Overview

• Federal regulators alleged Disney violated COPPA by failing to mark certain YouTube uploads as “Made for Kids,” enabling data collection and targeted ads to children under 13.
• YouTube alerted Disney in mid‑2020 that it had redesignated more than 300 videos, yet Disney continued relying on channel‑level defaults as it posted pandemic‑era storytime and other child‑directed clips from franchises like Frozen and Toy Story.
• The FTC says the mislabeling also exposed viewers to features that are disabled on kids‑labeled videos, including autoplay, and cites at least 12 ad campaigns totaling more than 350,000 impressions.
• Under the settlement, Disney must implement and maintain an Audience Designation program to classify each YouTube video as made for kids or not, a requirement that could be scaled back if platform‑wide age verification is deployed.
• Disney attributes the issue to an administrative error and says the matter is limited to content on YouTube, while the FTC notes this is the first known settlement with a YouTube content provider since the 2019 YouTube/Google case.