Children’s Advocates Complain YouTube Kids Is Full of Junk-Food Content

YouTube‘s Kids app is marketed as a way for youngsters to watch kid-friendly stuff without fear of objectionable content. A complaint filed by two advocacy groups, though, claims those parental settings may keep out cyberbullying, sex, and Donald Trump stump speeches (or what have you), but the app’s still full of junk – of the food variety.

In a statement, a YouTube spokesperson said YouTube Kids prohibits paid advertising for all food and beverage brands.

As a result, Josh Golin of CCFC criticized Google for allowing this to happen, comparing it with other media platforms targeted at young children.

Ads marketing sugar-laden snacks and drinks have prompted a further round of complaints about Google’s YouTube Kids app.

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”.

In one 11-minute video, the YouTube star Evan of EvanTubeHD, a Disney production, and his sister compete to identify 12 different flavours of Oreos in an extended instance of product placement.

The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC) and the Center for Digital Democracy (CDD) led the actions.

Google’s YouTube Kids App hit the market in February, marketed to children aged five and younger, The NY Times reported.

The complaints are not the first the groups have made about YouTube Kids.

“The app contains a wide-range of content, including videos with food-related themes, but these are not paid advertisements”.

Numerous companies that make the products are members of the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative, an industry self-regulation program that has pledged not to advertise to children under 12, the complaint says.

Chester told the Guardian that his organisation plans to ask European regulators – including those in the United Kingdom and Ireland, where YouTube Kids recently launched – to also investigate the app’s relationships with advertisers.

Today, YouTube’s ad policy for YouTube Kids is that it will remove videos where the creator has disclosed a paid product placement or endorsement using YouTube’s tools. Earlier this year, Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood and the Center for Digital Democracy were among a coalition of consumer advocates that complained to the FTC that YouTube Kids was targeting youngsters with unfair and deceptive advertising.