Disney has agreed to pay $10 million to settle allegations from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that it violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).
The case centers on claims that Disney mislabeled child-directed videos on YouTube, which allowed the platform to collect data from kids under 13 and serve them targeted ads without parental consent.
The FTC said Disney set its YouTube channels to a default designation that marked many videos as “Not Made for Kids,” even though the content included clips from Frozen, Toy Story, Coco, and other kid-focused titles. This misclassification reportedly enabled autoplay and personalized advertising on children’s videos, bypassing rules designed to protect young viewers.
As part of the settlement, Disney will pay a $10 million civil penalty and must obtain verifiable parental consent before collecting data from children under 13. The company is also required to implement a video review system to correctly tag content as “Made for Kids,” unless YouTube introduces a universal age-verification tool.
This marks the first time the FTC has taken action against a major YouTube content provider over COPPA violations since Google’s $170 million fine in 2019.
Regulators say the settlement underscores their commitment to enforcing children’s privacy protections online.
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