Disney Settles Child Privacy Lawsuit for $10 Million

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced on the 2nd that Disney has settled a lawsuit alleging that it illegally collected children's personal information through its YouTube channel for $10 million (approximately 13.96 billion won). This lawsuit is based on the claim that Disney violated the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) by collecting personal information from child viewers without parental consent.

The FTC pointed out that since 2019, YouTube has mandated content creators to label videos as 'Made for Kids (MFK)' or 'Not Made for Kids (NMFK)' to comply with COPPA regulations, but Disney did not properly implement this. Videos classified as made for kids have restrictions on personal information collection, targeted advertising, and comment features, but Disney misclassified many videos aimed at children as not made for kids, allowing personal information to be collected like general content.

The FTC reported that among the videos in question were popular animated content and music related to children, including 'The Incredibles', 'Coco', 'Toy Story', 'Frozen', and 'Mickey Mouse'. Accordingly, the FTC required Disney to pay a civil fine of $10 million and to comply with COPPA regulations by obtaining parental consent before collecting personal information from children under 13 in the future.

A Disney spokesperson told Reuters, "This settlement is limited to certain content posted on YouTube, which is not a platform directly operated by Disney," and stated, "Disney has a long-standing tradition of maintaining the highest standards in compliance with child privacy laws."