The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently hit YouTube and Google with a $170 million fine due to YouTube collecting children’s personal data without their parent’s consent. The FTC relied on the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) as a basis for issuing the fine. This prompted YouTube to make several changes to their terms of service, which recently came into force.  These changes are important for all content creators irrespective of whether they operate in the US or not. An example of a content creator are YouTubers like Pewdiepie, Markiplier and Suzelle DIY. Content creators will have to comply with these changes or risk losing their ad revenue and quite possibly their channels.

What was YouTube doing and why was this a problem?

The FTC alleged that YouTube collected children’s personal data through persistent identifiers like cookies. With these cookies, YouTube was marketing products to children. This was not any different to their regular business practices. However, these practices were an issue in terms of COPPA. It is important to note that for the purposes of COPPA, a child is anyone under the age of 13. Under COPPA, operators of websites must make parents aware of the fact that they are collecting personal data from their children. Further, parents need to give their consent to the operators to collect personal data from their children.  By using cookies, YouTube did not obtain consent to collect personal data from the children that were using their services.

What is YouTube doing to correct this?

YouTube has implemented widespread changes to their terms of service to ensure that it complies with the FTC settlement. For example, YouTube has introduced a Children’s Privacy Notice that highlights:

  • how it collects children’s personal data,
  • what it will do with the personal data, and
  • what it cannot do with the personal data.

Further, they have made it a requirement that parents must use their Google accounts to create profiles for their children. The updated terms highlight what YouTube may share with parents’ consent, what it has to share for legal reasons, and what it may share for the purposes of external processing. However, any external processing will be done in line with the privacy notice.

How did this affect creators?

YouTube now requires content creators to designate that their content is ‘for children’. If they do not, their videos would not appear to children for viewing. Until content creators designate that their content is for children, they will receive less revenue as many of them target children as their primary viewers. Furthermore, content creators not only have to contend with this new development, but if they do not comply with YouTube’s terms of service, there is a chance that their channel may be deleted.

What are creators doing about these changes?

The YouTube community has not responded well to the changes. Many creators have voiced their concerns over the changes to the terms but have no choice but to comply if they wish to continue making content on the platform and generating revenue. Further, if content creators do not comply with the new terms there is a chance that they may have their channel deleted.