Over the past year, YouTube’s practices on content aimed at children have come into question. As a leading source for children’s entertainment content YouTube has also become a major avenue for advertisements directed at children. This has led to action from the FTC to correct some of the practices that YouTube used to attract advertisers to their platform when children’s content is involved. I found four articles covering the recent changes and what it will likely mean for YouTube creators and users alike.
NPR gave one of the most thorough reports of the fines imposed on YouTube from the FTC. The article describes the total of $170 million YouTube must pay for tracking user information on content aimed at children, resulting in targeted ads appearing on children’s content. This is also one of the first articles that I found that offered a statement from a special interests group saying that they were glad there would be fewer ads aimed at children but felt the FTC should have done more to fix the problem. I consider this article to be news. The article offers statements from both YouTube and a special interests group that is against YouTube’s practices. The article does not overtly favor one view over the other or offer critiques of either view. This seems to be a report of what has happened.
Cnet.com also covered the FTC ruling here. This coverage is news. The article includes comments from both YouTube and the father of Ryan from RyanToyReviews, one of the biggest creators of children’s content on the platform. This article was comprehensive, giving background of the changes and the circumstances that led up to the suit from the FTC and concluded by explaining that other big online companies are also in the sights of the FTC for similar suits.
A Pennsylvania newspaper published this opinion piece on the FTC rulings. The piece is clearly labelled as an opinion piece, which helps readers to know that it is an opinion piece. The article offers the opinion that other states should look into filing similar suits that the state of New York filed against YouTube. The piece argues that if YouTube violated children’s privacy laws in New York they likely did in other states.
Finally, a writer for USA Today posted an opinion piece calling for parents to continue to monitor their children’s YouTube usage. This article is clearly labelled as an opinion piece, making it easy for me as a reader to identify it. Further, the author makes no attempt to hide her concerns with letting kids use YouTube unsupervised. She does offer some anecdotal evidence and does not hide that there are some statistics she does not know about the issue. These are excusable in opinion pieces. It does not appear that the article is meant to be taken as a news report in anyway. Rather, it is one writer’s warning to parents based on her experience.
From reading a variety of articles covering YouTube and its protection of children I found many different views about YouTube. The company seems to rely heavily on children’s content for revenue as it is the easiest to get big companies such as McDonald’s to support. FTC regulations and concerns from parents are making this far more difficult. I found heavy media coverage over the changes coming for YouTube and what it will mean for creators and viewers alike.
