YouTube officials are now finalizing plans to end targeted ads on videos likely to be watched by children, a move that could immediately cut advertising sales to YouTube, Bloomberg news agency reported on Tuesday, citing three people familiar with the matter.

The FTC reached a compromise with YouTube, but did not issue the terms. It is not clear whether YouTube’s changes to targeted ads are the result of the settlement.

Because targeted or “behavioral” advertising relies on the collection of viewer information, the Children’s Online Privacy Act prohibits companies from submitting it to children under 13 without parental permission.

These commercial messages, which rely on huge amounts of digital data, such as cookies to browse the web, are an integral part of the business of Google, the owner of YouTube.

The company says children should use YouTube Kids, which does not use targeted advertising. But children’s songs and cartoon videos on the main site have billions of views. As a result of the popularity of videos directed at children, they were used to provide offensive content, as well as other problems that forced YouTube to disable comments.

Source : Bloomberg