Youtube Content for Children Should Be Barred, Advocacy Groups Tell FTC
26 June 2019 - 2:35AM
Dow Jones News
By John D. McKinnon
WASHINGTON -- Privacy advocates are calling on the Federal Trade
Commission to remove all YouTube content directed at kids and
impose tens of billions in fines against the video-streaming
service run by Alphabet Inc.'s Google unit for alleged children's
privacy violations.
The recommendations were made in a letter sent to the FTC
Tuesday by the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood and the
Center for Digital Democracy. Those groups filed a complaint last
year against Google and YouTube over their privacy practices
regarding children, which the FTC is investigating.
The core of the groups' complaint is that Google and YouTube
improperly avoid federal requirements for obtaining parental
consent before collecting children's personal information.
"Google claims that YouTube is not for children under thirteen,
and therefore, no consent is required," the groups wrote on
Tuesday. "This defense is outlandish given that YouTube is the
number one online destination for kids."
Google didn't immediately provide comment. The FTC didn't
immediately respond to a request for comment.
The groups, aided by Georgetown University Law Center's
Institute for Public Representation, said the FTC should seek a
consent decree that would require Google to destroy all its data
collected from children under 13, stop collecting data from any
users known or reasonably believed to be under 13 and remove all
channels and content on YouTube directed at children.
YouTube could make such content available on a separate platform
intended for children, such as the existing stand-alone YouTube
Kids, as long as no data would be collected for commercial
purposes.
The groups also are recommending civil penalties running into
tens of billions of dollars, under the 1998 Children's Online
Privacy Protection Act.
YouTube already has been considering some similar far-reaching
changes to its platform after being put on the defensive over the
issue.
Executives have been debating moving all children's content into
the YouTube Kids app, to better protect young viewers from
objectionable videos, The Wall Street Journal reported last week
citing people briefed on the talks.
That would be a seismic shift, as children's videos are among
the most popular on the YouTube platform and carry millions of
dollars in advertising.
Some YouTube employees have been pushing for another significant
modification. They are encouraging the company to switch off for
children's programming a feature that automatically plays a new
video after one has been completed, the people briefed said.
While that default setting -- known as YouTube's recommendation
system -- has helped boost audience hours, it has also opened the
company up to criticism that children and parents who have selected
innocuous videos can then be transferred automatically to
inappropriate fare.
The proposed changes are motivated in part by the continuing
investigation by the FTC.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 25, 2019 12:20 ET (16:20 GMT)
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