A coalition of children?s and consumer advocacy groups filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) today requesting an investigation of Google, charging the company with unfair and deceptive practices in connection with its new YouTube Kids app. The complaint details a number of the app's features that take advantage of children's developmental vulnerabilities and violate media and advertising safeguards that protect children viewing television.

When it launched the YouTube Kids app in February, Google described it as "the first Google product built from the ground up with little ones in mind." As the complaint points out, however, the company appears to have ignored not only the scientific research on children's developmental limitations, but also the well-established system of advertising safeguards that has been in place on both broadcast and cable television for decades. Those policies include (1) a prohibition against the host of a children's program from delivering commercial messages; (2) strict time limits on the amount of advertising any children's program can include; (3) the prohibition of program-length commercials; and (4) the banning of "product placements" or "embedded advertisements."

The complaint also charges that Google is violating its own advertising policies for YouTube Kids. For example, while the company promises that food and beverage ads will not appear on the app, advertising and promotions for junk food are prominently featured throughout.