Protecting children online
There has been a lack of protection for children on internet with only simple regulation and enforcement. Previously, you only needed to check a box to confirm you were over 13 years old to access most sites and social media. This was a simple method to shift the responsibility from the internet site to the user. A judgement from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in 2019 against YouTube gave a greater responsibility to the companies to ensure that the content on their sites were not targeting children. Since, children under 13-years of age should be present on the platform. There has also been an increase in child-influencers with parents earning millions on their children’s’ online presence. These children may be pushed into working and receiving unwanted publicity. In France they passed a new law to protect children from employment by their parents, classifying paid child influencers as child labour (Cuthbertson, 2020). This is one of the steps in the right direction to properly regulate internet in order to protect the user, especially children. However, different social media platforms are still heavily incentivised to advertising towards children, as they earn a lot more money than any fines they have received so far.
The Federal Trade Commission gave a record fine of 170 million dollars to YouTube for not protecting children against marketing (Federal Trade Commission, 2019). In 1998 the FTC made a law to protect children called the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). This law, however, has been relatively unused until recently. As mentioned in the introduction, all a child needs to do to access a website or social media platform is to check a box that they are over 13. However, they may not be. YouTube used the argument that the user was responsible when checking of this box (Mooney, 2019). Although, most of the content on their platform was targeted towards youth. For example, the highest earning influencer on YouTube, Ryan’s World, are targeting children with his toy’s reviews. YouTube was fined for such content and made changes to their site policy so that the content should not target children under 13 years of age. Furthermore, they made a separate platform for children, with higher restrictions. Any channel or video targeting children now needs to be marked appropriately.
In France paid child influencers are now classified as child labour, limiting parents’ ability to make money of them (Cuthbertson, 2020). As mentioned in the previous paragraph, YouTube’s highest earning influencer, Ryan’s World, is in actual life a boy called Ryan Kaji. The Guardian estimated that Ryan Kaji, who is nine-years-old, has earned approximately 200 million euros from his YouTube channel (Neate, 2020). Many consider it unethical that parents push their children online to earn money. This is what the French government stressed when they defined child-influencing as child labour. The French government also stated that all profits made should be in a secure bank account until the child turns 16. In order to prevent parents from earning money of their child. A clear abuse can be seen in the case of Lil Tay, a nine-year-old girl who bragged about her wealthy life online. Through a rap song she shows of her expensive cars and houses in a video. Later, a video exposed the way her brother and mother pushed her to make the videos, that showed her seemingly wealthy life style. Eventually, her mother lost custody rights. With a law, like the French, cases like Lil Tay’s can be prevented. If the case of Lil Tay had occurred in France, her mother could potentially get up to five years in jail and a 75 thousand euro fine (Cuthbertson, 2020).
Social media platforms are financially motivated to continue allowing child influencers and marketing that target children. Forbes estimated that Ryan Kaji earned 22 million from YouTube advertising in 2018 (Robehmed & Berg, 2018). Furthermore, Forbes estimated that YouTube would earn 10 to 15 million themselves, as they take a part of the revenue (Robehmed & Berg, 2018). To put it into perspective, on one single channel YouTube earned 10 percent of the fine they got from FTC in one year. Meaning that the FTC fine is small compared to the economic advantages of marketing towards children. The same accounts for other social media platforms, like for example Instagram. With Instagram it is often the parents who use their children to advertise for child clothing and accessories. The good thing is that this advertisement is targeted towards adults with children, the negative is that children, without consent, are used for advertising. Instagram earns money on advertisements and are therefore also profiting from child influencers. Furthermore, Facebook also argued that they should be allowed to advertise to children under 13 years old, under the COPPA act, because the parents accept that their children are shown advertisements when they sign up to Facebook’s platform (Fitzpatrick, 2012). YouTube is also still showing ads to children, but they are not targeted advertisements, but general.
To sum up, children have not been well protected online since the start of the internet. Even though children have laws to protect them, such as COPPA, it has not been appropriately enforced until recently. This could be seen with the fine FTC gave YouTube, as a result of content and marketing targeting children. Child influencers have become a profitable market with young children earning millions online. Parents have increasingly abused their children in order the gain economically, as was seen in Lil Tay’s case. France took a stand against this and announced that paid child influencers would be categorised as child labour (Cuthbertson, 2020). This will make it harder for parents to earn money from their children’s online performances. Although, there is a growing interest in trying to regulate internet in order to protect children, there are massive shortcomings. The fines that are handed out in order to punish those who do not follow the law are insignificant compared to the profits on advertising that target children. Social media platforms are incentivised to show that they “are doing something”, but not actually doing anything. As mentioned, YouTube still advertise to children, however they do no longer target children with advertisements. Facebook also advertise to children but argue that the child’s parents have given consent when allowing their child to sign up for the platform. Both child influencers and children on social media are being exploited.
References
Cuthbertson, A. (2020, October 8). Independent. Retrieved from “Kid influencers” classified as child labour under new French law: https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/child-labour-social-media-influencer-france-law-youtube-b861255.html
Federal Trade Commission. (2019, September 4). Federal Trade Commisson. Retrieved from Google and YouTube Will Pay Record $170 Million for Alleged Violations of Children’s Privacy Law: https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2019/09/google-youtube-will-pay-record-170-million-alleged-violations
Fitzpatrick, A. (2012, December 19). Mashable. Retrieved from New COPPA Rules Will Allow Facebook to Advertise to Children: https://mashable.com/2012/12/19/coppa-facebook/?europe=true
Mooney, T. (2019, August 26). CBC News. Retrieved from Companies make millions off kid influencers, and the law hasn’t kept up: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/kid-influencers-companies-make-millions-law-hasnt-kept-up-cbsn-originals/
Neate, R. (2020, December 18). The Guardian. Retrieved from Ryan Kaji, 9, earns $29.5m as this year’s highest-paid YouTuber: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/dec/18/ryan-kaji-9-earns-30m-as-this-years-highest-paid-youtuber#:~:text=Ryan%20Kaji%2C%20from%20Texas%2C%20made,%2C%20including%20Marks%20%26%20Spencer%20pyjamas
Robehmed, N., & Berg, M. (2018, December 3). Forbes. Retrieved from Highest-Paid YouTube Stars 2018: Markiplier, Jake Paul, PewDiePie And More: https://www.forbes.com/sites/natalierobehmed/2018/12/03/highest-paid-youtube-stars-2018-markiplier-jake-paul-pewdiepie-and-more/#243def8d909a
Photo References
https://www.istockphoto.com/vector/child-holding-france-flag-gm1271255833-373904085
