Google, YouTube’s parent firm, will pay US$150 million to US$200 million and make significant changes to content directed at children. Both Google and the FTC declined to comment. The FTC is likely to announce the settlement as soon as next week, according to The Wall Street Journal. Asked by The Logic whether YouTube would make the same changes in Canada, Google declined to comment. (Politico, Wall Street Journal)

Talking point: The fine is a fraction of what privacy advocates had called for. It follows a US$5-billion fine levelled against Facebook earlier this year over that company’s data practices. Although this fine is a small portion of Google or even YouTube’s annual revenue, it is by far the largest Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA)-related fine to date. The second-largest was for TikTok, which was hit with a US$5.7-million penalty in February. Details about what changes YouTube will need to make were not immediately available. Lawmakers have recently called for the FTC to mandate annual independent audits for the company and block it from launching new kids’ services without prior review.