A man has filed a complaint to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) claiming Alphabet-owned YouTube is in violation of the UK Age-Appropriate Design Code. In a first-of-its-kind complaint, Duncan McCann, who works for the children's advocacy group 5Rights, and is a father of three, alleges YouTube is harvesting young children’s data. In a statement, Mr McCann said, “Imagine YouTube as an adult stranger following your child ‘online’ with a virtual clipboard recording everything they do... That is what is happening every day and they are not just doing it with your child. They are doing it with up to 5 million other UK children." In addition to asking for the unlawfully collected children's data to be destroyed, the complaint also asks the ICO to consider ordering the deletion of any machine learning systems trained on the collected data. Additional reporting from BBC News highlights how children often use family devices to watch YouTube videos where data collection is stored against an adult account. An Alphabet official said under 13's should make an account with YouTube Kids.
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