Child Advocacy Groups Want FTC To Investigate Deceptive Advertising In YouTube Kids App

A number of consumer and child advocacy groups have signed a letter asking the FTC to investigate Google’s YouTube Kids app advertising practices.

According to the letter, the app violates the FTC’s endorsement guide: “YouTube Kids fails to separate commercial content from non-commercial content and is therefore unfair and deceptive to children.”

[pullquote]YouTube Kids fails to separate commercial content from non-commercial content and is therefore unfair and deceptive to children.[/pullquote]

The letter includes more than 40 pages of examples where advertising within the app targets children, citing everything from “unboxing videos” that blur the lines between user-generated content and sponsored content to branded channels like the “My Little Pony” and “The McDonaldscorp” channel.

Jeff Chester, the director of the Center for Digital Democracy, one of the groups that signed the letter, voiced his concerns in a report from the San Jose Mercury News, “This is the opening shot in a new battle with Google, Nickelodeon, Amazon, Netflix, Cartoon Network and others that are trying to cash in on this generation of young children.”

Drafted by Georgetown Law School’s Institute for Public Representation, the letter is signed by the following ten consumer and child advocacy groups:

• Consumers Union
• Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood,
• Consumer Federation of America,
• Center for Science in the Public Interest,
• Children Now,
• American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry,
• Consumer Watchdog,
• Corporate Accountability International,
• Public Citizen and the
• Center for Digital Democracy

YouTube Kids is billed by Google as an app designed specifically for children, with videos “kids will love” and “parents can feel good about.” The app contains kid-friendly channels with safe browsing measures and settings that can be monitored by parents.

In response to the letter, a Google spokesperson told Reuters that Google had worked with multiple partners and child advocacy groups to develop the app.

“While we are always open to feedback on ways to improve the app, we were not contacted directly by the signers of this letter and strongly disagree with their contentions,” said Google’s spokesperson.

You can review the letter to the FTC in full here:

youtubekids.pdf