Google denies YouTube Kids app unfairly targets children
The Guardian | Tech | Sam Thielman in New York | Tuesday 7 April 2015
Abstract: Google launched the YouTube Kids app in February, describing it as “the first Google product built from the ground up with little ones in mind”. But the Center for Digital Democracy, the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and several others co-signing the complaint, argue that YouTube Kids mixes and matches advertising and programming in a way that “would not be permitted to be shown on broadcast and cable television”.
The complaint is addressed to the FTC, as distinct from the Federal Communications Commission, which oversees communications including broadcasting, cable (but not digital media). While the FCC does not have jurisdiction, despite the fact that some of the programming on the service is repurposed from television, the complaint cites some of the FCC’s rules, noting that the FCC calls this kind of advertising to kids “unfair” and cites psychiatric studies demonstrating that kids lack the ability to tell advertising from programming.
