back to article COPPA load of that AOL! $5m fine for targeting kids with ads

Owner of defunct former giants AOL and Yahoo, Oath, has been fined $5m for illegally selling ads to kids. The New York attorney general's office imposed the fine for what it says was "billions of auctions for ad space on hundreds of websites the company knew were directed to children under the age of 13." That selling of …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    $5m is Not Enough

    People and businesses that exploit children should not be.

    1. Down not across

      Re: $5m is Not Enough

      $5m is petty cash for Verizon.

  2. This post has been deleted by its author

  3. spold Silver badge

    'tis funny how no-one in the company thinks of those "comprehensive reforms" until you are caught with your pants down.

    Ok perhaps that's a bad analogy in the circumstances.

  4. Pascal Monett Silver badge
    Flame

    No, no, no

    You cannot "remain committed" if you weren't committed before, and you weren't because you have been caught not respecting children's privacy !

    Can we please have another fine for blatantly insulting people's intelligence ?

    1. Mark 85

      Re: No, no, no

      Can we please have another fine for blatantly insulting people's intelligence ?

      That would be unenforceable in reality. Ad agencies (prime target) do it all the time as well as politicians, churches, lawyers... the list is just too damn long.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: No, no, no

        So? I'm OK with imposing a tax on companies insulting people's intelligence. And politicians.

  5. magickmark
    Black Helicopters

    A real punishment or not?

    It would be interesting to know how much income these 'billions' of ads generated and what percentage of that income the fine accounted for.

    Was it a genuine loss of profit for the offender or just an acceptable 'operating cost'!

    1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

      Re: A real punishment or not?

      I came here to say the same thing. Billions of ads across 100's of websites. Even at a 1c per ad, and "only" 2 billion ads, that's an income of $20 million. "Billions" could be many more than just 2B. Anyone know what sort of income is actually generated by ad brokers per ad?

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: A real punishment or not?

      I think the correct question is if the fines serve to correct behaviour. If not, they're clearly too low.

      Personally I am all for bringing back the pillory or even the stocks, accompanied by the sale of rotten tomatoes with proceeds exclusively going to charitable purposes, mainly because fines just tend to invite creative accounting and allow the real culprits (management) to escape.

      I am willing to donate a whole crate of tomatoes for people like Zuckerberg, Trump and the whole Facebook board. Maybe we could auction off kicking them from behind as well.

    3. This post has been deleted by its author

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