YouTube Will Reportedly Stop Displaying Targeted Ads On Videos For Kids

YouTube will no longer run targeted ads on video for kids, according to a news report released on Tuesday. It was said by three people familiar with the matter that the company’s officials are now finalizing the plans.

The FTC, following calls from politicians and consumer privacy groups, started an investigation to find out if YouTube violates children’s online privacy laws. The advocates asked the commission to investigate whether the video-sharing site’s practices are against the 1998 COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act), a federal law that regulates user data collection from websites with users of under 13 years old.

In July, Google reportedly reached a settlement worth millions of dollars with the Federal Trade Commission. Through an investigation, the FTC found that the tech giant improperly gathered data on children and violated COPPA, The Washington Post reported. It’s unclear if YouTube decided to stop targeted ads due to the settlement and the company can change its plans.

As companies have to collect information about users if they want to display targeted ads, they essentially violate COPPA. The fact that YouTube will eliminate targeted ads could lead to a loss in ad sales, Bloomberg stated.

The world’s largest video sharing site has been under fire for failing to rapidly remove disturbing videos targeting at children. Since then, the company has cut off its advertising revenue from videos with inappropriate content and hired another 10,000 content moderators for reviewing objectionable content.

In addition, the company released stronger parental controls that let adults pick channels and videos accessible to their kids. It also disabled comments for videos featuring minors as well as restricted minor users from livestreaming without adult supervision.