The Walt Disney Company is set to pay $10 million over alleged children’s privacy law violations. According to the BBC, the famous company is paying the lump sum over claims that it broke children’s privacy laws by not labeling YouTube videos as “made for children,” which allowed for targeted advertising.

©The Walt Disney Company

Disney agreed to settle with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission back in September 2025, “to resolve an inquiry into its collection of children’s personal data.”

Throughout the inquiry, the FTC argued that Disney’s failure to label the videos properly meant that children received targeted ads that led to children’s data being collected without parental notice or consent. The U.S. Justice Department announced on December 29th, 2025, that Disney has agreed to create a program within the company that will “comply with children’s data protection laws.”

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Brett Shumate, an assistant attorney general within the Justice Department’s civil division, shared that, “The Justice Department is firmly devoted to ensuring parents have a say in how their children’s information is collected and used.” Disney confirmed that they have agreed to the terms that were first shared in September. 

The Walt Disney Company

Disney has noted that this settlement only applies to some of its content on YouTube, and it doesn’t involve Disney-owned or operated digital platforms like Disney+ or the Disney Store. This overall agreement involves both Disney Worldwide Services Inc. and Disney Entertainment Operations LLC. This current lawsuit can be connected back to the FTC’s settlement with YouTube from 2019.

©YouTube TV

In 2019, the FTC and YouTube’s owner, Google, reached a settlement that required YouTube to require creators on the platform to label if videos were directed at kids. This settlement created the rule to help avoid targeting advertisements towards children’s content that would allow personal data collection. The ads and data collection are banned under the 1998 Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).

©Google

COPPA requires that creators who make children’s content for kids under the age of 13 must notify parents and obtain consent before gathering personal data. Regulators in Disney’s current predicament claimed Disney didn’t identify certain videos as being made for children, which violated the law. Several of the videos in question were uploaded to YouTube during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

The Walt Disney Company

Since the pandemic, Disney has uploaded more than 1,250 videos to the platform, according to the Justice Department’s complaint. They described a majority of the videos as “extremely popular” and shared that viewership skyrocketed during the early months of the pandemic. According to the complaint, Disney has been aware of the labeling issue since June 2020.

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At the time the issue was first raised, YouTube allegedly told Disney that they had changed the labels on more than 300 videos. Some of them included content from movies like The Incredibles, Frozen, and Toy Story. The lawyers for the Justice Department said Disney’s failure to label the videos correctly “results in YouTube collecting personal information and placing targeted advertisements on child-directed videos on Disney’s behalf.”

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Disney is no stranger to lawsuits. In 2025 alone, they experienced lawsuits connected to copyright claims, infringement claims, injury claims, and more. Be sure to follow DisneyFoodBlog for more Disney news and updates.