Child advocates call on US govt to penalise YouTube
The fine print of YouTube’s terms of service has a warning that goes unheeded by millions of children who visit YouTube to watch cartoons, nursery rhymes, science experiments or videos of toys being unboxed.
“If you are under 13 years of age, then please do not use the service,” the terms say. “There are lots of other great web sites for you.”
In a complaint filed Monday, child advocates and consumer groups are asking the Federal Trade Commission ( FTC) to investigate and impose potentially billions of dollars of penalties on Google for allegedly violating children’s online privacy and allowing ads to target them.
“Google profits handsomely from selling advertising to kid- directed programs that it packages,” said Jeff Chester, director of the Center for Digital Democracy, one of the groups that drafted the complaint. “They created a successful model monetizing kids’ data.”
Television networks also run ads during cartoons and other programs aimed at kids. The difference? YouTube does so with a lot of data collection. Its business model relies on tracking IP addresses, search history, device identifiers, location and other personal data about its users so that it can gauge their interests and tailor advertising to them. But a 1998 federal law prohibits internet companies from knowingly collecting personal data from kids under 13 without their parents’ consent.
The coalition accuses YouTube of violating that law and deliberately profiting off luring children into what Chester calls an “ad- filled digital playground” where commercials for toys, theme parks or sneakers can surface alongside kid- oriented videos. That toddler- oriented YouTube Kids app, offers more parental controls but is not as widely used — and features a selection of the same videos and channels that kids can also find on the regular YouTube service.
Although it’s not known if the FTC will take action, the complaint comes at a time of increased public scrutiny over the tech industry’s mining of personal data and after the FTC opened an invest- igation last month into FB privacy practices. — AP