The Walt Disney Company has agreed to pay a $10 million settlement after the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) accused it of unlawfully collecting children’s personal data. The problem stemmed from Disney’s failure to properly designate its child‑targeted content on YouTube, which allowed viewers’ personal information to be gathered without parental consent. The FTC said Disney violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) by neither informing its audience that it was tracking data nor securing parental consent for that tracking.
According to the FTC, Disney’s corporate policy required each YouTube channel to be labeled either “made for kids” or “not made for kids.” However, the company failed to correctly label a large number of child‑focused videos when uploading them to channels classified as “not made for kids.” Affected channels included Disney, Pixar, Disney Plus, Walt Disney Studios, Disney Animation Studios, Disney Movies, and Disney on Ice, all of which were allegedly marked as not made for kids. Consequently, clips from popular children’s movies such as *Frozen*, *Moana*, *Cars* and *Tangled* were also marked as not made for kids, permitting YouTube to collect personal information and serve targeted advertisements on those videos.
The FTC announced that the settlement includes a ten‑year program requiring Disney to review all of its YouTube videos and correctly designate each as either for or not for kids. The agreement does not cover Disney‑owned and operated digital platforms; it applies only to Disney’s content distribution on YouTube. A Disney spokesperson said the company has a long tradition of upholding high standards of compliance with children’s privacy laws and remains committed to investing in the tools needed to stay a leader in this area.
The issue first came to Disney’s attention in June 2020, when YouTube notified the company that it had changed the designations for more than 300 videos from “not made for kids” to “made for kids.” Disney did not revise its policy, and the collection of personal information and placement of targeted ads on child‑directed videos continued. The settlement underscores the importance of complying with COPPA, which requires companies to obtain parental consent before gathering personal information from children under 13, and highlights the need for firms to align their policies and practices with regulatory requirements to protect children’s online privacy.
Comments are closed for this story.