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To be clear, Google isn't accused of intentionally tracking children in defiance of privacy laws, they're accused of not erring hard enough on the side of "this

by c3534l 7y ago

To be clear, Google isn't accused of intentionally tracking children in defiance of privacy laws, they're accused of not erring hard enough on the side of "this is a child" when guessing the age of a user they don't know the age of. This sounds like a genuine grey area that YouTube was on the wrong side of. Doesn't mean they were right, but everyone's acting like this is flagrant disregard of the law when in fact it is an edge case that didn't yet have a clear standard.

newguy1234 7y ago
Google/youtube still won't be able to do anything because kids are smart. They'll just make accounts saying they're 22 years old. It reminds me of the times when I was like 14 and started watching pornography. To say the least, you quickly learn to just click the "yes, I am 18+ years old". That's the reality. If YT/google were to really enforce it they would make all YT/google accounts require ID submission for commenting/uploading etc.
- ggggtez 7y ago
  Which is a real shame. All people lose a little freedom and anonymity to "protect the children".
- 43920 7y ago
  Google already has a minimum age of 13 to create an account (the maximum age before COPPA no longer applies). The issue here is that if a child didn't sign in or used an account where they claimed to be older, they would still have their information collected - the FTC is arguing that Google should have disabled tracking on all videos targeted towards children, even when they didn't know the age of the person watching.
  - ehsankia 7y ago
    So basically all kid content creators are going to be hit hard once this goes into effect, and we'll get another wave of backlash about "Youtube is killing our channel" The trickier part is "all age" content. Even something like Minecraft, which at the surface is aimed at kids, I know many adults who watch and play the game... Are all Minecraft streamers screwed?
    - jwalton 7y ago
      I don't understand why kid content creators are going to be punished here; Google can't collect data from people watching kids content and can't serve targeted add to them - so what? They can still count views and play untargeted ads and pay out creators?
    - baroffoos 7y ago
      I don't see anything saying they can't play ads? They can even target them without having to collect any info. If you are watching a kids video its pretty obvious an advert about toys or kids games would be relevant.
      - ehsankia 7y ago
        That's true, it will still play ads, but obviously non-targeted ads are not as lucrative (an adult watching a Minecraft video doesn't care about toys), therefore, there will still be a non-negligible hit in revenue. If the difference was negligible, why would Google spend so much time developing targeted ads?
        baroffoos 7y ago
        The adult watching kids videos is something I did not consider. Target ads are useful for adults because their wants and needs are far more diverse. Only a fraction of adults are interested in buying a circular saw so targeted ads are needed but for kids you can put a pretty safe bet on the fact that a lego advert on a kids show will hit the correct audience pretty spot on.
    - sitkack 7y ago
      You weave unsubstantiated comments into you arguments. They would be stronger if you didn't.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- pavon 7y ago
  Nothing about the law or settlement is about blocking children from viewing inappropriate content. It is solely about Google violating children's privacy by collecting information on viewers of content that targets children.
ehsankia 7y ago
> a user they don't know the age of It's even worse. The account signed a EULA saying they are over 13, and this account most likely also happens to be shared between the parent and their kid, so the explicit video being watched aside, it's impossible to tell if the phone is currently in the hand of the parent or the kid, constantly going back and forth. The solution they're going to implement is to treat anyone watching a "kid" video as a kid. Not only is this going to hit creators hard, but the "kid on their parents phone" could still watch non-kid videos and they would get tracked... It's a really messy solution. It's like if we started suing porn sites for every minor on their website that lied about being 18.

by c3534l 7y ago

newguy1234 7y ago

Google/youtube still won't be able to do anything because kids are smart. They'll just make accounts saying they're 22 years old. It reminds me of the times when I was like 14 and started watching pornography. To say the least, you quickly learn to just click the "yes, I am 18+ years old". That's the reality. If YT/google were to really enforce it they would make all YT/google accounts require ID submission for commenting/uploading etc.

ggggtez 7y ago
Which is a real shame. All people lose a little freedom and anonymity to "protect the children".
43920 7y ago
Google already has a minimum age of 13 to create an account (the maximum age before COPPA no longer applies). The issue here is that if a child didn't sign in or used an account where they claimed to be older, they would still have their information collected - the FTC is arguing that Google should have disabled tracking on all videos targeted towards children, even when they didn't know the age of the person watching.
- ehsankia 7y ago
  So basically all kid content creators are going to be hit hard once this goes into effect, and we'll get another wave of backlash about "Youtube is killing our channel" The trickier part is "all age" content. Even something like Minecraft, which at the surface is aimed at kids, I know many adults who watch and play the game... Are all Minecraft streamers screwed?
  - jwalton 7y ago
    I don't understand why kid content creators are going to be punished here; Google can't collect data from people watching kids content and can't serve targeted add to them - so what? They can still count views and play untargeted ads and pay out creators?
  - baroffoos 7y ago
    I don't see anything saying they can't play ads? They can even target them without having to collect any info. If you are watching a kids video its pretty obvious an advert about toys or kids games would be relevant.
    - ehsankia 7y ago
      That's true, it will still play ads, but obviously non-targeted ads are not as lucrative (an adult watching a Minecraft video doesn't care about toys), therefore, there will still be a non-negligible hit in revenue. If the difference was negligible, why would Google spend so much time developing targeted ads?
      - baroffoos 7y ago
        The adult watching kids videos is something I did not consider. Target ads are useful for adults because their wants and needs are far more diverse. Only a fraction of adults are interested in buying a circular saw so targeted ads are needed but for kids you can put a pretty safe bet on the fact that a lego advert on a kids show will hit the correct audience pretty spot on.
  - sitkack 7y ago
    You weave unsubstantiated comments into you arguments. They would be stronger if you didn't.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
pavon 7y ago
Nothing about the law or settlement is about blocking children from viewing inappropriate content. It is solely about Google violating children's privacy by collecting information on viewers of content that targets children.

ehsankia 7y ago

> a user they don't know the age of It's even worse. The account signed a EULA saying they are over 13, and this account most likely also happens to be shared between the parent and their kid, so the explicit video being watched aside, it's impossible to tell if the phone is currently in the hand of the parent or the kid, constantly going back and forth. The solution they're going to implement is to treat anyone watching a "kid" video as a kid. Not only is this going to hit creators hard, but the "kid on their parents phone" could still watch non-kid videos and they would get tracked... It's a really messy solution. It's like if we started suing porn sites for every minor on their website that lied about being 18.