SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Groups Call Foul Over Google Attempt to Ensnare Kids in 'Advertising Empire'
'The breadth of the inappropriate material available on the app is deceptive in light of Google's public claims to parents that YouTube Kids is a safe place for children under five to explore,' advocacy organizations charge
May 19, 2015
Prominent advocacy organizations charged on Tuesday that the YouTube Kids app, marketed by Google as a family-friendly and child-appropriate platform, is in fact neither, featuring "disturbing" and "potentially harmful" content.
The latest accusations were issued by the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood and Center for Digital Democracy as an update to an earlier complaint against Google, owner of YouTube, filed with the Federal Trade Commission on April 7.
Google claims that the app is "packed full of age-appropriate videos, channels, and playlists" that "parents can feel good about" and "kids will love." The company states, "When families search in the app, we use a mix of input from our users and automated analysis to categorize and screen out the videos that make parents nervous."
"In the rush to expand its advertising empire to preschoolers, Google has made promises about the content on YouTube Kids that it is incapable of keeping."
--Josh Golin, Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood
But advocates charge there is plenty for parents to be nervous about. The organizations say they reviewed the children's app and found "Explicit sexual language presented amidst cartoon animation," as well as "Graphic adult discussions about family violence, pornography and child suicide." They also say that some material even included jokes about pedophilia.
"In reviews on Google Play and iTunes, parents report finding pornographic cartoons, videos laced with profanity, and videos featuring graphic violence," states the complaint.
This content is especially insidious, given that the platform includes voice-enabled search functions that advocacy groups say are specifically marketed towards preschool-aged children.
Google claims the app provides controls that allow parents to disable the search function. But the advocacy groups say that, for an app specifically targeting kids, its protections are far too weak.
"The breadth of the inappropriate material available on the app is deceptive in light of Google's public claims to parents that YouTube Kids is a safe place for children under five to explore," the letter charges. "Google's representations that the app is safe for children have been an integral part of Google's promotion of YouTube kids to parents."
The groups say this is no small violation.
"Federal law prevents companies from making deceptive claims that mislead consumers," said Aaron Mackey, the coalition's attorney at Georgetown Law's Institute for Public Representation, in a press statement. "Google promised parents that YouTube Kids would deliver appropriate content for children, but it has failed to fulfill its promise. Parents rightfully feel deceived by YouTube Kids."
Tuesday's complaint follows previous charges issued by numerous children's and consumer groups, including the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and the Center for Science in the Public Interest, that "videos provided on YouTube Kids intermix commercial and other content in ways that are deceptive and unfair to children and would not be permitted to be shown on broadcast or cable television."
"In the rush to expand its advertising empire to preschoolers, Google has made promises about the content on YouTube Kids that it is incapable of keeping," said Josh Golin, associate director of CCFC. "As a parent, I was shocked to discover that an app that Google claims is safe for young children to explore includes so much inappropriate content from the Wild West of YouTube."
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Sarah Lazare
Sarah Lazare is the editor of Workday Magazine and a contributing editor for In These Times. She is a former Staff Writer at Common Dreams. She comes from a background in independent journalism for publications including The Intercept, The Nation, and Tom Dispatch.
Prominent advocacy organizations charged on Tuesday that the YouTube Kids app, marketed by Google as a family-friendly and child-appropriate platform, is in fact neither, featuring "disturbing" and "potentially harmful" content.
The latest accusations were issued by the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood and Center for Digital Democracy as an update to an earlier complaint against Google, owner of YouTube, filed with the Federal Trade Commission on April 7.
Google claims that the app is "packed full of age-appropriate videos, channels, and playlists" that "parents can feel good about" and "kids will love." The company states, "When families search in the app, we use a mix of input from our users and automated analysis to categorize and screen out the videos that make parents nervous."
"In the rush to expand its advertising empire to preschoolers, Google has made promises about the content on YouTube Kids that it is incapable of keeping."
--Josh Golin, Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood
But advocates charge there is plenty for parents to be nervous about. The organizations say they reviewed the children's app and found "Explicit sexual language presented amidst cartoon animation," as well as "Graphic adult discussions about family violence, pornography and child suicide." They also say that some material even included jokes about pedophilia.
"In reviews on Google Play and iTunes, parents report finding pornographic cartoons, videos laced with profanity, and videos featuring graphic violence," states the complaint.
This content is especially insidious, given that the platform includes voice-enabled search functions that advocacy groups say are specifically marketed towards preschool-aged children.
Google claims the app provides controls that allow parents to disable the search function. But the advocacy groups say that, for an app specifically targeting kids, its protections are far too weak.
"The breadth of the inappropriate material available on the app is deceptive in light of Google's public claims to parents that YouTube Kids is a safe place for children under five to explore," the letter charges. "Google's representations that the app is safe for children have been an integral part of Google's promotion of YouTube kids to parents."
The groups say this is no small violation.
"Federal law prevents companies from making deceptive claims that mislead consumers," said Aaron Mackey, the coalition's attorney at Georgetown Law's Institute for Public Representation, in a press statement. "Google promised parents that YouTube Kids would deliver appropriate content for children, but it has failed to fulfill its promise. Parents rightfully feel deceived by YouTube Kids."
Tuesday's complaint follows previous charges issued by numerous children's and consumer groups, including the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and the Center for Science in the Public Interest, that "videos provided on YouTube Kids intermix commercial and other content in ways that are deceptive and unfair to children and would not be permitted to be shown on broadcast or cable television."
"In the rush to expand its advertising empire to preschoolers, Google has made promises about the content on YouTube Kids that it is incapable of keeping," said Josh Golin, associate director of CCFC. "As a parent, I was shocked to discover that an app that Google claims is safe for young children to explore includes so much inappropriate content from the Wild West of YouTube."
Sarah Lazare
Sarah Lazare is the editor of Workday Magazine and a contributing editor for In These Times. She is a former Staff Writer at Common Dreams. She comes from a background in independent journalism for publications including The Intercept, The Nation, and Tom Dispatch.
Prominent advocacy organizations charged on Tuesday that the YouTube Kids app, marketed by Google as a family-friendly and child-appropriate platform, is in fact neither, featuring "disturbing" and "potentially harmful" content.
The latest accusations were issued by the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood and Center for Digital Democracy as an update to an earlier complaint against Google, owner of YouTube, filed with the Federal Trade Commission on April 7.
Google claims that the app is "packed full of age-appropriate videos, channels, and playlists" that "parents can feel good about" and "kids will love." The company states, "When families search in the app, we use a mix of input from our users and automated analysis to categorize and screen out the videos that make parents nervous."
"In the rush to expand its advertising empire to preschoolers, Google has made promises about the content on YouTube Kids that it is incapable of keeping."
--Josh Golin, Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood
But advocates charge there is plenty for parents to be nervous about. The organizations say they reviewed the children's app and found "Explicit sexual language presented amidst cartoon animation," as well as "Graphic adult discussions about family violence, pornography and child suicide." They also say that some material even included jokes about pedophilia.
"In reviews on Google Play and iTunes, parents report finding pornographic cartoons, videos laced with profanity, and videos featuring graphic violence," states the complaint.
This content is especially insidious, given that the platform includes voice-enabled search functions that advocacy groups say are specifically marketed towards preschool-aged children.
Google claims the app provides controls that allow parents to disable the search function. But the advocacy groups say that, for an app specifically targeting kids, its protections are far too weak.
"The breadth of the inappropriate material available on the app is deceptive in light of Google's public claims to parents that YouTube Kids is a safe place for children under five to explore," the letter charges. "Google's representations that the app is safe for children have been an integral part of Google's promotion of YouTube kids to parents."
The groups say this is no small violation.
"Federal law prevents companies from making deceptive claims that mislead consumers," said Aaron Mackey, the coalition's attorney at Georgetown Law's Institute for Public Representation, in a press statement. "Google promised parents that YouTube Kids would deliver appropriate content for children, but it has failed to fulfill its promise. Parents rightfully feel deceived by YouTube Kids."
Tuesday's complaint follows previous charges issued by numerous children's and consumer groups, including the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and the Center for Science in the Public Interest, that "videos provided on YouTube Kids intermix commercial and other content in ways that are deceptive and unfair to children and would not be permitted to be shown on broadcast or cable television."
"In the rush to expand its advertising empire to preschoolers, Google has made promises about the content on YouTube Kids that it is incapable of keeping," said Josh Golin, associate director of CCFC. "As a parent, I was shocked to discover that an app that Google claims is safe for young children to explore includes so much inappropriate content from the Wild West of YouTube."
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.