BBB Kids Privacy Unit Raises COPPA Concerns With Content Creator
YouTube content creator MrBeast should update data collection practices to comply with COPPA, the Better Business Bureau (BBB) National Programs’ Children’s Advertising Review Unit (CARU) recommended Thursday.
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CARU said that sweepstakes on the Feastables website failed to provide a neutral age-screening mechanism to ensure it didn’t collect personally identifiable information from children younger than 13 without verifiable parental consent.
Also, while reviewing the Feastables website, “CARU observed a full-page popup that repeatedly solicited the user’s email address with a call to action stating, ‘MrBeast Wants You to Join the Crew,’” the BBB unit said. “When CARU provided an email address through this popup, it discovered that a second popup would generate, soliciting the user’s phone number this time. When testing the network traffic of the site during this interaction, CARU saw evidence that the email and phone contact information was sent to non-affiliate third parties.”
MrBeast cooperated to implement CARU’s recommendations on COPPA and other things, said the BBB unit. CARU included a statement from MrBeast and Feastables saying that they appreciate “CARU’s mission to promote responsible children's advertising” but don’t agree “with all the conclusions made in the decision or the premises on which they were based.”
Also, they said “a variety of the issues raised by CARU relate to practices long since revised and/or discontinued.”