The firm will also block pop-up recommendations; videos for kids will stop carrying personalized ads. (The Wall Street Journal)

Talking point: The move is a response to U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) concerns that the platform had been illegally monitoring kids. In September, the firm paid a US$170-million fine to settle FTC allegations, and said it would roll out a system that identified children’s videos in early January. Some of the changes are already in place, and creators of children’s videos are pushing back against them, as they’re likely to reduce their overall money made per video. So far, the FTC has received over 175,000 submissions as part of its review into children’s privacy. The submissions follow a petition with nearly 900,000 signatures opposing the FTC’s changes, and YouTube’s 2015 rollout of a dedicated app for kids, which has a tiny fraction of the viewership of its main app.