Disney to pay $10M to settle claims it collected kids’ data on YouTube

Disney will pay $10 million to settle claims by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission that it mislabeled videos for children on YouTube, allowing the collection of kids’ personal information without their parents’ consent or notification. The complaint says Disney marked all videos uploaded to YouTube at the channel level as Made for Kids, but the individual videos were incorrectly tagged as Not Made for Kids, leading to data collection and targeted advertising on child-directed content.

It notes that YouTube had alerted Disney in 2020 that labels had switched for over 300 Disney videos from NMFK to MFK, including content from The Incredibles, Coco, Toy Story, Frozen, and Mickey Mouse. According to the FTC, Disney receives a portion of the revenues YouTube generates from advertising placed with Disney videos and revenues from advertising Disney sells directly.

The settlement requires Disney to notify parents before collecting kids’ personal information and to implement a program ensuring videos posted to YouTube are designated as Made for Kids, to prevent unlawful data collection in the future. The case underlines ongoing concerns about privacy practices in relation to COPPA violations and child-directed online content.