Disney will pay YouTube $10 million to settle a Federal Trade Commission claim that Big Mouse collected children’s data and targeted them with advertising on videos it uploaded to the platform.
A complaint filed by the Department of Justice alleges that from 2020 to 2022, Disney did not label some of its YouTube content “Made for Kids” as required by the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA). The mislabeling enabled Disney to collect personal data from children under 13 and to use it for advertising to them. It also led to YouTube playing age-inappropriate content through its autoplay feature to children watching the videos and left comments turned on.
The case against Disney
Flouted “Made for Kids” tagging
Source: Disney
YouTube has required that content creators use the “Made for Kids” label since its $170 million settlement with the FTC in 2019 over its own COPPA violations. According to the complaint, in June 2020 YouTube changed the labeling on over 300 Disney videos from “Not Made for Kids” to “Made for Kids” on channels that included Pixar, Disney, Disney Movies, Walt Disney Animation Studios, and Oh My Disney. At the time, YouTube informed Disney of these changes and told it to revise its policy of relying on the channel-level default of “Not Made for Kids,” but issues persisted.
Some of the videos included ones with content movies that are clearly directed toward children, including “Frozen,” “Inside Out,” “Finding Dory,” and “Encanto.” Disney benefitted financially by receiving a portion of the YouTube ad revenue on those improperly labeled videos and, in some cases, placed its own advertising on them as well.
In a statement, FTC Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson said: “Our order penalizes Disney’s abuse of parents’ trust, and, through a mandated video-review program, makes room for the future of protecting kids online — age assurance technology.”
Disney pays up
To settle the claims, Disney has agreed to:
- Pay a $10 million civil penalty
- Comply with COPPA notifying parents before collecting personal information from children under 13 and obtaining verifiable parental consent for the collection and use of that data
- Establish and implement a program to review whether videos posted to YouTube should be designated as “Made for Kids”
Disney said in its own statement that “[s]upporting the well-being and safety of kids and families is at the heart of what we do.” It sought to separate itself from the claims by noting that the videos in contention did not appear on Disney owned and operated platforms.
