The Walt Disney Company has agreed to pay a $10 million fine to settle a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) complaint over some of its “Made for Kids” YouTube videos that had collected kids’ personal data without parental consent.
Disney must adhere to the 1998 Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) rules moving forward after the company was caught gathering children’s data on incorrectly labeled, ad-targeted content via videos made for kids under the age of 13, according to a report by TheWrap.
The settlement reportedly comes six years after the FTC started mandating that YouTube label children’s content as “Made for Kids” (MFK).
The FTC accused Disney of failing to re-label 300 videos in 2020, after they were falsely labeled as not made for kids, despite YouTube allegedly informing the company of the change.
In addition to paying the $10 million fine, Disney will now reportedly establish a program to accurately determine when videos need to be labeled as Made for Kids in the future.
“This case underscores the FTC’s commitment to enforcing COPPA, which was enacted by Congress to ensure that parents, not companies like Disney, make decisions about the collection and use of their children’s personal information online,” FTC chairman Andrew Ferguson told TheWrap.
“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,” Ferguson added.
But Disney will reportedly not be responsible for its own “Audience Designation” program after YouTube is able to successfully use artificial intelligence (AI) to sort through age-specific videos.
“Supporting the well-being and safety of kids and families is at the heart of what we do,” a Disney spokesperson told Axios. “This settlement does not involve Disney owned and operated digital platforms, but rather is limited to the distribution of some of our content on YouTube’s platform.”
“Disney has a long tradition of embracing the highest standards of compliance with children’s privacy laws, and we remain committed to investing in the tools needed to continue being a leader in this space,” the spokesperson added.
Alana Mastrangelo is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Facebook and X at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
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