A pair of advocacy groups today took YouTube and major brands to task for junk-food videos allegedly appearing on the YouTube Kids smartphone app, asking the Federal Trade Commission to investigate their practices.
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The complaint, made by the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood and the Center for Digital Democracy to the FTC, catalogues hundreds of cutesy little animated ads and product placements for things like Pop-Tarts, Twizzlers, Doritos, Totino’s frozen pizza, and other unhealthy food that, per YouTube’s policies, shouldn’t be targeting kids.
YouTube Kids is billed as a safe place for young impressionable viewers to watch online videos, but two child-advocacy groups claim that the advertisements on the mobile app negatively influence kids.
Ads marketing sugar-laden snacks and drinks have prompted a further round of complaints about Google’s YouTube Kids app. For now, YouTube’s response seems just to be suggesting that parents “turn off the search function” to block content.
In April, CCFC filed a complaint for “unfair and deceptive practices” for similar ads.
“The Commission should investigate why Google’s algorithms aren’t configured to keep junk food marketing off of YouTube Kids, and hold food and beverage companies accountable for violating their pledges not to target their most unhealthy products to children”.
YouTube has over 31 TV commercials and 21 product placements for Oreos on the app. This includes videos where YouTube stars have to identify different types of Oreos.
Numerous violators are big brand names who broke their word about not advertising to kids under 12 years old, including Coca-Cola, Hershey, Nestle, Oreo, Kellogg and many others.
In one of the complaints, CCFC and CDD urge the Commission to hold 17 food and beverage manufacturers accountable for violating the self-regulatory pledges they made as members of the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative (CFBAI). The relationships are not disclosed on YouTube, and the groups want these business relationships investigated further.
A YouTube spokeswoman said: “While we are always open to feedback on ways to improve the app, we were not contacted directly by the signers of this letter and strongly disagree with their contentions, including the suggestion that no free, ad-supported experience for kids will ever be acceptable”.
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It’s not the first time the two groups have raised issues with Google’s kid-friendly version of YouTube.
