Google agreed on Wednesday, 4th September 2019, to pay $170 million to settle charges that it illegally tracked and targeted children on its YouTube video service. However, critics said this $170 million deal with YouTube was too soft on the internet giant.
The settlement with the Federal Trade Commission and the New York state attorney general is the largest amount in a case involving the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. According to officials, the Act is a 1998 federal law.
YouTube violated a law that requires child-directed websites and online services to obtain parental consent. The consent must come prior to collecting personal information from children under 13 that may be used for advertising.
The agreement settles Google’s liability over videos directed at kids even if produced by others for the video-sharing platform. Critics of the internet giant said YouTube marketed itself as a destination for children. And then it benefitted by selling advertising to toymakers and others.
FTC Chairman Joe Simons said the settlement “prevents YouTube and Google from turning a blind eye to the existence of kids-directed content” on its platform.
Simons said the settlement makes Google liable for violations by third-party content creators. This goes beyond federal law that requires the platform to have knowledge that videos are directed at children.
“No other company in America is subject to these requirements,” he said.
Letitia James said the deal calls for “major reforms” to YouTube’s business practices in addition to the fines.
“Google and YouTube knowingly and illegally monitored, tracked, and served targeted ads to young children just to keep advertising dollars rolling in,” said the New York Attorney General.
YouTube outlined how it would change the way it handles children’s content under the agreement.
YouTube chief Susan Wojcicki spoke about the matter in a statement. She said,
“We will treat data from anyone watching children’s content on YouTube as coming from a child, regardless of the age of the user.”
“This means that we will limit data collection and use on videos made for kids only to what is needed to support the operation of the service. We will also stop serving personalised ads on this content entirely. In addition, some features will no longer be available on this type of content, like comments and notifications.”
Wojcicki added that Google would create a $100 million fund. They will dedicate this fund “to the creation of thoughtful, original children’s content on YouTube and YouTube Kids globally.”