How to protect children from Internet degradation?

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has fined Google and YouTube for insufficiently protecting American children from contextual advertising, as well as aggressive and prohibited content on the Internet. If measures are being taken in the United States to protect children, then what about Russia, where practically everything is available to children on the Internet?

American regulators have repeatedly expressed outrage at the behavior of the Internet giant Google and the video service YouTube, which has been owned by it since 2006. Of course, a big war between regulators and IT corporations is still going on in the United States: not so long ago, Facebook received a huge fine of $ 5 billion for its repeated large-scale leaks of personal data of users, the authorities also have claims against the WhatsApp messenger, Twitter and other companies.

In the last days of August, it became known that the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which acts as a regulator, fined Google $ 200 million for insufficient protection of children on the Internet. It is noted that children in the United States are faced with aggressive contextual advertising imposed on them and even offers to watch adult content. The US authorities consider this unacceptable.

One could say that this initiative is only part of the above-mentioned war of regulators in the United States with IT corporations, but the authorities actually find it much easier to "squeeze" Google or Facebook on the issue of personal data of users than to deal with a "childish issue". Experts in the United States say that the authorities are finally concerned about protecting the rights of American children on the Internet.

This problem is not new for Russia either. Roskomnadzor is trying to quickly include in the register of prohibited sites all resources that, in one way or another, contain prohibited content. However, this is a ramming method of solving the problem, while the impact of the Internet environment itself, including contextual advertising, on children's consciousness may not mean visiting certain sites at all.

There are a lot of advertisements and banners on the Internet that lure users to pages with "shock content", the same happens on YouTube, which forms an image based on the "tastes" of the viewer.

Indirectly, the precedent with a fine for Google and YouTube once again raises the question of who will do the same in Russia. Now Google is not included in the unified register of Roskomnadzor, which means that YouTube does whatever it wants. In the future, it may turn out that while the United States takes care of its children and the "cleanliness" of the Internet, Russia, and with it the countries of Eastern Europe, will turn out to be a testing ground for Western mechanisms for providing contextual advertising and prohibited content, and it will be easy to fine them for this no one.

Google ran into a fine

The Wall Street Journal wrote about the new fine for Google. The material said that Google agreed to pay about $ 200 million to the US authorities, which fined the company for "violating the privacy" of children on the YouTube video platform.

The FTC investigation began last year following complaints from consumer groups that YouTube illegally collects data on minors under the age of 13 and exposes children to dangerous and thematic adult content.

The FTC is expected to announce a settlement following Labor Day, which was celebrated in the United States on September 2. But Google will hardly be able to breathe freely after that.

The Wall Street Journal recalls that the settlement of this issue is part of a broader US government study of the activities of the largest US Internet companies. Google is also under investigation by the US Department of Justice.

"This investigation is in its early stages, and prosecutors have not yet requested formal interrogations of Google's management," said an informed source, "the newspaper said.

We can say that the FTC investigation so far only lifts the curtain over the activities that YouTube actually does. The article notes that the "powerful recommendation engine" of the service harms the younger generation by offering links to content that is inappropriate for children.

According to a survey by the Pew Research Center, which leads the publication, in four out of five American families with children aged 11 and younger, parents allow them to watch videos on YouTube. Google has already acknowledged the omissions, but noted that protecting children is a priority for the company, and improvements have been made to algorithms in recent years to achieve this goal.

In 2015, the company created YouTube Kids, which does not collect data about minors. However, the service cannot argue with the mass character of “big and adult” YouTube, and the problem has not gone away.

Let's pay attention to one more aspect - the size of the fine. Recall that we are talking about $ 200 million. American experts believe that such a fine is like an elephant's grain. It is noted that at the same time it is ten times more than the fine that the company paid to the FTC in 2012, but is negligible compared to the entire business of the parent company Alphabet, which owns Google, which has earned $ 63 billion over the past three years.

And although YouTube does not officially disclose its financial results, analysts estimate its annual income in tens of billions of dollars, writes Wall Street Journal. There is only one big takeaway from this - YouTube and Google algorithms are very profitable for companies, and nobody really cares about children.

However, it is also obvious that the United States has nevertheless taken up the protection of children from aggressive content on the Internet, even if this is part of a general struggle against the undivided power of IT corporations.

How is it in Russia?

Children in our country can access a lot, if not everything, on the Internet. Roskomnadzor blocks all dangerous websites with prohibited content and monitors incidents of content related to pornography, violence, suicide, extremism and incitement to ethnic hatred.

However, in reality, the child calmly watches, for example, YouTube, along with all its content, advertisements and recommendations. Of course, much of the issue of controlling children's online behavior should be left to the parents. It is possible to restrict a child's use of a computer, but today many children have smartphones and tablets. The very space of the Internet and Runet is an abundance of contextual advertising, banners with "strawberries" and "shock content" about the stars, or even worse. And if an adult (if he is a sufficiently experienced user) still thinks first before clicking on a loud-sounding or bright-looking advertising banner, then a child is hardly.

It's not even worth mentioning that children today have pages on social networks where you can find videos of almost any content, including those provided on the YouTube platform. There are practically no mechanisms for protecting children from this content.

Note that in Russia, attempts have already been made to restrict the activities of Google. More recently, as Vedomosti wrote, Roskomnadzor got involved in the fight against pirated content, links to which appear in Google search results. The department, together with representatives of Russian IT companies, has developed amendments to the law "On Information". According to them, the search engine will be obliged to remove pirated content six hours after it was entered into a special register. The amendment document has already been sent to the presidential administration.

At the same time, the question arises as to how much in Russia it is possible to oblige Google to comply with these norms, which, although they do not directly relate to the "childish issue", should still restrict the activities of Google and YouTube?

The problem is that Google is subject to the American copyright law (DMCA), and besides (more importantly) this company has not yet connected to the unified register of prohibited sites of Roskomnadzor. And this is the question of how far transnational companies can be compelled to comply with Russian law.

What can you do about it?

As the coordinator of the Center for Safe Internet, leading ROCIT analyst Urvan Parfentiev said in an interview with Tsargrad, Google is currently subject to a number of laws both in Europe and in Russia.

Google, being an American company, is also subject to regulation by European authorities. Google is subject to European laws, such as the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), and regulators may impose penalties on Google. As far as I know, Google regularly pays for the imposed fines, moreover, the company is trying to formally comply with European legislation in order to avoid such fines,

- said the expert.

According to him, in Russian law enforcement practice there are also examples when Google and its representative office in Russia acted as the defendant, so that the American company does not work uncontrollably.

“Our legislation, in principle, also presupposes such measures to order this or that subject to exclude the commission of offenses. These norms are present, for example, in the law "On the Prosecutor's Office". If necessary, some formal steps can be taken. Google and YouTube do just that - they determine the IP address and say that this video is blocked for your country,”Parfentiev said.

When asked whether the protection of children in Russia from contextual advertising is sufficient, the expert noted that with regard to the Internet, the existing regulation is not enough.

Our law "On protecting children from information that is harmful to their health and development" does not apply to advertising materials. It is understood that this should be regulated by a special law "On Advertising". It contains provisions that limit the impact of advertising on children, but if we compare them with the provisions of the Law on the Protection of Children from Information, we will see that all this is not enough,

- he said.

Parfentiev did not agree that Russia, due to the "overregulation" of Google, could turn into a kind of testing ground for technologies that will be banned in the West or for which gigantic fines have to be paid.

“Google is a business company. The principle here is very simple - nothing personal, just business. The Russian market for these companies is small compared to the same Europe. What is the point for them to develop some technologies if they do not bring profit? But yes, we can create a sanctions mechanism closer to what exists in Europe,”he said.

Parfentiev explained that we are talking about the introduction of a principle that is applied in the same European GDPR law - on fines as a percentage of revenue. Then Google will already begin to be cautious and at least formally comply with the requirements of Russian legislation, the expert said.

However, there is opposition from those who are responsible for the revenue side of the budget. We are afraid that the digital economy will go into a gray zone if they start counting all this as a percentage of revenue. Therefore, there should be a comparable fine in a lump sum, as it is in the same GDPR as an option. There is either 4% of global revenue, or 20 million euros. Or it is necessary to introduce a percentage gradation in fines for companies, but you see that our departments cannot in any way overcome the gray economy in the country,

- he said.

According to Parfentiev, in Europe and the United States, accounting is "white", and they can afford to calculate the sanctions in percentages, since they are dealing with tight control over the circulation of funds, and in Russia it is more difficult.

Thus, we need to work to protect children in Russia from advertising and other actions by Google and YouTube. It is still difficult to say how much Google can change its algorithms at the request of American regulators and to what extent these changes will affect other countries. At the same time, it is obvious that there should not be permissiveness for children on the World Wide Web, and this raises very uncomfortable questions for social networks and speaks of the need for their moderation in a situation when it comes to children's accounts.

At the legislative level, unfortunately, Russia is not yet able to hit Google with a large fine, and the reason here is a complex problem with regulation. So far, Russian lawmakers are trying to get Google to comply with Roskomnadzor's requirements for pirated content. At the same time, the issue of child protection should never be left aside.