James Martin/CNET
Three months earlier, Google’s YouTube was struck by a record $170 million charge and significant brand-new kids-privacy guidelines. Now YouTube desires the United States federal government to loosen up just how much its huge video service goes through that kid personal privacy law.
The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA, should not need YouTube to presume that everybody seeing kids-directed videos is a kid if YouTube can validate the audience is really an adult, YouTube stated late Monday in an article explaining its remark to the United States Federal Trade Commission. Currently, YouTube should have more stringent personal privacy defenses on kids-directed videos no matter whether a kid or a grownup is the audience.
Because of that guideline, YouTube needs to forbid customized marketing — its primary earnings generator — on all kids-directed videos. It was among the sweeping modifications needed by an FTC crackdown on how YouTube’s huge video website deals with the personal privacy of kids’s information.
Watch this:
What YouTube’s $170M privacy fine means for kids’ channels
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YouTube also asked for COPPA to have clearer guidance about what defines a video as “directed to children,” as well as “balanced and clear guidelines” for uploaders who may be subject to COPPA rules without fully understanding them.
YouTube is the world’s biggest online video source, with 2 billion monthly users, and a huge number of its billions of videos viewed on the site are aimed at kids. One study suggests kids content may be the most-watched video category on YouTube overall. But YouTube has come under fire for a range of scandals involving children, including videos of child abuse and exploitation, nightmarish content in its YouTube Kids app and predatory comments that sexualized clips of young children.
In September, the FTC hit YouTube with major new privacy requirements and a record $170 million penalty to settle its probe into the data YouTube collects on its giant video site without parents’ consent. It’s the largest penalty ever levied for COPPA violations.
The settlement made YouTube limit the data it collects on kids-video viewing to the bare minimum. YouTube halted kids-oriented videos from having personalized ads, comments and notifications, and YouTube is now requiring that uploaders disclose when their videos are directed at children.
Monday, YouTube said it “strongly support[s] COPPA’s objective of offering robust defenses for kids and their personal privacy.”
“We also believe COPPA would benefit from updates and clarifications that better reflect how kids and families use technology today, while still allowing access to a wide range of content that helps them learn, grow and explore,” it stated in the post.
The FTC didn’t instantly react to a message looking for remark.
YouTube’s remark to the FTC was sent as part of a months-long public feedback duration the commission is holding for COPPA.
