YouTube kids mobile app: Full of 'unfair and deceptive advertising,' says group

Google introduced the app in February as a place for kids to explore 'family-focused' videos. But consumer activists say the app is stuffed with advertisements and product placements.

The new YouTube Kids mobile app targets young children with unfair and deceptive advertising and should be investigated, a group of consumer advocates told the Federal Trade Commission in a letter Tuesday.

Google introduced the app in February as a "safer" place for kids to explore videos because it was restricted to "family-focused content."

But the consumer activists say the app is so stuffed with advertisements and product placements that it's hard to tell the difference between entertainment and commercials. One example is a 7-minute video of Disney's "Frozen" characters who appear as dolls inside a toy McDonald's, eating ice cream and drinking Sprite.

The activists say digital media should be subject to the same rules as television, which limits commercial content on kids' programming.

"As a consumer, you should have the right to know who is trying to persuade you," said Angela Campbell with the Institute for Public Representation at Georgetown Law, who provided legal counsel to the coalition.

In young children especially, "it takes unfair advantage of their trusting nature and lack of experience," she added.

In a statement early Tuesday, YouTube said: "We worked with numerous partners and child advocacy groups when developing YouTube Kids. 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. We disagree and think that great content shouldn't be reserved for only those families who can afford it."

Since its inception in 2005, YouTube has become the world's most popular online video site, with more than 1 billion users. For parents, it's become an easy way to find Elmo song clips or full episodes of "Barney & Friends." But when searching for Elmo or Barney, it's easy to pull up other user-generated content aimed at adults, such as the two puppets cursing or waving guns.

"Now, parents can rest a little easier knowing that videos in the YouTube Kids app are narrowed down to content appropriate for kids," wrote Shimrit Ben-Yair, the app's product manager, in a February blog post.

According to the consumer groups' letter, the videos mingle commercial and entertainment content in ways that wouldn't be allowed on television. Search for "My Little Pony," for example, and the first several options are lengthy advertisements for My Little Pony Play-Doh and toy kitchen sets, including one Play-Doh segment stretching 19 minutes.

"The fact that children are viewing the videos on a tablet or smartphone screen instead of on a television screen does not make it any less unfair and deceptive," the letter states.

Groups that signed the letter were the Center for Digital Democracy, the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Center for Science in the Public Interest, Children Now, Consumer Federation of America, Consumer Watchdog, Consumers Union, Corporate Accountability International and Public Citizen.

___

Follow Anne Flaherty at http://twitter.com/AnneKFlaherty

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to YouTube kids mobile app: Full of 'unfair and deceptive advertising,' says group
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Family/2015/0407/YouTube-kids-mobile-app-Full-of-unfair-and-deceptive-advertising-says-group
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe