- The Federal Trade Commission held an inquiry against Disney for not complying with child privacy laws.
- The company reportedly collected and used the personal data of children under 13 through YouTube videos.
- After the inquiry, Disney has agreed to pay a fine of $10 million, as confirmed by the Federal Trade Commission.
Disney has been a household name when it comes to releasing content targeted towards children. From its latest live-action adaptations to animated movies, most of the content that Disney publishes caters to children. When it comes to releasing content for children, there are certain laws that a company has to adhere to. And well, Disney has recently come under fire for crossing the borderline and violating child privacy laws. In fact, the entertainment giant recently had to agree to pay a fine of $10 million to come out of this trouble.
Apparently, since 2020, Disney has uploaded more than 1000 videos on several of its YouTube channels, including Pixar and Disney Animation Studios. And of course, if you miss the crucial detail, it may seem like there’s nothing wrong with that. However, what’s concerning is that these videos were targeting younger demographics, and unfortunately, Disney didn’t mark these videos as “Made for Kids.”
This not only allowed Disney to collect data of kids under the age of 13, but also allowed the targeted advertisement to reach the younger audience, which is against child privacy laws. This led the Federal Trade Commission to hold an inquiry into Disney’s lapse of judgment.
According to the Federal Trade Commission’s official statement:
“The company [Disney] allowed personal data to be collected from children who viewed kid-directed videos on YouTube without notifying parents or obtaining their consent as required by the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA Rule).”
This was clearly a mistake from Disney’s side, so the company recently agreed to pay a fine of $10 million for violating the child privacy laws, as confirmed by the Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday.
What’s surprising is that FDC warned Disney about this back in mid-2020, but the company failed to “change its policy of designating videos at the channel level and continued to fail to properly designate individual videos as MFK.” But now, Disney has agreed to comply with the COPPA Rule, which means the company has to take parents’ consent before collecting and using personal data of children under 13.
