Alerts
State Public Prosecutor’s Office started a proceeding to fight online advertisement targeting children
Public Prosecution Office (PPO/SP) has filed a public civil action, requesting the removal of several YouTube videos, uploaded by child youtubers (children that make and post online videos with the intent to demonstrate or promote products targeted to children). According to the PPO/SP such videos represent a violation of Brazilian law and constitute a form of abusive advertising.
It is important to note that the public civil action was initiated in the midst of a wider discussion related to the limits and legality of advertising targeted to children. Thus, it would be prudent to understand the PPO/SP initiative as a warning to all companies performing any kind of advertising targeted to children in Brazil, either online or offline. Compliance with consumer, advertising and child protection legislation is an essential measure to prevent legal problems in Brazil.
In addition to requesting that the videos be removed from YouTube, the PPO/SP also required that the platform’s Terms of Use be updated to conform with national laws. It highlighted that the platform’s 18-year old minimum entry requirement was not enforced in practice, since there is abundant evidence to the contrary. Therefore, it required that such document be amended in order to comply with national laws regulating advertising targeted to children.
Lastly, we highlight that this is not the first attempt to control the activities of minors online, recently the Federal District’s Public Prosecution Office has declared it is looking into the restrictions applied to the protection of data from children online.
Therefore, in this context, Dias Carneiro’s technology team will continue to follow legal and regulatory developments on the topic of minors’ rights online, and we will keep on informing any updates on the issue.
