The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has fined Disney $10 million for failing to properly label videos intended for children on the YouTube platform. This violation of children's online privacy protection rules could have allowed the collection of personal data of minors for targeted advertising without parental consent.
This is reported by Variety, writes UNN.
Details
The FTC claims that Disney violated the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which requires companies to obtain parental consent to collect information about children under 13 years of age.
Our order punishes Disney for abusing parents' trust and at the same time creates opportunities for future protection of children through age verification technologies.
In response, Disney confirmed its readiness to comply with child privacy laws and emphasized its commitment to ensuring content safety for families.
This settlement applies only to content on YouTube, not Disney's own digital platforms. We continue to invest in tools to protect children.
The FTC complaint states that in 2020, YouTube notified Disney about approximately 300 videos, including "The Incredibles," "Coco," "Toy Story," "Tangled," and "Frozen," that were not marked as "made for kids." Disney published them on channels tagged "Not made for kids," which caused the platform to collect viewer data and place targeted ads.
Now, the company is required to maintain an Audience Identification Program for all videos on YouTube and implement age verification technologies, which will allow for more accurate audience identification without the need to manually tag each video.