One More Thing Facebook Isn’t Telling You

With all that is in the news about Facebook and its failure to ensure that the data of 50 million of its users was not destroyed but instead sold to Cambridge Analytica and then used in targeting sets of users in a federal election. Here is another interesting item that Facebook seems to be sweeping under the rug.

Facebook partnered with The Walt Disney Company last year for a reboot of the classic The Mickey Mouse Club that most of us baby boomers grew up with. Now renamed a hipper Club Mickey Mouse the content is in short form and intended for digital distribution…

On Facebook!

At first blush, you might have a reaction like, “How nice that they are bringing back a show we watched as kids.” Wait, what? The last time I checked, Facebook policies state that you must be 13 and over to use the social platform. Okay, we all know there are kids on Facebook who are under 13, but for them to partner with Disney to produce and promote content that is clearly for children much younger than 13 seems a flagrant disregard for their own policies (again).

You can’t entirely blame Facebook for this issue as there are two entities in this partnership. I am not letting Disney off the hook that easily. It makes you wonder, what were they thinking??

Furthermore, if you look at the Facebook page for Club Mickey Mouse they are posting promotional marketing messaging such as “shop Disney Inspired by Club Mickey Mouse". A click on this post leads you directly to shopdisney.com, no age gate, nothing, nowhere on the shopdisney.com site. Now this seems absolutely in violation of the COPPA Act (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule) as I understand it.

Am I trying to pick a fight with either of these companies? No, I just think they should be held accountable for what is done with our personal data and for the privacy rights of all of our children. What do you think?

Check out my other blog post on COPPA.

And here is another regulation that will affect Facebook.