United States senators asked the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to launch an inquiry against YouTube and its parent firm on Thursday for allegedly violating the privacy of its underage users by tracking "children" on their platform without parental consent.
"This behavior by YouTube and Google is estimated to have impacted hundreds of thousands, to potentially millions, of children across the United States. As such, YouTube and Google may have violated COPPA (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act) – as well as its 2019 FTC consent decree – in an egregious manner," Senator Edward Markey and Senator Marsha Blackburn wrote in the letter directed to FTC Chair Lina Khan.
According to the New York Times, research has shown that the two platforms are "collecting" children's data through targeted ads on child-directed content, which is reportedly shared with third-party firms once the ads are clicked.
