Recently, an official complaint was filed with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) accusing YouTube of collecting viewing data from children under the age of 13, a violation of the UK data privacy code designed to protect children. According to the complaint, YouTube collects data on the videos that children watch, as well as their location and the device they use to watch them.
In response, YouTube stated that it has invested in family protection, that its services are not intended for use by children under the age of 13, and that it provides a separate children's app called YouTube Kids for their use, which requires parental consent. However, many children watch YouTube content on family devices, where data can be gathered assuming the person is an adult because the account is not registered as a child's account. Previously a US regulator fined YouTube $170 million (£139 million) in 2019 for violating children's privacy laws.
According to Jayant Motyar, Privacy & Security Analyst at Privacy Culture Limited, has said despite the fact that YouTube has stated that they are committed to continuing their engagement with the ICO on privacy protection by turning off auto play on videos and blocking ad targeting and personalisation for all children, the number of children using the platform remains enormous. According to regulator Ofcom, in 2021, 89% of children aged 3 to 17 used the video platform. This raises concerns about the privacy of these children's data. The platform collects far less data on its YouTube Kids app, but it should also ensure that they are only collecting the data of adults by having proper consent in place, and they should also revise their data collection points by checking if they have collected any children's data, in which case they should notify the parents about the collection of the data and delete the data following the appropriate procedures in place.
Sponsored by Privacy Culture Limited & views from Privacy & Security Analyst, Jayant Motyar Pica
