Highlights
- YouTube allegedly planning to ban targeted ads on videos aimed at children.
- Google to pay $200M to end the FTC investigation.
- YouTube to move all of its children’s content to a designated app.
The Politico reported this afternoon that the company, Google, will allegedly pay between $150 and $200 million to end the FTC investigation into whether YouTube violated a children’s privacy law. It was voted by FTC along party lines (3-2) to approve the settlement, which will now be reviewed by the Justice Department.
Last month, the fine was approved by the FTC, but this is the first time the dollar amount has been reported.
Google could pay $200 million over YouTube’s alleged violations of child privacy laws. Some say the punishment isn’t harsh enough https://t.co/KaVVpKizx1
— Barron’s (@barronsonline) September 1, 2019
The Reports
According to the reports, at the moment, details on the other terms of the settlement are unavailable. We learned just the last week, that YouTube is allegedly planning to ban targeted ads on videos aimed at children. It is unclear if YouTube’s decision to do so was related to the FTC settlement.
The investigation was launched by FTC after advocacy groups charged that YouTube violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) by collecting data for children under the age of 13. And those complaints allegedly date back as far as 2015. This is not the first time the FTC has come down on big tech companies for privacy violations. Earlier this summer, Facebook agreed to a $5 billion settlement. The FTC’s largest fine for COPPA violations was the $5.7 million settlement it reached with TikTok in February until now.
YouTube under federal investigation over child privacy violations https://t.co/A7ZlPMGHep
— mark seibel (@markseibel) June 19, 2019
The reports say that some have suggested that YouTube disable ads on all videos aimed at kids, and others have called for YouTube to move all of its children’s content to a designated app. As companies like TikTok have found, it can be difficult to enforce age checks. It is still unclear how Google plans to remedy the issue.
