Disney has agreed to pay $10 million in civil penalties to settle allegations that it violated federal data-collection laws designed to protect children.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on Tuesday that a federal court has entered a stipulated order resolving a case against Disney Worldwide Services and Disney Entertainment Operations.
In a complaint filed in a California district court, the DOJ alleged that Disney failed to properly label some of its videos on YouTube as being targeted toward children. By not doing so, Disney and its partners were allegedly able to target ads toward children on YouTube and unlawfully collect children’s personal information without notifying parents or obtaining their consent.
The lawsuit claims this mislabeling violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). The law, first passed in 1998, prohibits website operators from knowingly collecting personal information from children under the age of 13 unless they first obtain consent from a parent.
“The Justice Department is firmly devoted to ensuring parents have a say in how their children’s information is collected and used,” said Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate in a press release. “The Department will take swift action to root out any unlawful infringement on parents’ rights to protect their children’s privacy.”
Disney did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Gizmodo. However, a Disney spokesperson told Axios when the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) first disclosed details of the settlement: “Supporting the well-being and safety of kids and families is at the heart of what we do. This settlement does not involve Disney-owned and -operated digital platforms but rather is limited to the distribution of some of our content on YouTube’s platform.”
According to the DOJ, Disney’s YouTube content has racked up billions of views in the United States alone. The complaint alleges that improperly labeled videos were spread across several Disney-owned YouTube channels, including the Pixar channel, the Disney+ channel, and the Disney Animation Studios channel. The videos featured popular cartoon characters from films like The Incredibles, Coco, Frozen, and Tangled.
After a $170 million settlement with the FTC in 2019 over similar COPPA violations, YouTube began requiring creators to designate whether videos they upload are “made for kids” or “not made for kids.” Videos labeled as made for kids have certain features disabled to comply with COPPA, including personalized advertising, the collection of personal information, and comments.
The case is among the first in which a content creator has settled with the DOJ since YouTube’s own COPPA settlement.
Beyond the financial penalty, the court order prohibits Disney from violating COPPA on YouTube and requires the company to set up an ongoing content review program to ensure its videos on the site comply with the law.
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