Google and YouTube Ordered to Pay $170 Million for Violating Children’s Privacy

Google and its subsidiary YouTube have been ordered to pay $170 million for violating children’s privacy law. The record $170 million settlement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the New York Attorney General, comes after allegations “that the YouTube video sharing service illegally collected personal information from children without their parents’ consent.” YouTube had repeatedly violated the COPPA Rule, which “requires that child-directed websites and online services provide notice of their information practices and obtain parental consent prior to collecting personal information from children under 13.” FTC Chairman Joe Simons says “YouTube touted its popularity with children to prospective corporate clients,” and “YouTube marketed itself as a top destination for kids in presentations to the makers of popular children’s products and brands.” In addition to the $170 million penalty, the settlement requires Google and YouTube “to develop, implement, and maintain a system that permits channel owners to identify their child-directed content on the YouTube platform,… [and] the companies must notify channel owners that their child-directed content may be subject to [COPPRA].” The settlement amount is “by far the largest amount the FTC has ever obtained in a COPPA case since Congress enacted the law in 1998.”