YouTube was fined $170 million for breaking Ed Markey’s law. He wants them to pay more.
“The FTC should have issued a colossal fine that fits Google’s crime."
The Federal Trade Commission announced Wednesday that Google will pay $170 million to settle claims that YouTube illegally collected personal data from children without their parents’ consent.
The penalty will be “by far the largest amount” ever paid by a company for an alleged violation of the 1998 Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, also known as COPPA, according to the FTC.
Sen. Ed Markey, who wrote COPPA, says it’s not enough.
“This settlement makes clear that this FTC stands for ‘Forgetting Teens and Children,'” Markey said in a statement Wednesday, whacking the federal agency with one of his trademark acronym insults.
The Massachusetts Democrat said that the settlement confirmed that YouTube, which is owned by Google, “knowingly” broke the law by tracking children’s behavior, in order to target advertisements and recommend other videos. He thinks the $170 million fine is letting the tech giant off easy.
COPPA requires children-directed websites and other online services to obtain parental consent to collect data from users under the age of 13. According to the Associated Press, tech companies typically get around the law with rarely enforced bans on those under 13.
YouTube asked children under 13 in its terms of service to “please” not use the video-streaming platform’s main service. But at the same time, the company “touted its popularity with children to prospective corporate clients,” FTC Chairman Joe Simons said in a statement Wednesday.
“There’s no excuse for YouTube’s violations of the law,” Simons said.
While Markey applauded the FTC’s work to uncover the violations, the Malden native said the agency “let Google off the hook with a drop-in-the-bucket fine.” The FTC recently hit Facebook with a $5 billion fine for privacy violations and the $170 million fine Wednesday amounts to roughly 0.1 percent of Google’s overall revenue ($136.8 billion) in 2018.
“Google’s violations of COPPA are brazen, widespread, and specifically designed to increase profits,” Markey said.
Google also agreed to implement changes to YouTube as part of the settlement Wednesday, including requiring videos to be labeled if they’re directed at children and limiting data collection from users who watch those videos.
YouTube, which has reportedly been grappling to address issues with its children’s content, says the changes will take place in about four months. In a blog post Wednesday, CEO Susan Wojcicki wrote that the changes also include disabling comments on children’s content and increased investment in its separate YouTube Kids app.
Markey, however, says the changes fall short of what is “needed to turn YouTube into a safe and healthy place for kids.” In his scathing statement Wednesday, he called for a myriad of new rules and oversight:
“The FTC should have issued a colossal fine that fits Google’s crime and demanded that Google make significant structural changes to their business practices for the sake of the millions of children who use Google every day. The FTC should have required Google to delete all data it has collected from children under 13 because it never should have amassed an untold amount of this data in the first place. The FTC should have prohibited Google from launching any new kids’ offerings before review and approval by independent experts because Google has forfeited the benefit of the doubt when it comes to putting kids’ well-being first. And the FTC should have required annual public audits into Google’s children’s privacy practices because parents deserve to know if this tech behemoth continues to track kids. Google did pledge to establish a fund dedicated to the creation of thoughtful, original children’s content on YouTube and YouTube Kids globally, an effort I called for this summer. But not a single Google executive or investor will bat an eye as a result of this toothless decision.”
Markey said Congress should pass the “COPPA 2.0” legislation he introduced in March with Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican. The bill would expand the 1998 law’s protection up to 15-year-olds, ban targeted ads directed at children, and create an “Eraser Button” allowing parents and kids to delete personal information they have posted.
According to Markey, the problems don’t end with privacy.
In April, he outlined legislation to ban website design features, like autoplay video, that are intended to keep children glued to screens. The bill would also restrict advertising on platforms intended for children and implement protections against algorithms exposing kids to extreme content.
Giselle Barry, a spokeswoman for Markey, says they plan to introduce the legislation in the coming weeks.
“I call on my colleagues in Congress to join me in these efforts to keep the nation’s children and teens safe in today’s online ecosystem,” Markey said Wednesday.
