Digital Smarts - Critics Say Google’s YouTube Kids Rife with Ads

When Google launched its highly anticipated YouTube Kids app (iPhone and Android) in February 2015, they received many high praises, but now there are criticisms that it is just “one, long uninterrupted ad” with a complete lack of understanding about early-childhood development. Though the app features short videos that have been filtered by a Google team to make sure they are kid-appropriate and also includes a set of parental controls, critics say the app ignores long-standing television safeguards meant to protect small children. Limits on the amount of advertising as well as the separation of advertising and programming are put on all childrens’ television programming, but are not applied to content on the Internet. For example, McDonalds has its own channel on YouTube Kids that includes Happy Meal commercials. There are also multiple streams of what is known as "unboxing ads," where someone unwraps candy or takes a toy out of its box and puts it together. For these reasons, a coalition of consumer and child advocacy groups is asking the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate the app, but jurisdiction is an issue as rules around advertising to children were created by the FTC that only govern the airways. There is no similar government body that governs Internet content at this time.