Disney will pay $10 million to implement compliance measures after regulators said children’s YouTube videos were wrongly labelled, enabling targeted advertising.
The Walt Disney Company has agreed to pay $10 million to settle allegations that it breached children’s privacy laws by failing to correctly identify certain YouTube videos as made for children, a lapse that allowed targeted advertising and the collection of personal data without parental consent.
The settlement, first announced in September, resolves an investigation by the US Federal Trade Commission into Disney’s handling of children’s personal information. Regulators argued that because some videos were not properly labelled, children were served targeted advertisements and had their data collected without notice to or permission from parents.
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Regulatory action and legal findings
The entertainment group has also committed to establishing a programme to comply with children’s data protection laws, according to the US Department of Justice. Announcing the federal court order on Tuesday, Brett Shumate, an assistant attorney general in the Justice Department’s civil division, said, “The Justice Department is firmly devoted to ensuring parents have a say in how their children’s information is collected and used.”
A Disney spokesperson confirmed that the company has agreed to the terms outlined in September. Disney has previously stated that the settlement applies only to the distribution of some of its content on YouTube and does not involve Disney-owned and operated digital platforms. The agreement covers Disney Worldwide Services Inc and Disney Entertainment Operations LLC.