Law360 Reports on $30 Million Settlement by SGT for Children Tracked by Google and YouTube

August 19, 2025

Law360 reported on a $30 million settlement agreement with Google and its subsidiary YouTube to resolve Silver Golub & Teitell's class action lawsuit alleging the two companies illegally collected children's data to generate targeted advertising.

The parents of 34 minors residing in 17 states requested preliminary approval for the proposed agreement, Law360 reported, arguing it would provide "meaningful compensation" to the estimated class of between 35 million and 45 million children under 13 who watched videos on YouTube and whose data was misappropriated without their consent.

"This is an excellent result for a case based on privacy invasion claims arising from the alleged (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act) violations, and a significant result more generally in relation to other cases alleging data privacy violations," Law360 quoted the parents as saying, which they noted follows "almost six years of litigation that included five different judges, multiple challenges to the pleadings, a successful, precedent-setting appeal by plaintiffs to the Ninth Circuit, and discovery."

Silver Golub & Teitell, on behalf of the parents, sued Google and YouTube in 2019 after the companies agreed to pay $170 million to settle claims by the Federal Trade Commission and New York's attorney general that they violated the federal Children's Online Privacy Protection Act by knowingly tracking and serving targeted advertisements to YouTube users watching videos directed to children under 13.

The settlement agreement follows a ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in January 2023, which held that the parents' state law privacy claims were not preempted by COPPA.

The case is Hubbard et al. v. Google et al., 5:19-cv-07016 (N.D. Cal.) and is pending in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.

Law360: Google, YouTube Settle Kids' Data Suit With $30M Payout (subscription)