Alphabet’s Google will pay between $150 and $200 million to settle a Federal Trade Commission investigation into YouTube’s alleged violation of a children’s privacy law. This was first reported by Politico and has been corroborated by The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg .
It is said that the official settlement will likely be made public next week. This will be the largest ever fine imposed for violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule by collecting personal information from kids without parental consent.
The FTC voted 3-2 to approve the settlement and sent it to the Justice Department as part of the review process, Reuters confirmed, citing a person familiar with the matter. The Washington Post reported the settlement’s approval in July but did not detail the amount of the civil penalty.
In April 2018, the Center for Digital Democracy, joined by other groups, filed an FTC complaint alleging YouTube profited from kids “without first providing direct notice to parents and obtaining their consent as required by law. Google uses this information to target advertisements to children across the internet and across devices.”
Katharina Kopp, deputy director of the Center for Digital Democracy, said thereafter that “a settlement amount of $150-200 million would be woefully low, considering the egregious nature of the violation, how much Google profited from violating the law, and given Google’s size and revenue.”
Possibly in response to this, YouTube launched YouTubeKids. The company said it built the site “to create a safer environment for kids to explore their interests and curiosity, while giving parents the tools to customize the experience for their kids.”
