YouTube Faces An Appeal for its Children Tracking Lawsuit, Case is Now Back

Isaiah Richard, Tech Times 29 December 2022, 10:12 pm

YouTube and other kids' content platforms are now back in the heat for their alleged illegal children tracking activities to lure children into the streaming website to watch its content. An appeal has been made by the Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals against the companies, centering on other legislation other than the COPPA for children's online protection.

After the case was dismissed due to technicalities on the COPPA, there are still other laws that make these activities illegal, something which it intends to focus on now.

YouTube Faces Appeal that Revives its Children Tracking Suit

(Photo : zhenzhong liu on Unsplash)

An opinion from the Court of Appeals was posted recently, and it aims to reopen the case against YouTube and other companies who allegedly took part in child tracking for their offers on the platform.

This case centers on the actions of these companies that lured children to YouTube using their targeted ads.

Companies like Google, YouTube, DreamWorks, Cartoon Network, Hasbro, Mattel, PocketWatch, Remka, RTR Production, and RFR Entertainment face this lawsuit against their actions.

The case seeks damages from these companies for seven years for their alleged actions, from 2013 to 2020.

COPPA is Not the Only Law for Children's Protection

Children's Online Privacy Protection Act or COPPA is argued to not be the only law for children's protection in this kind of case. According to Ars Technica, similar laws in California, Colorado, Indiana, and Massachusetts have already ruled this as an illegal activity against children.

Moreover, this case was initially dismissed in San Fransisco as the judge ruled out that individual state laws cannot push for a COPPA route. The appeal is now arguing that this is not the only route to take for children's privacy online.

YouTube and its Lawsuits

Google's streaming platform faced multiple cases of alleged child exploitation in different violations, and this is not the first time for it. Back in 2020, UK and EU laws were allegedly violated by the company for "exploiting" children under 13 online, and this is because of its data tracking feats of the company which did not ask for consent.

Previously, Google adjusted its ad-targeting features in 2021 to those over 18, and YouTube is also part of these changes for third-party apps to track minors on the platform. The streaming subsidiary made it default for children under 13 to have a private profile, to avoid further exploitation by ad companies, and other users.

Children are more in-depth and reliant on technology these days, and despite the ads or content being based on their interests, this is still a form of exploitation on the companies' part. And while this hashes out in court and evaluating if YouTube and the other companies are guilty of it, legislators cannot simply disregard this due to a law's technicality to dismiss it.