Financial need does not erase a child’s safety or consent.

60-SECOND DRILL

Create an ownership and compensation inventory for the channel, then identify any area currently controlled only by assumption.

PRACTICE SAYING

“We will not require unsafe creator work to solve a family financial problem.”

Closed-book recall

1. What three actions form the memory anchor?

2. Why is a teen’s right to stop essential?

3. Which work hours should be recorded?

CHAPTER 26

Protecting School, Sleep, Mental Health, and Family Life

QUICK RECALL BEFORE YOU READ

Which parts of life are protected from filming, monetization, and audience access?

SCENARIO

A creator’s grades fall and sleep shifts to four hours a night, but the channel is growing. The parent hesitates to set limits because the teen calls the channel a career. Family conversations become analytics meetings, and every outing is treated as content.

Set non-negotiable health floors

Define minimum sleep, meals, movement, medical care, school attendance, homework, and offline social time. These are not rewards earned by channel performance.

Adjust the production plan before lowering the health floor.

Create content-free zones

Protect bedrooms, medical appointments, school conflicts, discipline, grief, romantic relationships, and family arguments unless everyone gives informed consent after the event is processed.

Maintain days, rooms, and family activities in which cameras and channel discussion are absent.

Watch for performance identity

A teen may begin to experience every emotion as material and every interaction as audience judgment. Ask who they are when not publishing and what friendships exist outside the community.

Encourage skills and interests that do not depend on public metrics.

Respond to distress early

Warning signs include panic over uploads, inability to stop checking comments, depression, isolation, eating or sleep disruption, self-harm talk, escalating anger, and fear of disappointing viewers.

Use professional mental-health support when needed. In the United States, call or text 988 for crisis help and 911 for immediate danger.

Make pauses predictable

Create exam, illness, vacation, and crisis pause policies. Prepare an audience message that does not reveal private details. A predictable pause reduces fear that one missed upload will end the channel.

Do not require the teen to create content about why they need rest.

Chapter 26 Summary

• Health and education need minimum floors independent of performance.

• Some spaces and experiences should remain outside content.

• A teen needs identity and relationships beyond the audience.

• Mental-health warning signs require early response.

• Planned pauses make rest safer.

Chapter 26 Safety Checklist

☐ Set sleep, school, meal, and movement minimums.

☐ Create camera-free rooms and days.

☐ Keep family conflict and medical information private by default.

☐ Monitor distress, isolation, and compulsive analytics use.

☐ Maintain offline friendships and interests.

☐ Write exam and illness pause messages.

☐ Know crisis contacts and seek professional help early.

Chapter 26 Discussion Questions

1. Why should health floors be non-negotiable?

2. Which events should remain private by default?

3. What is performance identity?

4. Which signs require mental-health support?

5. How can a pause policy protect the creator?

Make It Stick

MEMORY ANCHOR

PROTECT THE BODY. PROTECT THE OFFLINE LIFE. NORMALIZE THE PAUSE.

PRESSURE TEST

The teen says taking one week off will make every viewer leave.

A. Require daily content to preserve momentum.

B. Use the planned pause message and protect the health need.

C. Let the audience vote.

SAFEST FIRST MOVE

Choose B. The channel must be able to survive the creator being human.

60-SECOND DRILL

List five parts of family life that will never be used as content without a separate, calm consent process.

PRACTICE SAYING

“Your health is not a channel expense. We will change the schedule before we sacrifice sleep or safety.”

Closed-book recall

1. What three actions form the memory anchor?

2. Why should a teen not have to explain private health details to pause?

3. Name four distress signs.

CHAPTER 27

Responding to Harassment, Exploitation, and Crisis

QUICK RECALL BEFORE YOU READ

What are the first five actions an adult should take before confronting anyone?

SCENARIO

A parent discovers that a viewer has been pressuring the teen for sexual images and threatening to contact school friends. The parent is furious and begins messaging the offender, while the teen begs them not to involve anyone because the channel will be taken away.

Regulate the adult response

Stop, breathe, and lower your voice. Do not blame, interrogate, or announce punishment. Confirm immediate physical and emotional safety. Tell the teen they are not alone and are not responsible for the offender’s choices.

The adult’s anger belongs away from the child and away from the offender’s message thread.

Preserve evidence safely

Save account identifiers, URLs, dates, threats, payment requests, and report confirmations. Do not forward or download sexual images. Limit who views the evidence and document the chain of actions.

Avoid repeated interviews. Record essential facts once and use trained professionals when possible.

Use the correct reporting path

Report exploitation of a minor to NCMEC’s CyberTipline in the United States and to the platform. Contact law enforcement for credible threats, stalking, swatting, or physical approach. Use Take It Down when eligible and the image remains on the original device.

Notify school safety personnel when students, school locations, or schedules are involved.

Protect crisis mental health

Ask directly whether the teen feels like hurting themselves or cannot stay safe. Remove access to weapons or dangerous means when appropriate and do not leave a high-risk teen alone. Use 988 or emergency services in the United States.

Do not make channel consequences the center of a crisis conversation.

Create the recovery environment

Pause public contact, adjust accounts, tell only necessary people, and arrange professional support. Let the teen have a voice in reporting and return decisions whenever safety permits.

Follow up for weeks, not hours. Fear, shame, sleep disruption, and school avoidance may appear after the immediate threat ends.

Chapter 27 Summary

• The adult must regulate before acting.

• Evidence should be preserved without redistributing sexual material.

• Exploitation, threats, school risk, and crisis each have reporting paths.

• Ask directly about self-harm and immediate safety.

• Recovery requires ongoing support and restored voice.

Chapter 27 Safety Checklist

☐ Use a calm, non-shaming first response.

☐ Check immediate physical and emotional safety.

☐ Preserve limited evidence.

☐ Contact the appropriate platform, NCMEC, school, law enforcement, or crisis service.

☐ Do not confront the offender.

☐ Arrange professional support.

☐ Schedule follow-up checks and a return-to-creation review.

Chapter 27 Discussion Questions

1. Why can an angry confrontation damage the case?

2. What evidence should not be forwarded?

3. When should school staff be involved?

4. How should a parent ask about self-harm?

5. Why does recovery continue after the account is blocked?

Make It Stick

MEMORY ANCHOR

CALM THE ROOM. PROTECT THE PERSON. PRESERVE AND REPORT.

PRESSURE TEST

The teen says, "If you tell anyone, I will never speak to you again."

A. Promise total secrecy.

B. Explain what must be reported for safety, involve the teen in each step possible, and preserve trust through honesty.

C. Take the device and refuse to explain.

SAFEST FIRST MOVE

Choose B. Safety may require disclosure, but the adult can avoid betrayal by explaining the process and preserving the teen’s voice.

60-SECOND DRILL

Rehearse a two-minute parent response to sextortion, a credible threat, and a self-harm disclosure. Keep the scripts with the emergency resources.

PRACTICE SAYING

“I will not promise secrecy when you are in danger, but I will tell you what I am doing and include you in every decision safety allows.”

Closed-book recall

1. What three actions form the memory anchor?

2. Which resources handle exploitation and crisis?

3. Why should follow-up continue for weeks?

CHAPTER 28

When the Channel Grows: Build a Real Team

QUICK RECALL BEFORE YOU READ

Which professional problem are you hiring someone to solve, and what is the least access required?

SCENARIO

A teen creator reaches a large audience and begins receiving daily contracts, travel invitations, press requests, security threats, and tax documents. The family hires people based on friendliness and follower counts. No background checks, contracts, or access reviews occur.

Hire by function

Define the need: editing, moderation, bookkeeping, tax preparation, legal review, security, scheduling, sponsorship sales, or management. Ask for references, work samples, pricing, conflicts, insurance where relevant, and a written scope.

A large social following does not prove professional competence.

Keep independent advisers

A manager who earns a percentage may not be the only person reviewing the manager’s contract. Use independent legal and tax advice. Make sure the teen and parent understand fees, term, termination, exclusivity, ownership, and post-termination commission.

No adviser should control every account, payment, contract, and source of information.

Professionalize security and privacy

Use business domains, role-based accounts, hardware security keys where appropriate, secure document storage, background-checked moderators for high-risk roles, travel plans, and a written incident-response lead.

Consider professional security or legal help when stalking, swatting, high-value accounts, public events, or repeated impersonation create material risk.

Protect the teen’s development

Success does not make a minor an adult. Maintain school, health, family, and age-appropriate privacy. Adults should absorb administrative and dangerous work rather than pushing the teen into every negotiation and crisis.

The teen needs a confidential adviser who is not paid to keep the channel producing.

Govern the business

Hold regular meetings, maintain financial reports, track contracts and rights, review team access, document decisions, and create succession and shutdown plans. Decide which adult signs, who owns entities, and how the teen gains control at adulthood.

Growth should make the system more accountable, not more dependent on one charismatic person.

Chapter 28 Summary

• Team members should be hired to solve defined functions.

• Independent advisers reduce conflicts of interest.

• Larger channels need professional security and privacy controls.

• Success does not erase the teen’s developmental needs.

• Business governance should document money, rights, access, and adulthood transfer.

Chapter 28 Safety Checklist

☐ Write a scope for every hired role.

☐ Check references and conflicts.

☐ Use independent contract and tax review.

☐ Limit account and payment access.

☐ Provide the teen a confidential non-production adviser.

☐ Hold regular finance, safety, and access meetings.

☐ Create adulthood, succession, and shutdown plans.

Chapter 28 Discussion Questions

1. Why is follower count not a professional qualification?

2. Which conflicts can a manager have?

3. When might professional security be appropriate?

4. Why should the teen have an adviser outside the production chain?

5. What does business governance add to a family channel?

Make It Stick

MEMORY ANCHOR

DEFINE THE FUNCTION. CHECK THE CONFLICT. LIMIT THE CONTROL.

PRESSURE TEST

A manager offers rapid growth but requires ten years of exclusivity and ownership of all accounts.

A. Accept because the manager has famous clients.

B. Obtain independent legal review and reject unnecessary ownership or extreme lock-in.

C. Let the manager explain why the contract is fair.

SAFEST FIRST MOVE

Choose B. The person benefiting from a contract is not the only source for interpreting it.

60-SECOND DRILL

Create a team-vendor register with role, scope, contract end date, payment, access, conflict, background check, and next review date.

PRACTICE SAYING

“We hire people for defined work, use independent review, and keep ownership and recovery under protected control.”

Closed-book recall

1. What three actions form the memory anchor?

2. Why should advisers remain independent?

3. Which plans are needed before the teen reaches adulthood?

TOOLS

CREATOR SAFETY TOOLKIT

Print the cards, fill in the agreements, and practice the response before the audience arrives.

Pocket Action Card: GO DARK

G - GET OFFLINE

End the stream. Mute. Stop replying. Confirm every broadcast, screen share, and voice channel is off.

O - OBTAIN EVIDENCE

Save URLs, usernames, timestamps, messages, login alerts, payment details, and report numbers. Do not redistribute intimate or graphic material.

D - DEFEND ACCOUNTS

Secure primary email first. Revoke sessions. Change exposed credentials. Review recovery, roles, forwarding rules, and payments.

A - ALERT A SAFE ADULT

Tell the designated adult. Check physical safety, emotional safety, school risk, and financial risk.

R - REPORT THE HARM

Use the platform category and specialized reporting route. Contact emergency services for immediate danger.

K - KEEP FOLLOWING UP

Check for new accounts and copies. Track reports. Support recovery. Fix the system before returning.

Pocket Action Card: Stop - Save - Tell - Report

Use this card for grooming, sexual pressure, sextortion, manipulated intimate images, or threats involving a minor.

STOP

Stop replying. Do not pay, send more material, negotiate, threaten, or meet the person.

SAVE

Preserve account names, URLs, dates, threats, payment requests, and report numbers. Do not download or forward intimate material.

TELL

Tell a safe adult immediately. Stay with the young person and check for immediate self-harm risk.

REPORT

Report to the platform and NCMEC CyberTipline in the United States. Use Take It Down when eligible. Call emergency services for immediate danger.

REMEMBER

The victim is not in trouble for asking for help. Paying or sending more material rarely ends the demand.

One-Page Stream Card

Channel / creator name: ______________________________________________________

Date and platform: ______________________________________________________

Topic and approved game or activity: ______________________________________________________

Start time: ______________________________________________________

Hard stop: ______________________________________________________

Adult safety contact: ______________________________________________________

Lead moderator: ______________________________________________________

Backup moderator: ______________________________________________________

Forbidden subjects: ______________________________________________________

Approved guests: ______________________________________________________

Private moderator signal: ______________________________________________________

Blackout / end-stream control: ______________________________________________________

Automatic stream-ending events: ______________________________________________________

After-stream checks: ______________________________________________________

Incident-log location: ______________________________________________________

NON-NEGOTIABLE

No donation, raid, sponsorship, viewer demand, or growth opportunity changes the hard stop or safety rules.

Moderator Escalation Ladder

LEVEL | WHEN | ACTION
1. REMOVE | Spam, repeated off-topic messages, minor rule violations. | Delete or filter; log only if repeated.
2. TIMEOUT | Repeated pressure, insults, boundary testing, link abuse. | Timeout; note username and behavior.
3. BAN | Sexual comments about minors, slurs, impersonation, repeated evasion, private-information attempts. | Ban; preserve evidence if safety-related.
4. LOCK DOWN | Raid abuse, coordinated harassment, rapid doxxing attempts. | Slow or restrict chat, disable links, switch scene, alert adult.
5. END STREAM | Credible threat, exposed address, sexual exploitation, swatting claim, account compromise, creator unable to continue safely. | End stream; begin GO DARK.

Moderators should have a private contact route, shift limits, and adult backup. A minor moderator should not be the sole reviewer of sexual material or credible threats.

Sponsor Verification Worksheet

Brand name and legal company name: _____________________________________________

Contact person and title: _____________________________________________

Sending email domain: _____________________________________________

Independent website and contact method: _____________________________________________

How identity was verified: _____________________________________________

Product or service: _____________________________________________

Cash payment: _____________________________________________

Estimated value of products / travel / discounts: _____________________________________________

Required disclosure language: _____________________________________________

Deliverables and deadlines: _____________________________________________

Revision limit: _____________________________________________

Cancellation terms: _____________________________________________

Exclusivity: _____________________________________________

Rights to creator name, likeness, and content: _____________________________________________

Paid advertising / whitelisting rights: _____________________________________________

Files, apps, extensions, or software requested: _____________________________________________

Adult reviewer: _____________________________________________

Legal / tax reviewer if needed: _____________________________________________

REJECT OR PAUSE THE OFFER WHEN

The company demands secrecy from a parent, hidden disclosures, false claims, unusual software, payment to receive payment, permanent rights for a small fee, immediate signature, or private travel and lodging.

Incident Log

DATE / TIME | PLATFORM / URL | ACCOUNT | WHAT HAPPENED | EVIDENCE | REPORT / ACTION

EVIDENCE RULE

Preserve the smallest amount of evidence needed. Do not copy intimate or graphic material into the log. Record where authorized evidence is securely stored.

Family Creator Agreement Template

This template is a conversation framework, not a substitute for legal advice. Fill it out together, sign it, and set a review date.

1. Purpose and values

What are we creating? What does success mean? What will we refuse to lose for the channel?

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

2. Teen creative lane

Topics, style, format, ordinary posting, safe community traditions, and approved creative budget.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

3. Shared decision lane

New platforms, live features, collaborations, travel, public events, sponsorships, merchandise, major equipment, and schedule changes.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

4. Adult duty lane

Contracts, payment accounts, taxes, exploitation reports, law enforcement, legal notices, and age-rule compliance.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

5. Privacy boundaries

Names, school, location, home, relatives, relationships, health, rooms, schedules, mail, and information that never appears.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

6. Work and health limits

Weekly hours, school requirements, sleep floor, meals, breaks, camera-free days, and exam or illness pauses.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

7. Moderation and messages

Who moderates, which messages adults may review, escalation ladder, private contact limits, and crisis referrals.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

8. Security and recovery

Primary email, MFA, recovery-code custody, channel roles, backups, clean recovery device, and GO DARK contacts.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

9. Money and ownership

Channel owner, payment account, tax responsibility, expense approval, savings, creator compensation, equipment, raw files, and adulthood transfer.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

10. Emergency override

Events that allow an adult to end a stream or pause publishing, plus conditions and date for restoring control.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

11. Consent and other people

Rules for siblings, friends, guests, bystanders, private stories, removal requests, and old-content review.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

12. Exit and change

How the teen can pause, change topic, leave a sponsor, archive content, or end the channel.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

Teen creator signature / date: __________________________________________________

Parent or guardian signature / date: __________________________________________________

Other adult or co-owner / date: __________________________________________________

Next review date: __________________________________________________

Creator Readiness Matrix

SKILL | OBSERVABLE BEHAVIOR | 1-5 | NEXT PRACTICE
Age and platform rules | Uses correct birth date and follows supervision requirements. |  |
Privacy | Can remove location, school, names, routines, and background clues. |  |
Account security | Uses unique credentials, MFA, recovery, roles, and backups. |  |
Pressure response | Can pause, refuse a donation demand, and end a stream. |  |
Moderation | Accepts rules, moderators, bans, and adult escalation. |  |
Criticism | Can sort useful feedback from dislike and harassment. |  |
Disclosure | Tells an adult after mistakes, threats, sexual pressure, or scams. |  |
Schedule | Protects school, sleep, food, health, and offline relationships. |  |
Money | Understands that income, gifts, disclosures, and contracts require adult systems. |  |
Recovery | Can perform GO DARK and follow a written incident plan. |  |

Use scores to choose the next publishing stage. Do not average away a critical weakness such as refusing adult help or revealing live location.

30-Day Creator Safety Challenge

☐ Day 1: Write the purpose of the channel and three things it will never cost you.

☐ Day 2: Search the creator name and private usernames while logged out.

☐ Day 3: Rewrite the public bio using data minimization.

☐ Day 4: Create the business email and official-account statement.

☐ Day 5: Secure the primary email with unique credentials and MFA.

☐ Day 6: Save recovery codes and record proof of channel ownership.

☐ Day 7: Build a clean filming zone and inspect a test frame.

☐ Day 8: Create a clean streaming user, browser profile, and desktop.

☐ Day 9: Build and test standby, privacy, and blackout scenes.

☐ Day 10: Write the one-page stream card.

☐ Day 11: Publish behavior-based chat rules.

☐ Day 12: Train moderators on the escalation ladder.

☐ Day 13: Draft viewer-message and crisis-referral responses.

☐ Day 14: Practice Stop - Save - Tell - Report.

☐ Day 15: Create the doxxing and swatting threat sheet.

☐ Day 16: Audit location clues in old content and public profiles.

☐ Day 17: Complete the collaboration checklist and exit phrase.

☐ Day 18: Audit licenses in one published video.

☐ Day 19: Write sponsorship disclosures for cash, gifts, and affiliate links.

☐ Day 20: Create a sponsor-verification worksheet.

☐ Day 21: Start the creator income and expense ledger.

☐ Day 22: Set the weekly production ceiling and sleep floor.

☐ Day 23: Choose fixed analytics-review times.

☐ Day 24: Write the public anti-impersonation policy.

☐ Day 25: Run a deepfake or emergency-call verification drill.

☐ Day 26: Complete the readiness matrix.

☐ Day 27: Sign the three-lane family creator agreement.

☐ Day 28: Run a full GO DARK tabletop exercise.

☐ Day 29: Review roles, sessions, connected apps, and team access.

☐ Day 30: Hold the first monthly safety review and choose one improvement.

Emergency and Reporting Resources

IMMEDIATE PHYSICAL DANGER

Call local emergency services. In the United States, call 911.

EMOTIONAL CRISIS OR RISK OF SELF-HARM

In the United States, call or text 988. Use local crisis services elsewhere.

ONLINE SEXUAL EXPLOITATION OF A MINOR

NCMEC CyberTipline: cybertipline.org; 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678).

INTIMATE IMAGES TAKEN WHEN THE PERSON WAS UNDER 18

Take It Down: takeitdown.ncmec.org. Do not download or share an image in order to submit it.

FBI REPORTING

tips.fbi.gov or 1-800-CALL-FBI for applicable federal crimes in the United States.

IDENTITY THEFT

IdentityTheft.gov for a U.S. recovery plan and report.

CONSUMER FRAUD

ReportFraud.ftc.gov in the United States; contact banks and payment providers through official numbers.

YOUTUBE SAFETY AND ACCOUNT HELP

Use the official YouTube Help Center and YouTube Studio reporting and recovery tools.

TWITCH SAFETY

Use Twitch Safety Center, channel reporting, moderation, and account support tools.

SCHOOL-RELATED THREATS OR HARASSMENT

Contact the designated school safety administrator, counselor, or district reporting route.

Resources, laws, and platform processes change. Verify the current official page and local requirements at the time of an incident.

Glossary

Affiliate link: A trackable link that may pay the creator when someone clicks, signs up, or buys.

AutoMod: Automated moderation that filters or holds chat messages based on rules or risk.

Broadcast delay: A gap between the real event and what viewers see; useful but not complete protection.

Channel permissions: Role-based access that lets another person perform limited channel work without the owner password.

Content ID / automated rights matching: Platform systems that compare uploaded media with registered copyrighted material.

Doxxing: Collecting and publishing private or identifying information to expose or harm someone.

Fair use: A U.S. legal doctrine that may permit limited copyrighted use after a fact-specific analysis.

GO DARK: The book’s emergency framework: Get offline, Obtain evidence, Defend accounts, Alert an adult, Report, Keep following up.

Grooming: A process of building access, trust, secrecy, sexualization, isolation, or control for exploitation.

Impersonation: Pretending to be another creator, person, or company, often to obtain money, access, or trust.

IRL stream: A live broadcast from real-world locations rather than a fixed studio or game capture.

Least privilege: Giving each person only the access necessary for their work.

Material connection: A relationship with a brand that may affect how an audience evaluates an endorsement, including payment or gifts.

Parasocial relationship: A one-sided sense of closeness in which an audience member knows much more about the creator than the creator knows about them.

Passkey: A login method using device-based public-key cryptography rather than a reusable password.

Phishing-resistant MFA: Authentication designed to resist fake login pages, such as FIDO security keys or correctly implemented passkeys.

Sextortion: Threatening to expose intimate material in order to demand money, more content, contact, or control.

Stream key: A secret credential that lets streaming software send a broadcast to a channel.

Swatting: Making a false emergency report intended to send armed responders to a target.

Whitelisting / creator licensing for ads: Permission for a brand to run paid advertisements using a creator’s account, identity, or content.

Creator Succession, Ownership, and Exit Plan

A creator business needs an exit plan before a conflict, platform ban, adulthood transition, or family emergency makes every decision urgent.

When the creator turns eighteen

Write down which accounts, contracts, payment profiles, tax records, domains, trademarks, raw files, and equipment should transfer to the creator. Complete the handoff deliberately rather than leaving a parent-owned payment account or recovery email in place indefinitely.

Account and monetization handoff

Inventory the primary email, channel owner, delegates, stream keys, password-vault entries, recovery codes, payment profiles, banking records, business registrations, and brand contacts. Use least privilege during the transition and record the date each control changes.

If a manager, editor, moderator, or collaborator leaves

Remove access promptly, rotate shared credentials and stream keys, transfer project files, confirm ownership of work already created, preserve contracts and payment records, and notify the remaining team without public blame or unnecessary personal details.

If family conflict occurs

Do not use channel access, earnings, private messages, or unreleased content as leverage. Preserve records, pause risky changes, and obtain legal or financial guidance when ownership or money is disputed. The young person should retain a safe path to school, relationships, health care, and private support regardless of the business conflict.

If the channel is sold, paused, or closed

Decide what happens to archives, comments, private data, mailing lists, sponsor obligations, outstanding refunds, fan memberships, licensed music, merchandise, tax records, and the creator name. Closing a channel does not automatically erase contractual, tax, privacy, or record-retention duties.

Succession checklist

☐ Ownership of every major account and asset is written down.

☐ The creator knows what changes at age eighteen.

☐ Departing team members can be removed without losing the channel.

☐ Revenue, taxes, and contracts have a documented custodian.

☐ The family has a conflict rule that prohibits using access or earnings as leverage.

☐ The channel can pause or close without losing essential records.

Sources and Further Reading

The following official sources informed the platform, safety, advertising, copyright, child-protection, security, and tax guidance in this edition. Platform requirements and law can change; verify current versions. Reviewed through July 2026.

YouTube Help - Avoid restrictions on YouTube live streaming. support.google.com/youtube/answer/2853834

YouTube Help - Get started with live streaming. support.google.com/youtube/answer/2474026

YouTube Help - Age requirements for AdSense for YouTube. support.google.com/youtube/answer/2533300

Google AdSense Help - Age requirement for an AdSense account. support.google.com/adsense/answer/14230

YouTube Help - Add or remove access with channel permissions. support.google.com/youtube/answer/9481328

YouTube Help - YouTube Partner Program overview and monetization policies. support.google.com/youtube/answer/72851 and /answer/1311392

YouTube Help - Determining if content is made for kids. support.google.com/youtube/answer/9528076

YouTube Help - Fair use, copyright myths, copyright removal, and Copyright Match Tool. support.google.com/youtube/answer/9783148, /2797449, /2807622, and /7648743

Twitch Legal - Terms of Service. legal.twitch.com/en/legal/terms-of-service/

Twitch Safety Center - Guide for Parents & Educators; Community Guidelines; reporting; preventing doxxing and swatting. safety.twitch.tv

Twitch Help - Affiliate onboarding and program requirements for minors. help.twitch.tv

Federal Trade Commission - Disclosures 101 for Social Media Influencers and Endorsement Guides. ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/disclosures-101-social-media-influencers

Federal Trade Commission - YouTube channel owners: Is your content directed to children?. ftc.gov/business-guidance/blog/2019/11/youtube-channel-owners-your-content-directed-children

National Center for Missing & Exploited Children - CyberTipline. missingkids.org/gethelpnow/cybertipline

National Center for Missing & Exploited Children - Take It Down and FAQ. takeitdown.ncmec.org

Federal Bureau of Investigation - Sextortion and financially motivated sextortion resources. fbi.gov/how-we-can-help-you/scams-and-safety/common-frauds-and-scams/sextortion

Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency - Phishing, social engineering, and phishing-resistant MFA guidance. cisa.gov

Internal Revenue Service - Gig Economy Tax Center and Small Business Tax Guide. irs.gov/businesses/gig-economy-tax-center and IRS Publication 334

U.S. Department of Labor - State child entertainment laws overview. dol.gov/agencies/whd/state/child-labor/entertainment

Closing: Keep the Creator Bigger Than the Channel

A channel can teach communication, research, design, editing, performance, business, leadership, and resilience. It can create friendships, opportunity, income, and a body of work a young person is proud to own. None of those benefits require turning a teenager into public property.

The strongest creator is not the person who never makes a mistake or never receives a cruel message. It is the person surrounded by systems that slow pressure, protect private life, bring in help early, and make recovery possible.

Keep the account secure. Keep the rules visible. Keep the adult usable. Keep the work honest. Most importantly, keep the young person larger than the audience’s idea of them.

THE FINAL MEMORY ANCHOR

THE CHANNEL IS A PROJECT. THE CREATOR IS A PERSON. PROTECT THEM IN THAT ORDER.

For corrections and platform updates, use the Connected Without Compromise update center.