Google LLC / YouTube

What happened

The FTC and the New York Attorney General fined Google and YouTube $170 million ($136 million from FTC, $34 million from NY AG) for illegally collecting personal information from children on YouTube without parental consent, in violation of COPPA. YouTube tracked children who watched child-directed channels using cookies and persistent identifiers, then used this data to deliver targeted advertising to these children. Google had marketed YouTube to toy companies and other child-directed advertisers as a top destination for children, yet simultaneously told the FTC that YouTube was a general-audience site not subject to COPPA. The settlement required YouTube to create a system for channel owners to identify child-directed content and to stop serving targeted ads on content directed at children.

Articles violated

Lessons learned

Platforms that attract children cannot simultaneously market to child-directed advertisers while claiming to be general-audience sites not subject to COPPA. Even if a platform is not exclusively for children, child-directed content triggers COPPA protections. Tracking children through cookies and persistent identifiers for advertising purposes is a serious violation. This case established that video platforms must implement systems to identify and protect child-directed content. The landmark settlement amount signaled that COPPA enforcement would carry real financial consequences.