Google to reportedly pay up to $200 million to the FTC over YouTube's alleged child privacy violations

Google will reportedly pay up to $200 million following a Federal Trade Commission investigation into alleged YouTube child privacy violations.

The company has agreed to a fine of somewhere between $150 million and $200 million, with the FTC having voted 3-2 to approve the settlement, Politico reported Friday. This figure was also reported by The Wall Street Journal, which wrote that the settlement is "expected to require significant changes at YouTube relating to its content directed at children."

This news comes after The Washington Post reported last month that the FTC reached a settlement at the end of its investigation into YouTube allegedly violating the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act by improperly collecting children's data. YouTube has said that its main platform is not intended for children under 13, although many videos are directed at kids, and has maintained it did not violate the children's privacy law. Bloomberg reports YouTube will soon end targeted advertising on videos directed at children in order "to satisfy regulators," though it wasn't clear if this was one of the terms of the FTC settlement. This comes after Facebook in July reached a $5 billion settlement with the FTC over privacy issues.

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But proponents of a hefty fine for YouTube in the billions of dollars have criticized this FTC settlement with Google, with Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) saying per The Verge that the FTC "appears to have let a powerful company off the hook with a nominal fine for violating users’ privacy online." The executive director of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood also said in a statement per The Hill that the settlement is "terribly inadequate."