YouTube plans sweeping changes to kids videos after $170M fine

YouTube will halt personalized ads on all kids-oriented videos. That could starve out some kids channels.

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Richard Nieva mugshot
Joan E. Solsman
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Richard Nieva
September 4, 2019 12:23 PM PDT
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Angela Lang/CNET
YouTube Wednesday announced massive changes to how it treats kids videos, as the US Federal Trade Commission hit Google with new rules and a record $170 million penalty to settle a probe into the privacy of children's data on giant video site. It's the largest penalty ever levied for violations of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA.

YouTube's CEO and some large creators -- including the father of Ryan from the massive kids YouTube channel Ryan ToysReview and Hank Green, an influential YouTuber specializing in educational videos -- emphasized that the most important thing is that YouTube improves children's safety
But critics, including Democratic dissenting FTC commissioners, noted that even a record-breaking penalty wasn't enough, given Google's scale. Based on Google's performance last year, $170 million roughly equates to two days' worth of profit. Google generates the same amount in revenue in about 11 hours.

Andrew Smith, the director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection, said the significance of the FTC's order goes beyond the $170 million fine. The settlement is "a new front" in the FTC's battle to protect children's data privacy, he said, because it went after a platform rather than a content creator for the first time. Wednesday's deal settles allegations that YouTube illegally collected personal information from children without parents' consented.

"We are holding a platform liable under COPPA for content posted by somebody else. That's a really big deal," Smith said during a press conference.
Around the end of this year, YouTube will, in effect, start treating all views of kids-directed videos on YouTube as if every watcher is an actual child, regardless of the viewer's real age. That means it'll limit the data it collects on those views to the bare minimum -- only what's "needed to support the operation of the service," YouTube said.

YouTube will also halt kids-oriented videos from having personalized ads, comments and notifications. And it'll require that uploaders tell YouTube when their videos are directed at children. Most of the changes are required by the FTC settlement. One measure -- YouTube tapping machine learning to help police videos being classified correctly for kids -- goes beyond what the FTC requires.