Advocacy groups asked the Federal Trade Commission Monday to investigate YouTube for violating a children-focused federal privacy law.
The groups say Google-owned YouTube violates the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act by collecting children's personal information without consent from their parents, and is using that information to target ads to kids online, including on their devices.
"Google has acted duplicitously by falsely claiming in its terms of service that YouTube is only for those who are age 13 or older, while it deliberately lured young people into an ad-filled digital playground," Jeff Chester of the Center for Digital Democracy said in a statement Monday. "Just like Facebook, Google has focused its huge resources on generating profits instead of protecting privacy."
The groups cite specific video programming that they say proves YouTube knows it contains content aimed at children under 13, and suggest in their complaint that YouTube's alleged wrongdoing could amount to billions of dollars in penalties because the FTC could assess $41,484 per violation.
"We are reviewing the complaint and will evaluate if there are things we can do to improve," a Google spokeswoman said Monday. "Protecting kids and families has always been a top priority for us." She pointed to the company's "significant" investment in the YouTube Kids app, which the company launched in 2015 and is officially for children under 13.
But David Monahan, campaign manager for the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, said in an interview Monday that Google is being "disingenuous" when it says YouTube is not for children.
"There are more kids on YouTube's site than there are on YouTube Kids," Monahan said, citing a recent study that found that 80 percent of children ages 6 to 12 use YouTube daily in the United States.
In the complaint, the groups _ which number nearly two dozen _ say they estimate that "Google collected personal information from nearly 25 million children in the U.S. over a period of years, and used this data to engage in very sophisticated digital marketing techniques."
The same advocacy groups in 2015 urged the FTC to investigate YouTube Kids for targeting toddlers with ads, but this time, with the spotlight on tech companies' privacy policies and practices, and the push to pay attention to how smartphones and technology are affecting children, they expect the agency to act.
"People are becoming increasingly aware that these websites are not free, they come with a price of people's privacy," Monahan said.
An FTC spokeswoman on Monday confirmed that the commission had received the complaint, but would not provide additional comment.
