Advocates Call Changes to YouTube Kids App Inadequate
Privacy and child protection advocates expressed concern Friday after an announcement from Google the day before that it had made changes to its YouTube Kids app. The recent changes in no way address the concerns (see 1505190015) of the Campaign…
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for a Commercial Free Childhood (CCFC) and the Center for Digital Democracy (CDD), the groups’ attorney, Angela Campbell of Georgetown University’s Institute for Public Representation, said in a statement Friday. “Google not only did not consult with CCFC and CDD, but it refused their request to meet.” Google launched its YouTube Kids app in February and promised parents only family-friendly ads would be shown, Campbell said. “Now this language is gone and the app store description has a new, vaguely worded disclaimer at the end: ‘YouTube Kids contains paid ads in order to offer the app for free. Your child may also see videos with commercial content from YouTube creators that are not Paid Ads. For more information, please check out our Parental Guide.’” The new YouTube Kids app ad policy, which prohibits advertising food, beverages and other products, only applies to paid ads sold by Google, Campbell said. “This means that the vast majority of the content available on [the app] is not subject to any limits on advertising.”