Disney Will Pay $10 Million for Violating Children’s Privacy on YouTube

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has fined Disney $10 million after finding the company failed to properly tag its children’s videos on YouTube as “Made for Kids” (MFK).

🔎 What Happened

• Disney mislabeled many children’s videos as “Not Made for Kids” (NMFK).
• This mislabeling allowed personal data collection from under-13 viewers and targeted advertising, violating the COPPA Rule (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule).
• YouTube even flagged hundreds of Disney videos and corrected them in 2020, but the issues persisted.

⚖️ The Settlement

• $10M civil penalty.
• Disney must notify parents before collecting data from children.
• Disney is required to implement safeguards ensuring all YouTube content is correctly tagged as MFK, preventing further unlawful data collection.

🌍 Bigger Picture

This follows other high-profile FTC actions, including Google & YouTube’s $170M COPPA settlement in 2019. It underscores growing scrutiny over how tech and media companies monetize children’s data.

At Alcaeus Services, we help organizations navigate compliance, privacy regulations, and ethical data handling to protect users and avoid costly penalties.