June 26, 2019
MarketWatch: Parents of YouTube child stars say proposed safety protections could cost them money
As YouTube weighs a massive restructure to protect children, creators worry about revenue
Changes that YouTube is considering to protect children aren’t going over too well with some parents whose kids star in the site’s videos.
YouTube is considering moving all content that stars children to YouTube Kids, an app that Google, which owns YouTube — created in 2015. The possible move is partly a response to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) investigation into Google over concerns that YouTube exposed kids under the age of 13 to inappropriate videos and illegally collected data from them, the Wall Street Journal reported...
Child internet safety advocates want more
“Moving the videos to YouTube Kids is a positive move if it happens,” Donna Rice Hughes, the president of child internet safety non-profit Enough is Enough and a former member of the FTC’s Child Online Protection Act Commission, told MarketWatch. “But it isn’t enough.”
“I would like to see YouTube and social media platforms do real age verification. They say you have to be 13, but anyone can type in a birth date that says they’re 13,” Hughes said. “These companies need to be putting kids’ safety first.”