Google Faces $100 Million Fine Over Children's Privacy On YouTube

Reports say that Google has reached a settlement with the FTC, which is worth millions of dollars, over accusations of children's data privacy laws violation on YouTube. As reported by The Washington Post, sourcing from two people familiar with the matter, the settlement was finalized after the FTC investigated to find out if the company sufficiently protected children’s data on its video-sharing platform.

Last month, the search giant could reportedly be fined by the federal government due to a late-stage investigation into how YouTube handled children’s videos. On that same day, the platform said it was thinking about making significant changes so that it can protect the youngest viewers and content creators. One of the changes could be moving all content of children to YouTube Kids.

As per the Post, through the investigation, Google was found to improperly collect children’s data, which is considered a data breach under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. The Department of Justice, however, hasn’t decided the details of the fine.

Google refused to give comments, and the FTC did not respond immediately to a comment request.

Back in June, a letter was sent from US Senator Ed Markey to the Federal Trade Commission, in which the senator expressed his concerns over YouTube’s practices with children’s content privacy. The letter also asked the FTC to keep the company responsible for all illegal activities that affect children which the firm might commit.

In the letter, Markey wrote:

In addition, the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood and the Center for Digital Democracy sent a letter to the Commission with suggestions about penalties for YouTube. The letter also said that children’s data should get deleted, the company should get civil penalties as well as a $100 million fine which can be used for the production of high-quality, noncommercial, diverse content for kids.