Publishings Digital Youth

Contact: Jeffrey Chester, CDD, jeff@democraticmedia.org (link sends e-mail), 202-494-7100 Josh Golin, CCFC, josh@commercialfreechildhood.org (link sends e-mail), 339-970-4240 Children’s privacy advocates call on FTC to require Google, Disney, other leading companies to disclose how they gather and use data to target kids and families Threats to young people from digital marketing and data collection are heightened by home schooling and increased video and mobile streaming in response to COVID-19 WASHINGTON, DC and BOSTON, MA – March 26, 2020 – With children and families even more dependent on digital media during the COVID-19 crisis, the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC) and the Center for Digital Democracy (CDD) called on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to require leading digital media companies to turn over information on how they target kids, including the data they collect. In a letter to the FTC, the advocates proposed a series of questions to shed light on the array of opaque data collection and digital marketing practices which the tech companies employ to target kids. The letter includes a proposed list of numerous digital media and marketing companies and edtech companies that should be the targets of the FTC’s investigation—among them are Google, Zoom, Disney, Comcast, AT&T, Viacom, and edtech companies Edmodo and Prodigy. The letter—sent by the Institute for Public Representation at Georgetown Law, attorneys for the advocates—is in response to the FTC’s early review of the rules protecting children under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). The groups said “children’s privacy is under siege more than ever,” and urged the FTC “not to take steps that could undermine strong protections for children’s privacy without full information about a complex data collection ecosystem.” The groups ask the Commission to request vital information from two key sectors that greatly impact the privacy of children: the edtech industry, which provides information and technology applications in the K-12 school setting, and the commercial digital data and marketing industry that provides the majority of online content and communications for children, including apps, video streaming, and gaming. The letter suggests numerous questions for the FTC to get to the core of how digital companies conduct business today, including contemporary Big Data practices that capture, analyze, track, and target children across platforms. “With schools closed across the country, American families are more dependent than ever on digital media to educate and occupy their children,” said CCFC’s Executive Director, Josh Golin. “It’s now urgent that the FTC use its full authority to shed light on the business models of the edtech and children’s digital media industries so we can understand what Big Tech knows about our children and what they are doing with that information. The stakes have never been higher.” “Although children’s privacy is supposed to be protected by federal law and the FTC, young people remain at the epicenter of a powerful data-gathering and commercial online advertising system," said Dr. Katharina Kopp, Deputy Director of the Center for Digital Democracy. “We call on the FTC to investigate how companies use data about children, how these data practices work against children’s interests, and also how they impact low-income families and families of color. Before it proposes any changes to the COPPA rules, the FTC needs to obtain detailed insights into how contemporary digital data practices pose challenges to protecting children. Given the outsize intrusion of commercial surveillance into children’s and families’ lives via digital services for education, entertainment, and communication, the FTC must demonstrate it is placing the welfare of kids as its highest priority.” In December, CCFC and CDD led a coalition of 31 groups—including the American Academy of Pediatrics, Center for Science in the Public Interest, Common Sense Media, Consumer Reports, Electronic Privacy Information Center, and Public Citizen—in calling on the FTC to use its subpoena authority. The groups said the Commission must better assess the impacts on children from today’s digital data-driven advertising system, and features such as cross-device tracking, artificial intelligence, machine learning, virtual reality, and real-time measurement. “Childhood is more digital than ever before, and the various ways that children's data is collected, analyzed, and used have never been more complex or opaque,” said Lindsey Barrett, Staff Attorney and Teaching Fellow at IPR’s Communications and Technology Law Clinic at Georgetown Law. “The Federal Trade Commission should shed light on how children's privacy is being invaded at home, at school, and throughout their lives by investigating the companies that profit from collecting their data, and cannot undertake an informed and fact-based revision of the COPPA rules without doing so.” "Children today, more than ever, have an incredible opportunity to learn, play, and socialize online,” said Celia Calano, student attorney at the Institute for Public Representation. “But these modern playgrounds and classrooms come with new safety concerns, including highly technical and obscure industry practices. The first step to improving the COPPA Rule and protecting children online is understanding the current landscape—something the FTC can achieve with a 6(b) investigation." ###

Contact: Jeff Chester, CDD (jeff@democraticmedia.org (link sends e-mail); 202-494-7100) David Monahan, CCFC (david@commercialfreechildhood.org (link sends e-mail); 617-896-9397) Groups Praise Sen. Markey and Google for Ensuring Children on YouTube Receive Key Safeguards BOSTON, MA & WASHINGTON, DC—December 18, 2019—The organizations that spurred the landmark FTC settlement with Google over COPPA violations applauded the announcement of additional advertising safeguards for children on YouTube today. The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC) and the Center for Digital Democracy (CDD) commended Google for announcing it would apply most of its robust marketing protections on YouTube Kids, including no advertising of food or beverages or harmful products, to all child-directed content on its main YouTube platform. The groups also lauded Senator Markey for securing (link is external) a public commitment from Google to implement these long-overdue safeguards. The advocates expressed disappointment, however, that Google did not agree to prohibit paid influencer marketing and product placement to children on YouTube as it does on YouTube Kids “Sen. Ed Markey has long been and remains the champion for kids,” said Jeff Chester, CDD’s executive director. “Through the intervention of Sen. Markey, Google has finally committed to protecting children whether they are on the main YouTube platform or using the YouTube Kids app. Google has acted responsibly in announcing that its advertising policies now prohibit any food and beverage marketing on YouTube Kids, as well as ads involving ‘sexually suggestive, violent or dangerous content.’ However, we remain concerned that Google may try to weaken these important child- and family-friendly policies in the near future. Thus we call on Google to commit to keeping these rules in place, and to implement other needed safeguards that children deserve,” added Chester. Josh Golin, Executive Director of CCFC, said, “We are so grateful to Senator Markey for his leadership on one of the most crucial issues faced by children and families today. And we commend Google for implementing a robust set of advertising safeguards on the most popular online destination for children. We urge Google to take another critical step and prohibit child-directed influencer content on YouTube; if this manipulative marketing isn’t allowed on children’s TV or YouTube Kids, it shouldn’t be targeted to children on the main YouTube platform either.” ###

In the aftermath of Google’s settlement with the FTC over its COPPA violations, some independent content producers on YouTube have expressed unhappiness with the decision. They are unclear how to comply with COPPA, and believe their revenue will diminish considerably. Some also worry that Google’s recently announced (link is external) system to meet the FTC settlement—where producers must identify if their content is child-directed—will affect their overall ability to “monetize” their productions even if they aren’t aiming to primarily serve a child audience. These YouTubers have focused their frustration at the FTC and have mobilized to file comments in the current COPPA proceedings (link is external). As Google has rolled out its new requirements, it has abetted a misdirected focus on the FTC and created much confusion and panic among YouTube content producers. Ultimately, their campaign, designed to weaken the lone federal law protecting children’s privacy online, could create even more violations of children’s privacy. While we sympathize with many of the YouTubers’ concerns, we believe their anger and sole focus on the FTC is misplaced. It is Google that is at fault here, and it needs finally to own up and step up. The truth is, it is Google’s YouTube that has violated the 2013 COPPA rule (link is external) pretty much since its inception. The updated rule made it illegal to collect persistent identifiers from children under 13 without parental consent. Google did so while purposefully developing YouTube as the leading site for children. It encouraged content creators to go all in and to be complicit in the fiction that YouTube is only for those whose age is 13 and above. Even though Google knew that this new business model was a violation of the law, it benefitted financially by serving personalized ads to children (and especially by creating the leading online destination for children in the U.S. and worldwide). All the while small, independent YouTube content creators built their livelihood on this illegitimate revenue stream. The corporate content brand channels of Hasbro, Mattel and the like, who do not rely on YT revenue, as well as corporate advertisers, also benefitted handsomely from this arrangement, allowing them to market to children unencumbered by COPPA regulations. But let’s review further how Google is handling the post-settlement world. Google chose to structure its solution to its own COPPA violation in a way that continues to place the burden and consequences of COPPA compliance on independent content creators. Rather than acknowledging wrong-doing and culpability in the plight of content creators who built their livelihoods on the sham that Google had created, Google produced an instructional video (link is external) for content creators that emphasizes the consequences of non-compliance and the potential negative impact on the creators’ monetization ability. It also appeared to have scared those who do not create “for kids” content. Google requires content creators to self-identify their content as “for kids,” and it will use automated algorithms to detect and flag “for kids” content. Google appears to have provided little useful information to content providers on how to comply, and confusion now seems rampant. Some YouTubers also fear (link is external) that the automated flagging of content is a blunt instrument “based on oblique overly broad criteria.” Also, Google declared that content designated as “for kids” will no longer serve personalized ads. The settlement and Google’s implementation are designed to assume the least risk for Google, while maximizing its monetary benefits. Google will start limiting the data it collects on made “for kids” content – something they should have done a long time ago, obviously. As a result, Google said it will no longer show personalized ads. However, the incentives for content creators to self-identify as “for kids” are not great, given that disabling (link is external) behavioral ads “may significantly reduce your channel’s revenue.” Although Google declares that it is “committed to help you with this transition,” it has shown no willingness to reduce its own significant cut of the ad revenue when it comes to children’s content. While incentives for child-directed content creators are high to mis-label their content, and equally high for Google to encourage them in this subterfuge, the consequences for non-compliance now squarely rest with content creators alone. Let’s be clear here. Google should comply with COPPA as soon as possible where content is clearly child- directed. Google has already developed a robust set of safeguards and policies (link is external) on YouTube Kids to protect children from advertising (link is external) for harmful products and from exploitative influencer marketing. It should apply the same protections on all child-directed content, regardless of which YouTube platform kids are using. When CCFC and CDD filed our COPPA complaint in 2018, we focused on how Google was shirking its responsibilities under the law by denying that portions of YouTube were child-directed (and thus governed by COPPA). The channels we cited in our complaint were not gray-area channels that might be child attractive but also draw lots of teen and adult viewers. Our complaint discussed such channels as Little Baby Bum, ChuChu TV Nursery Rhymes and Kids Songs, and Ryan’s Toy Reviews. We did not ask the FTC to investigate or sanction any channel owners, because Google makes the rules on YouTube, particularly with regard to personal data collection and use, and therefore it was the party that chose to violate COPPA. (Many independent content creators concur indirectly when they say that they should not be held accountable under COPPA. They maintain that they actually don’t have access to detailed audience data and do not know if their YouTube audience is under 13 at all. Google structures what data they have access to.) For other content, in the so-called “gray zone,” such as content for general audiences that children under 13 also watch, or content that cannot be easily classified, we need more information about Google’s internal data practices. Do content creators have detailed access to demographic audience data and are thus accountable, or does Google hold on to that data? Should accountability for COPPA compliance be shifted more appropriately to Google? Can advertising restrictions be applied at the user level once a user is identified as likely to be under thirteen regardless of what content they watch? We need Google to open up its internal processes, and we are asking the FTC to develop rules that share accountability appropriately between Google and its content creators. The Google settlement has been a significant victory for children and their parents. For the first time, Google has been forced to take COPPA seriously, a U.S. law that was passed by Congress to express the will of the majority of the electorate. Of course, the FTC is also complicit in this problem as it waited six years to enforce the updated law. They watched Google’s COPPA violations increase over time, allowing a monster to grow. What’s worse, the quality of the kids YouTube content was to most, particularly to parents, more than questionable (link is external), and at times even placed children seriously at risk (link is external). What parents saw in the offering for their children was quantity rather than quality content. Now, however, after six years, the FTC is finally requiring Google and creators to abide by the law. Just like that. Still, this change should not come as a complete surprise to content creators. We sympathize with the independent YT creators and understand their frustration, but they have been complicit in this arrangement as well. The children’s digital entertainment industry has discussed compliance with COPPA for years behind closed doors, and many knew that YouTube was in non-compliance with COPPA. The FTC has failed to address the misinformation that Google is propagating among content creators, its recent guidance (link is external) not withstanding. Moreover, the FTC has allowed Google to settle its COPPA violation by developing a solution that allows Google to abdicate any responsibility with COPPA compliance, while continuing to maximize revenue. It’s time for the FTC to study Google’s data practices and capabilities better, and squarely put the onus on Google to comply with COPPA. As the result of the current COPPA proceedings, rules must be put in place to hold platforms, like YouTube, accountable.

Contact: David Monahan, CCFC (david@commercialfreechildhood.org (link sends e-mail); 617-896-9397) Jeff Chester, CDD (jeff@democraticmedia.org (link sends e-mail); 202-494-7100) Will the FTC Weaken Children’s Privacy Rules? Invited Advocates Raise Concerns About Upcoming COPPA Workshop, Plans to Undermine Federal Protections for Kids October 7 D.C. lineup dominated by tech industry supporters WHAT: The Future of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act Rule (COPPA): An FTC Workshop (link is external) WHEN: October 7, 2019, 9:00 am ET WHERE: Constitution Center, 400 7th St SW, Washington, DC WORKSHOP PRESENTERS FOR CAMPAIGN FOR A COMMERCIAL-FREE CHILDHOOD (CCFC) AND CENTER FOR DIGITAL DEMOCRACY (CDD): THE CHALLENGE: In 2012, the FTC approved new safeguards to protect children’s privacy in the digital era, heeding the advice of child advocates, consumer groups, privacy experts and health professionals. But now the Commission has called for comments (link is external) on COPPA three years before a new review is mandated by statute. The questions posed by the Commission, as well as public comments made by FTC staff, make privacy advocates wary that the FTC’s goal is to roll back COPPA safeguards rather than strengthen protections for children. Concerns about the FTC creating new loopholes or supporting industry calls to weaken the rules are heightened by the FTC’s speaker list for this workshop, replete with tech and marketing companies and their lawyers and lobbyists, with just a few privacy and children’s advocates at the table. The advocates are also concerned that the FTC is contemplating this action just weeks after its most significant COPPA enforcement action to date—requiring major changes to Google’s data collection practices on YouTube—a move that could result in rules being changed before those new practices have even been implemented. Children and families need increased COPPA enforcement, not weaker rules. The key problems, the advocates note, are the lack of enforcement of the law by the FTC; the failure of the agency to protect children from unfair marketing practices, such as influencers; and the need to maintain the strongest possible safeguards—whether in the home, school or on mobile devices. Speakers at the workshop include: Josh Golin, Executive Director, CCFC Will participate in a panel entitled Scope of the COPPA Rule. Katharina Kopp, Ph.D., Deputy Director, Director of Policy, CDD Will participate in a panel entitled Uses and Misuses of Persistent Identifiers. Laura M. Moy, Associate Professor of Law, Director, Communications & Technology Law Clinic, Georgetown University Law Center Will participate in a panel entitled State of the World in Children’s Privacy. Josh, Katharina, and Laura are available for questions in advance of the workshop, and will also be available to speak with press on site. See video of Future of COPPA Workshop here: https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/audio-video/video/future-coppa-rule-ftc-... (link is external) https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/audio-video/video/future-coppa-rule-ftc-... (link is external) ###

Press Statement Google YouTube FTC COPPA Settlement Statement of Katharina Kopp, Ph.D. Deputy Director Center for Digital Democracy August 30, 2019 It has been reported that Google has agreed to pay between $150 million and $200 million to resolve an FTC investigation into YouTube over alleged violations of a children's privacy law. A settlement amount of $150-200 million would be woefully low, considering the egregious nature of the violation, how much Google profited from violating the law, and given Google’s size and revenue. Google’s unprecedented violation requires an unprecedented FTC response. A small amount like this would effectively reward Google for engaging in massive and illegal data collection without any regard to children’s safety. In addition to assessing substantial civil penalties, the FTC must enjoin Google from committing further violations of COPPA and impose effective means for monitoring compliance; the FTC must impose a 20-year consent decree to ensure Alphabet Inc. acts responsibly when it comes to serving children and parents. ------ In April, 2018, the Center for Digital Democracy (CDD) and the Campaign for Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC), through their attorneys at Georgetown Law’s Institute for Public Representation (IPR), filed an FTC complaint (link is external) detailing YouTube’s COPPA violations. Twenty-one other privacy and consumer groups signed on to CCFC and CDD’s complaint, which detailed how Google profits by collecting personal information from kids on YouTube, without first providing direct notice to parents and obtaining their consent as required by law. Google uses this information to target advertisements to children across the internet and across devices, in clear violation of COPPA.