Disney has consented to pay a $10 million civil penalty for permitting the collection of children's data from YouTube videos.
Disney was accused by the Federal Trade Commission of neglecting to label content on the platform as "Made for Kids." The purpose of the classification is to adhere to federal legislation, which safeguards children from having their information gathered and utilized for targeted advertising.
In order to comply with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, which mandates parental consent for data collecting for users under the age of 13, Disney will modify its operations, the FTC stated in a statement.
In a statement, FTC chairman Andrew Ferguson stated, "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 said in a statement that it is dedicated to following the rules pertaining to child privacy.
"At the core of what we do is to support the safety and well-being of children and families," the business stated. "This settlement is exclusive to the distribution of some of our content on YouTube's platform; it does not involve digital platforms owned and operated by Disney. Disney has a long history of upholding the strictest compliance guidelines with laws pertaining to children's privacy, and we are still dedicated to making the necessary investments to stay at the forefront of this field.
YouTube agreed to pay $170 million in 2019 for gathering child data. YouTube started requiring content producers to indicate whether or not their videos are "Made for Kids" as part of that settlement.
The FTC complaint claims that in June 2020, YouTube informed Disney that about 300 videos from films such as "The Incredibles," "Coco," "Toy Story," "Tangled," and "Frozen" had not been labeled as "Made for Kids." According to the complaint, YouTube redesigned the films but was forced to continue doing so for other videos throughout the ensuing years.
YouTube users can assign a channel-level or individual video designation. The complaint alleges that Disney posted several child-oriented videos to its "Not Made for Kids" channels, causing them to be automatically labeled as such. Disney's policy was to designate at the channel level.
