YouTube, the world’s most popular video sharing site, also owned by Google, was just slapped with a $170 million fine. Allegations were made against the company that they were breaking the law by taking personal information from kids who use the site and using it to target them with specific ads. This is against the law, which prompted the Federal Trade Commission to look into it.
Rather than fight it, YouTube just agreed to the $170 million as a settlement. The law states that no entity can collect data on children younger than 13, which is probably why Facebook and other sites don’t allow users younger than that age to use their sites. The original law was written in 1998, but was updated in 2013 so that “cookies” and other data-collecting techniques couldn’t be employed online to track children.
According to the accusation, YouTube has been tracking the channels of children users without asking for consent from parents. They then used that data to target the kids with millions of dollars’ worth of ads, essentially breaking the law. When asked to comment about the allegations, Google decide not to and instead just settled the case.
YouTube’s Terms of Service
Unlike Facebook and other social media, YouTube allows children to create their own personal channels. They’ve already taken steps to help protect children by disabling comments and made other moves to help prevent adults from finding the channels. While they took those actions to protect children, they still allowed them to be targeted by the likes of Hasbro and Mattel to pump ads towards those channels.
YouTube even used their popularity with children to entice Mattel to spend millions in advertising on their site. They told the toy company that “YouTube is today’s leader in reaching children age 6-11 against top TV channels.” This is very true. Many children’s pages have millions of subscribers and views. Most of their channels involve unboxing toys and discussing their features, something Mattel would love to be involved in.
“YouTube touted its popularity with children to prospective corporate clients,” FTC Chairman Joe Simons said in a statement. “Yet when it came to complying with (federal law banning collecting data on children), the company refused to acknowledge that portions of its platform were clearly directed to kids.”
“Google and YouTube knowingly and illegally monitored, tracked, and served targeted ads to young children just to keep advertising dollars rolling in,” said New York Attorney General Letitia James.
