Do we like them?

Do we like YouTube?

Online video platform with ads, subscriptions, YouTube TV and Shorts. Based in San Bruno, California.

Our score: 5 out of 10. Mixed. It pays creators and is working on AI slop and parental controls. It also has a record child-privacy fine, a Trump payout, and regulators questioning its child safety.

YouTube is Google's video site, run since February 2023 by Neal Mohan. He worked at Google from 2008 and joined YouTube as chief product officer in 2015. It is part of Alphabet, so any money you put in goes to the whole Google group, not YouTube alone.

The big kids' privacy row was in 2019. The FTC and New York's attorney general said YouTube collected children's data without parental consent and used it to target ads. Google agreed to pay $170m, a record under that law at the time. Critics said the fine was far too small.

In September 2025 YouTube agreed to pay $24.5m to settle Trump's lawsuit over his suspended account. $22m went to a White House ballroom project. The filing says it was not an admission of liability. Democratic senators had written to Google and YouTube's CEOs beforehand to voice concern about a possible settlement.

Australia is the current headache. YouTube was pulled into the under-16 social media ban after the eSafety Commissioner's report. In October 2026 Bloomberg reported the government is preparing to take Google and others to court over weak enforcement. On the plus side, Mohan's 2026 letter promises tougher action on AI slop and says creators have been paid over $100bn. We land in the middle.