Parents worrying if their kids will have summer camp this year can send their kids to Camp Bonkers, which begins streaming on YouTube Kids Wednesday.

Produced by Wind Sun Sky/Skybound North Camp Bonkers is an animated show for elementary school-aged kids.

It also aims to give kids a camp experience, with new shows on Make-it Monday, when counselors teach campers to do a craft, cook something or make slime; What a World Wednesday, when counselors talk about sustainability and history while taking part in games and exercise, and Fun Time Friday, with dancing, storytelling and games.

Episodes last 20-25 minutes. New episodes appear at 4:30 p.m. ET and PT, when kids are usually done with school but parents are at work.

Camp Bonkers is executive produced by Catherine Winder, CEO of Wind Sun Sky/Skybound North. Her credits include Star Wars: The Clone Wars, The Angry Birds Movie and Super Dinosaur.

Almost three dozen privacy and child advocates want the Federal Trade Commission to subpoena records from various companies, likely including Google, Disney, Viacom, and others, before it makes any changes to its COPPA Rule, which enforces the Child Online Privacy Protection Act.

That is according to a copy of their comments to the FTC. The FTC is currently deciding whether and how to change that enforcement in the wake of complaints about how content providers target that audience with information and/or advertising and in turn, collect data from those kids. 

Related: FTC Extends COPPA Comment Deadline 

COPPA requires operators of web sites targeted to kids or with actual knowledge that kids are using the site to obtain parental permission to collect, use or disclose personal information of anyone under 13.  

The groups are not suggesting some specific malfeasance, just saying the FTC needs to collect more information before taking action, given ongoing concerns about data collection. 

Groups calling for the subpoenas include the American Academy of Pediatrics, Consumer Reports, the Campaign for a Consumer-Free Childhood and the Center for Digital Democracy. 

"As kids are spending more time than ever on digital devices, we need the full power of the law to protect them from predatory data collection -- but we can't protect children from Big Tech business models if we don't know how those models truly work," said CCFC executive director Josh Golin. "The FTC must use its full authority to investigate opaque data and marketing practices before making any changes to COPPA. We need to know what Big Tech knows about our kids." 

Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) said there appears to be a YouTube ad policy 'gap' when it comes to protecting children, and he wants some answers from parent, Google.

He said Friday (Nov. 22) that many ad policies that protect kids on the YouTube Kids platform apparently do not apply to content directed to kids on YouTube's main platform.

Markey has long argued that while YouTube says it is not for children under 12, as a practical matter, "there is a wide range of child-focused content available for children on YouTube’s main platform," and plenty of children accessing the site.

“The access that children have to YouTube carries with it a corporate obligation to institute and enforce policies that protect the well being of these young users,” Markey wrote in a letter to Google CEO Sundar Pichai. “Unfortunately, it appears there are large gaps in YouTube’s advertising policies, which raise concerns about your commitment to safeguarding children from inappropriate advertising.”

Pai said that the prohibitions on product placement, influencer "unboxing" (opening and promoting a product) videos, and other practices on YouTube kids should also apply to the "children's content across all platforms."

Google and Amazon have ended what was essentially a Silicon Valley cold war in regard to video streaming, agreeing to integrate each other’s apps into their respective video ecosystems.

Under the agreement, the flagship YouTube app—which was pulled from Amazon’s devices in 2017—will be re-integrated into Amazon Fire TV OTT devices, as well as smart TVs powered by Fire TV. YouTube Kids and the YouTube TV vMVPD app will also be integrated into the Fire TV ecosystem later this year, the announcement said.

Conversely, users of Chromecast OTT dongles, devices with Chromecast built in, and Android TV-based devices, will have access to Amazon Prime Video.

It’s not included in the press release the two companies put out this morning, but Amazon is also once again selling Chromecast—the product had previously been unavailable in the world’s biggest online store.

“Bringing our flagship YouTube experience to Amazon Fire TV gives our users even more ways to watch the videos and creators they love,” said Heather Rivera, global head of product partnerships at YouTube, in a statement.

Added Andrew Bennett, head of worldwide business development for Prime Video. “Whether watching the latest season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, catching teams go head-to-head on Thursday Night Football or renting a new-release movie, customers will have even more ways to stream what they want, whenever they want, no matter where they are.”

WASHINGTON — The Center for Digital Democracy and the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood have filed a supplement to their Federal Trade Commission complaint against YouTube Kids, saying it shows the app is not the safe place for children it is advertised to be.

In April, the groups asked the FTC to investigate the app, saying it deceptively blended content and marketing. Now, they say the content it is mixing with the ads is hardly a safe environment.

The groups say they found the following available via the YouTube Kids app: “Explicit sexual language presented amidst cartoon animation [a Family Guy parody of the FCC's indecency crackdown grafted onto another cartoon show]; videos that model unsafe behaviors such as playing with lit matches, shooting a nail gun, juggling knives, tasting battery acid and making a noose; a profanity-laced parody of the film Casino featuring Bert and Ernie from Sesame Street; graphic adult discussions about family violence, pornography and child suicide; jokes about pedophilia and drug use; advertising for alcohol products.”

The initial complaint hinged on the argument that mixing marketing messages with content in a site targeted to preschoolers was deceptive, which the FTC is empowered to act against. CDD executive director Jeff Chester calls the supplement "icing on the digital cake" that Google misled parents and the FTC has to act.

“Google does not, in fact, ‘screen out the videos that make parents nervous’ and its representations of YouTube Kids as a safe, child-friendly version of YouTube are deceptive,” the groups said.

Google had not returned a request for comment at deadline, but when the initial complaint was filed, the company blogged that it is focused on kids’ online safety as parents are, adding that parents can “quickly notify” YouTube directly from the app if they find any questionable content.