Children's Safety fines
Collecting children's data or exposing minors without safeguards.
Children's-safety cases cover the unlawful collection of minors' data (in the US under COPPA) and design choices that expose children, such as default-public accounts or visible contact details. Regulators treat these as aggravating because minors cannot meaningfully consent.
4 penalties · ≈ $1B imposed
4 penalties
Meta · Instagram · 2022
Instagram fined €405M over children's data
The DPC found that Instagram business accounts publicly exposed children's phone numbers and email addresses by default.
TikTok · 2023
TikTok fined €345M over children's default settings
The Irish DPC found that TikTok set children's accounts to public by default and had weak age-assurance safeguards, exposing young users' content.
Google · YouTube · 2019
YouTube's $170M COPPA settlement over children's data
The FTC and the New York Attorney General alleged that YouTube collected personal data from viewers of child-directed channels through cookies, without parental consent, and used it for targeted advertising. It was a record COPPA penalty at the time.
Amazon · Alexa · 2023
Amazon's $25M Alexa settlement over children's recordings
The FTC settled claims that Amazon kept children's Alexa voice recordings indefinitely, against COPPA and parents' deletion requests.