A man has filed a formal complaint accusing YouTube of collecting data from young children, the first such complaint alleging a major tech company has violated the new “age-appropriate design code.”
Duncan McCann, a staffer with the children’s advocacy group 5Rights, filed the AADC’s complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), asking the data watchdog to order Google to stop collecting data on children. and potentially fine them up to 4% of annual turnover.
“Imagine YouTube as a strange adult following your child ‘online’ with a virtual clipboard that records everything they do,” McCann said in a statement. “That is what is happening every day and they are not just doing it with their son. They are also doing it to up to 5 million other UK children, resulting in a huge amount of personal information being collected.
“It doesn’t matter that it’s against the law, it’s a massive, unlicensed social experiment on our children with uncertain consequences. YouTube should redesign its platform and remove the data it has been illegally collecting from children under 13.”
Although YouTube officially prohibits children under the age of 13 from using its main website, McCann’s complaint alleges that the company has failed to ensure that younger children follow the rules and only use the main platform with parental consent. .
A separate app, YouTube Kids, is available to children under 13 and has much stricter data processing, but data from telecom watchdog Ofcom shows that while YouTube, including YouTube Kids, was used by 89% Of kids ages 3-17, only 40% of YouTube users ages 3-4 exclusively used the Kids app, with the proportion falling further for older kids.
Beeban Kidron, the filmmaker and fellow crusader who founded 5Rights and sponsored the creation of the AADC, said she supported McCann’s complaint. “It is well established that data privacy regimes are critical to the safety of children online.
“Data law is not a pick and mix of elements that companies want to adhere to, it is a holistic approach that requires companies to offer children the highest degree of data privacy and, in doing so, reduce their exposure. to harmful experiences and exploitation online.”
In addition to calling for the data collected from the children to be destroyed, the complaint also requests that the ICO consider ordering the reversal or removal of any machine learning systems that have been trained on the data collected.
A YouTube spokesperson said: “Over the years, we have made investments to protect children and families, such as launching a application dedicated to childrenintroducing new data practices to child contentand providing more age appropriate experiences.
“Building on that longstanding approach and following additional guidance provided by the code, we implemented additional measures to strengthen children’s privacy on YouTube, such as more protective default settings and a YouTube Supervised Experience.
“We remain committed to continuing our engagement with the OIC on this priority work and with other key stakeholders, including children, parents and child protection experts.”
The AADC, also known as the “children’s code,” has had international influence. After it came into force in the UK in late summer 2021, tech platforms including Instagram, TikTok and Snap announced new policies for child users of their apps. In August 2022, the California legislature enacted follow-up legislation that introduced the AADC into state law.
