Disney Hit with Class Action Lawsuit Over Alleged YouTube Child Online Privacy Violations

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A class action lawsuit alleges that Disney illegally collects personal data from millions of children under 13 via YouTube videos without parental knowledge or consent, in violation of the federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).

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The 39-page lawsuit says that Disney owns and maintains more than 1,250 YouTube channels with tens of thousands of videos uploaded between them, many of which host child-directed content and all of which are part of YouTube’s partner program. The partner program, the complaint explains, is what allows content creators on YouTube to monetize their videos and collect advertising revenue.

Per the suit, YouTube advertisements are targeted toward viewers in two ways: contextual and behavioral. Contextual targeting bases the advertisements shown to a user on the type of content the user is presently viewing, the filing explains, while behavioral targeting delivers advertisements based on a user’s viewing history and other personal information.

According to the complaint, advertisers will pay YouTube more to run behavioral ad targeting and, as such, YouTube will pay content creators on its platform more for behavioral advertising than it would for allowing only contextual advertising.

The personal information that YouTube collects for its behavioral advertising is tracked across multiple websites, apps and devices and, according to the lawsuit, usually includes a user’s ad and content engagement, viewing and search histories, IP address, device sensor data, data from other nearby devices, GPS information and cookie, advertising and device IDs.

However, the filing relays that under COPPA, personal information collected in conjunction with YouTube’s behavioral ad targeting cannot be collected from children without clear and complete notice of the collection (including what information is to be collected), clear disclosure of the use of that information and verifiable parental consent obtained prior to the collection, use and/or disclosure of their child or children’s information.

To comply with COPPA regulations, the complaint states, YouTube requires that child-directed content, meaning content aimed at children under 13, must be marked by the creator as “made for kids.” This designation automatically disables the collection of viewing histories and other personal information, behavioral ad targeting and several other YouTube features available on non-child-directed videos and live broadcasts, the suit relays., adding that content creators can choose to mark either individual videos or their entire channel(s) as “made for kids.”

The complaint claims that much of Disney’s YouTube content, across its numerous channels, falls within COPPA and Federal Trade Commission definitions of “child-directed” and thus, by law, should be marked as “made for kids” to disable behavioral ad targeting and data collection.

The class action lawsuit alleges that Disney has knowingly neglected to mark the appropriate content as “made for kids” and is thus violating children’s privacy rights and illicitly benefiting from the increased profits of YouTube’s behavioral advertising.

The Disney class action lawsuit seeks to represent anyone in the U.S. who, at any time between November 1, 2019 and September 2, 2025, was under 13 years of age and watched child-directed content uploaded to YouTube by Disney that was not marked as “made for kids.”

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