Family Tech Blog

Tag: device security

  • YouTube May Have to Stop Making Money Off Our Kids

    YouTube May Have to Stop Making Money Off Our Kids

    The US Federal Trade Commission is finishing an investigation into YouTube’s Children’s Data and Ad policies and at least one member of Congress is now asking for YouTube to make some major changes. Massachusettes Senator, Ed Markey has officially requested that the FTC enforce some major policy shifts on Google for how YouTube handles advertisements to children and the collection of kids’ data.

    The request states that:

    Personal information about a child can be leveraged to hook consumers for years to come, so it is incumbent upon the FTC to enforce federal law and act as a check for the ever increasing appetite for childrens’ data. – FTC YouTube COPPA 2019

    This three-page document outlines a plan for rules that the FTC should enforce upon YouTube in order to keep them compliant with  COPPA and to better regulate their child advertising practices. The rules include requiring Google to stop collecting data from users under 13, requiring YouTube to develop a way to identify users under 13 and implement COPPA compliant policies, disallow influencers from marketing products geared towards children under 13, and forcing Google to create a fund for developing content meant for children that is ad-free and COPPA compliant. 

    COPPA imposes certain requirements on operators of websites or online services directed to children under 13 years of age, and on operators of other websites or online services that have actual knowledge that they are collecting personal information online from a child under 13 years of age.

    What Parents Should Know

    Parents have to be intentional about teaching their children about online privacy. Regulations from the FTC will, likely, be coming in the near future. Even if these changes aren’t as strict as the ones listed in the letter from Senator Markey, they will still cause major ripples in the YouTube creator and viewer community. The way that YouTube seems to try and handle these kinds of problems is by “demonetizing” videos that contain the type of content they are taking heat about. The heat they are getting from the FTC right now, though, is concerning some of the most profitable channels on any video sharing platform ever.

    Advertising is the way these companies make their money and collecting data is their sole model for targeting their advertising. If they aren’t allowed to target children anymore then there won’t be much content on YouTube for children at all. Our approach has always to only allow our kids to watch YouTube videos that we have selected and they must watch them on the television in the living room. That protects them from any surprises and we curate the types of videos they are allowed to watch. We also have YouTube Premium which removes ads. This is helpful since the algorithm that selects which ads show up on what videos often doesn’t take the age of the target audience into account. (i.e. an ad for the latest Childs Play film on a video about kids making slime.)

    As I always say, we should hold these companies accountable as much as possible but it falls to parents to be the responsible ones when it comes to our children’s digital health and online safety. What is your approach to YouTube, do your kids watch as much as they want? Do you limit their viewership on YouTube? Do you think this news will affect how much time you allow them to use the app? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

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  • The Hooked App is as Addictive as it Sounds

    The Hooked App is as Addictive as it Sounds

    We all want our kids to read more so an app that claims to have had users reading for over 500,000 hours sounds like a godsend. It is, in fact, a great idea and a pretty original way to get it’s users to read. The Hooked app isn’t new, having launched in 2014, but it’s rating number 6 in the iOS app store today. It’s popularity is growing fast.

    Hooked is an app that tells stories in the form of text messaging conversations. The story topics include comedy, horror, fantasy, and sci fi. Each story has a title page photo, many of which feature a pretty girl or couple in a romantic or suggestive pose. When you’ve made your choice the story unfolds one text message at a time, usually in the form of a conversation between a couple of people. You can tap the screen to reveal the next message and you may find yourself in a tapping frenzy to reach the next plot twist. Then, however, you’ll suddenly be halted by the Hooked Owl asking you to pay for more “Hoots.” A “Hoot” is a click/tap and you only have a certain amount of them every hour. Once you’ve used them up you’ll be prompted to buy more or sign up for a weekly or monthly subscription to get unlimited “Hoots.” If you’re like me and not ready to invest fiscally in finding out the next line of the story you can just wait until the next hour begins.

    The Hooked app cashes in on the obvious popularity of texting by using it as a storytelling venue. This makes it very appealing to the younger aged adults and teenagers. The target audience for the Hooked app is ages 13-24 but I wouldn’t just look over the app if I saw it on my teen’s phone.

    What Parents Should Know

    The Hooked app consists of some very mature themed stories but is targeting younger teens.  The stories are delivered in a way that your teens and tweens will definitely find appealing. I found myself anxious to find read the next message as the story progressed. Obviously the story really started to climax right before I ran out of “Hoots” so I would have to wait a while to continue reading. While this did get me to close the app for a while, the $7.99 per month for unlimited “Hoots” is a low price tag for being able to sit all day long and click through these stories.

    My issue isn’t really with the way the stories are delivered, it’s actually a creative way to tell these tales. The “one post at a time” method lends itself to a lot of suspense and a pretty entertaining read. The problem I have is the addictive nature of this app, if you can tap an unlimited number of times and go from story to story you’d very easily find yourself reading through a hundred of these stories in just a few days. Also, these stories can be pretty mature, dramatic, and suspenseful. The categories feature love and thriller options and the stories get quite intense at times. The texting storytelling method also makes them a bit more eerie. Users can also write stories which makes for a completely new potential problem there. Any time you’re dealing with User Generated Content it’s hard to be sure what your kids may read.

    My advice is to know your child and their maturity level well before you let them use Hooked. I wouldn’t go by the 9+ rating it has in the app store, I would assume your child should be a bit older. Keep in mind that many of these stories are written by users of the app. Since the content can’t be guaranteed to be safe for any age group, you should help your teen or tween by involving yourself in their decision to use Hooked. If they do read on the app, I recommend asking them what the stories are about and what they like about them. Keep yourself in the loop and informed as much as possible.