Carefully read the fine print on YouTube’s terms of service and you may notice that you have confirmed that you are old enough to watch.
“If you are under 13 years of age, then please do not use the service,” the terms say. “There are a lot of other great websites for you.”
It’s a warning that goes unheeded by millions of children around the world who visit YouTube to watch cartoons, nursery rhymes, science experiments or videos of toys being unboxed.
In the official complaint was filed on Monday, child advocates and consumer groups asked the Federal trade Commission to investigate and potentially impose billions in fines on Google for violating the privacy of children on the Internet and giving ads to them.
“Google’s profits handsomely from the sale of advertising on child-directed programs, packages,” says Jeff Chester, Director of the Center for digital democracy, one of the groups has prepared a complaint. “He makes deals with manufacturers and distributors of children’s interactive programs around the world. Google has created a global and extremely profitable business, based on deep connections children on YouTube.”
The business model of the service based on tracking IP addresses, search history, device identifiers, location and other personal data about their users, so he can gauge their interests and tailor ads to them. But this model should not work for the American children who are protected by the children’s Internet protection act privacy. This 20-year-old law that prohibits the Internet companies from knowingly collecting personal information from children under the age of 13 without the consent of their parents.
The coalition is accusing YouTube of violating coppa and deliberately to cash in on luring children in what Chester calls a “hell-filled digital Playground”, where commercials for toys, theme parks or running shoes can emerge with a child-oriented video.
YouTube said in an email statement that he “carefully read the complaint and evaluate if there are things we can do to improve. Because YouTube is not for kids, we have invested considerably in the creation of the YouTube kids app to offer an alternative specifically designed for children.”
The little children-oriented YouTube app, launched in 2015, offering more parental control, but is not widely used, and uses the same videos and channels that kids can find on the regular YouTube service.
Although it is not known if the FTC decides that the complaint comes at a time of increased public control over the mining it industry of personal data and after the FTC last month began an investigation into the privacy policies of Facebook.
“It seems (CDC) can be more energetic and ready for these issues seriously,” said Josh Golin, campaign Director for the advertising of childhood, which prepared the complaint and the Center for digital democracy and the Georgetown University legal clinic. Several other groups including common sense media, which runs a popular website for families, and advocacy division of consumer reports.
“I think the hour of reckoning has come,” said U.S. Senator Edward Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts, who co-authored the Cup in 1990-e years and says he wants the FTC to consider the complaint on YouTube. “Americans want to know the answer as to whether or not the private lives of their children is threatened on the Internet”.
Press Secretary of the FTC Juliana Grunwald Henderson said in an email that the Agency still has not received a letter, but looks forward to its consideration. The complaint was originally scheduled to be filed last week but was postponed after the shooting on Tuesday in the headquarters of YouTube in California.
“We take performance very seriously and KOPP brought more than two dozen cases, the Cup COPPA rule was adopted,” she said. Investigation of the CDC, as a rule, not publicly, but he has settled cases on the protection of children’s privacy with the LinkedIn mobile advertising network inmobi and electronic toy maker Vtech.
None of these platforms is not as popular for kids as YouTube where the kid-themed channels with names like a nursery rhyme ChuChuTV, which last week counted more than 16 million subscribers and 13.4 billion Views. It also has more personality programs that serve children.
A former FTC lawyer who now advises companies on a Cup of observance of requirements of the abovementioned case against YouTube would not be just, because it’s the audience that makes it hard to tell if parents are curating content for their children to watch or let them use it on their own. Kandy Parsons said that the FTC had not yet set their goals for the kid-focused channels in the wider media sites, although this does not mean that it will not.
“If the FTC thought that the service is for children and it was interactive targeted advertising without consent, as that would be a violation,” said Parsons. She said that the FTC could send a civil court with a request to provide additional information, and to use other methods to find out how the service is tracking its users.
Advocates say Google knows what to do. They point to its “Google Preferred,” which allows advertisers on YouTube to pay a premium to get their ads on the most popular video. The program includes “Education and family balance”, which has interesting channels, such as CHUCHU TV BabyTV Fox and seven super girls, topics which include “fluffy unicorn slime”.
YouTube has “age-gate” to block children who identificeret in 13 of the starter account, which allows users to post videos, but the account is not required to view the videos on the platform.
“This is ridiculous, if the heads of Google saying that they think the parent is responsible for the online viewing of tens of millions of children,” said Chester. “Kids are watching this content by themselves. Google is trying to look the other way”.
Chester, who helped establish Cup in 1990-ies, said he is confident that the FTC will take a serious view after several years of letting Google off the hook by pretending there were no children with the help of YouTube.
“They have created a successful monetization model data of children on YouTube and really do not want to think about the consequences,” he said. “Google is one of those companies that failed to solve their ethical dilemmas in a serious way.”
Sourse: abcnews.go.com
