Disney will pay $10 million to settle claims by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission that it mislabeled videos for children on YouTube, which allowed the collection of kids’ personal information without their consent or notification to their parents.
This occurred after the entertainment giant failed to tag kid-directed videos on YouTube as “Made for Kids” (MFK), a label that instructs the video streaming platform to block personal data collection and stop serving personalized ads on correctly designated content to protect children’s privacy, as required by the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA Rule).
Content creators have been required to mark uploaded videos and YouTube channels as MFK since 2019, when Google and YouTube paid $170 million to settle claims that they violated COPPA, which requires websites, online services, and apps to notify parents and obtain parental consent before collecting personal information from children under 13.
However, according to the complaint, Disney has marked all videos uploaded to YouTube as MFK at the channel level, which has led to each video being incorrectly tagged as “Not Made for Kids” (NMFK).
Disney also failed to correctly designate children-focused content, despite YouTube alerting the entertainment giant that it switched labels in 2020 for over 300 Disney videos from NMFK to MFK, including some with music and visual content from The Incredibles, Coco, Toy Story, Frozen, and Mickey Mouse.
“The complaint says the mislabeling allowed Disney, through YouTube, to collect personal data from children under 13 viewing child-directed videos and use that data for targeted advertising to children,” the FTC said.
“Disney receives a portion of the revenues that YouTube generates from advertising placed with Disney videos and revenues from advertising that Disney sells directly.”
Besides the $10 million civil penalty, the settlement will also require Disney to notify parents before collecting kids’ personal information and to implement a new program designed to ensure that videos posted to YouTube are designated as “Made for Kids,” thereby preventing unlawful data collection in the future.
In September 2024, the FTC also revealed that video streaming and social media companies have been engaging in widespread surveillance of children and teens and broad data sharing, earning billions of dollars annually by monetizing their data.
A Disney spokesperson was not immediately available for comment when contacted by BleepingComputer earlier today.
46% of environments had passwords cracked, nearly doubling from 25% last year.
Get the Picus Blue Report 2025 now for a comprehensive look at more findings on prevention, detection, and data exfiltration trends.
Source link
