YouTube is being accused of violating laws designed to protect children’s privacy online.

A complaint to the Federal Trade Commission is set to be filed today by a coalition of nearly two-dozen campaign groups.

They claim YouTube is in breach of the US Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act because is collecting personal data to target advertising to those aged under 13.

YouTube could be fined billions of dollars if the complaint is upheld.

It comes in the wake in the wake of the scandal that has engulfed Facebook over the leak of up to 87 million users’ details to Cambridge Analytica.

In a complaint, consumer groups are asking the Federal Trade Commission to investigate and impose potentially billions of dollars of penalties on Google's YouTube for allegedly violating children's online privacy and allowing ads to target them (stock)

Read carefully through the fine print of YouTube's terms of service and you might notice that you've affirmed you are old enough to watch it.

'If you are under 13 years of age, then please do not use the service,' the terms say. 'There are lots of other great web sites for you.'

It's a warning that goes unheeded by millions of children around the world who visit YouTube to watch cartoons, nursery rhymes, science experiments or videos of toys being unboxed.

In a formal complaint, child advocates and consumer groups are asking the Federal Trade Commission to investigate and impose potentially billions of dollars of penalties on Google for allegedly violating children's online privacy and allowing ads to target them.

'Google profits handsomely from selling advertising to kid-directed programs that it packages,' said Jeff Chester, director of the Center for Digital Democracy, one of the groups that drafted the complaint.

'It makes deals with producers and distributors of kids' online programs worldwide. Google has built a global and very lucrative business based on kids' deep connections to YouTube.'

YouTube's business model relies on tracking IP addresses, search history, device identifiers, location and other personal data about its users so that it can gauge their interests and tailor advertising to them.

But that model isn't supposed to work for US children, who are protected by the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act.

That's a 20-year-old law that prohibits internet companies from knowingly collecting personal data from kids under 13 without their parents' consent.

The coalition accuses YouTube of violating COPPA and deliberately profiting off luring children into what Chester calls an 'ad-filled digital playground' where commercials for toys, theme parks or sneakers can surface alongside kid-oriented videos.

YouTube said in an emailed statement that it 'will read the complaint thoroughly and evaluate if there are things we can do to improve.

YouTube is being accused of violating laws designed to protect children’s privacy online. A complaint to the Federal Trade Commission is set to be filed today by a coalition of nearly two-dozen campaign groups

Because YouTube is not for children, we've invested significantly in the creation of the YouTube Kids app to offer an alternative specifically designed for children.'

That toddler-oriented YouTube Kids app, launched in 2015, offers more parental controls but is not widely used - and uses the same videos and channels that kids can also find on the regular YouTube service.

Although it's not known if the FTC will take action, the complaint comes at a time of increased public scrutiny over the tech industry's mining of personal data and after the FTC opened an investigation last month into Facebook's privacy practices.

'It seems like (the FTC) may be more reinvigorated and ready to take these issues seriously,' said Josh Golin, director of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, which drafted the complaint along with the Center for Digital Democracy and a Georgetown University law clinic.

Several other groups have signed on, including Common Sense Media, which runs a popular website for families, and the advocacy division of Consumer Reports.

'I think the day of reckoning has arrived,' said US Senator Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat who co-authored COPPA in the 1990s and says he wants the FTC to look into the YouTube complaint. '

Americans want to know the answers as to whether or not the privacy of their children is being compromised in the online world.'

FTC spokeswoman Juliana Gruenwald Henderson said in an email that the agency hasn't yet received the letter but looks forward to reviewing it.

The complaint was originally scheduled to be filed last week but was delayed after the shooting on Tuesday at YouTube's California headquarters.

'We take enforcement of COPPA very seriously and have brought more than two dozen COPPA cases since the COPPA rule was enacted,' she said.

The FTC's investigations aren't usually public, but it has previously settled child privacy cases with Yelp, mobile advertising network inMobi and electronic toy-maker VTech.

None of those platforms are as popular for kids as YouTube, which has toddler-themed channels with names like ChuChuTV nursery rhymes, which as of last week counted more than 16 million subscribers and 13.4 billion views.

It also has more personality-driven programs that cater to preteens.

A former FTC attorney who now advises companies on COPPA compliance said a case against YouTube would not be straightforward because it's a general-audience service, making it hard to tell if parents are curating content for their kids to watch or letting them use it on their own.

Kandi Parsons said the FTC hasn't yet set its targets on kid-directed channels within broader media websites, though that doesn't mean it won't.

WHAT'S THE CONTROVERSY OVER YOUTUBE'S CONTENT? YouTube has been subject to various controversies since its creation in 2005. It has become one of Google's fastest-growing operations in terms of sales by simplifying the process of distributing video online but putting in place few limits on content. However, parents, regulators, advertisers and law enforcement have become increasingly concerned about the open nature of the service. They have contended that Google must do more to banish and restrict access to inappropriate videos, whether it be propaganda from religious extremists and Russia or comedy skits that appear to show children being forcibly drowned. Child exploitation and inappropriate content By the end of last year YouTube said it had removed more than 50 user channels and has stopped running ads on more than 3.5 million videos since June. In March last year, a disturbing Peppa Pig fake, found by journalist Laura June, shows a dentist with a huge syringe pulling out the character's teeth as she screams in distress. Mrs June only realised the violent nature of the video as her three-year-old daughter watched it beside her. Hundreds of these disturbing videos were found on YouTube by BBC Trending back in March. By the end of last year YouTube said it had removed more than 50 user channels and has stopped running ads on more than 3.5 million videos since June. One of the deleted videos was the wildly popular Toy Freaks YouTube channel featuring a single dad and his two daughters All of these videos are easily accessed by children through YouTube's search results or recommended videos. YouTube has been getting more stringent about deleting videos. One example is the wildly popular Toy Freaks YouTube channel featuring a single dad and his two daughters that was deleted last year. Although it's unclear what exact policy the channel violated, the videos showed the girls in unusual situations that often involved gross-out food play and simulated vomiting. The channel invented the 'bad baby' genre, and some videos showed the girls pretending to urinate on each other or fishing pacifiers out of the toilet. Adverts being shown next to inappropriate videos There has been widespread criticism that adverts are being shown on some clips depicting child exploitation. YouTube has now tightened its rules on who qualifies for posting money-making ads. Previously, channels with 10,000 total views qualified for the YouTube Partner Program which allows creators to collect some income from the adverts placed before their videos. But YouTube's parent company Google has announced that from February 20, channels will need 1,000 subscribers and to have racked up 4,000 hours of watch time over the last 12 months regardless of total views, to qualify. This is the biggest change to advertising rules on the site since its inception - and is another attempt to prevent the platform being 'co-opted by bad actors' after persistent complaints from advertisers over the past twelve months. In November last year Lidl, Mars, Adidas, Cadbury maker Mondelez, Diageo and other big companies all pulled advertising from YouTube. An investigation found the video sharing site was showing clips of scantily clad children alongside the ads of major brands. One video of a pre-teenage girl in a nightie drew 6.5 million views. Issues with system for flagging inappropriate videos Another investigation in November found YouTube's system for reporting sexual comments had serious faults. As a result, volunteer moderators have revealed there could be as many as 100,000 predatory accounts leaving inappropriate comments on videos. Users use an online form to report accounts they find inappropriate. Part of this process involves sending links to the specific videos or comments they are referring to. Investigators identified 28 comments that obviously violated YouTube's guidelines. According to the BBC, some include the phone numbers of adults, or requests for videos to satisfy sexual fetishes. The children in the videos appeared to be younger than 13, the minimum age for registering an account on YouTube. Advertisement

'If the FTC thought that a service was directed to children and it was delivering online targeted advertising without consent, that could be a violation,' Parsons said. She said the FTC could send Google a civil subpoena seeking more information, and also use other techniques to find out how the service is tracking its users.

Advocates say Google knows what it is doing.

They point to its 'Google Preferred' program that allows advertisers on YouTube to pay a premium to get their ads on the most popular videos.

The program includes a 'Parenting & Family Lineup' that has featured channels such as ChuChu TV, Fox's BabyTV and Seven Super Girls, whose topics include 'fluffy unicorn slime.'

YouTube does 'age-gate' to block children who identify themselves as under 13 from starting an account that allows users to post videos, but an account isn't needed to watch videos on the platform.

'It's laughable if Google execs claim that they think the parent is in charge of the online viewing behaviors of tens of millions of children,' Chester said.

'Children are watching this content by themselves. Google is trying to look the other way.'

Chester, who helped create COPPA in the 1990s, said he's confident that the FTC will take a serious look after years of letting Google off the hook for pretending that kids weren't using YouTube.

'They created a successful model monetizing kids' data on YouTube and really did not want to think about the consequences,' he said. 'Google is one of those companies that has failed to address its ethical dilemmas in a serious way.'