Netflix called its Kids Profiles "a safe area" and spent years steering parents toward setting one up for every child in the house.
Behind that safe area, Netflix was quietly running something parents knew nothing about.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier just filed a 66-page lawsuit to hold the company accountable.
Netflix CEO Promised Parents the Company Never Collected Kids Data
In 2020, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings didn't just promise the platform was safe for families – he went on offense against companies that tracked kids.
While Google, Facebook, and Amazon were what he publicly called "data-exploiting," Netflix had none of that.
"We don't collect anything," he told investors. "We're really focused on just making our members happy."
He called Netflix "the safe respite" – the streaming service where families could escape the surveillance capitalism driving the rest of the tech industry.
Parents believed him. Millions created Kids Profiles for their children, handed over a remote, and walked out of the room.
According to Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier's lawsuit, Netflix was doing something else entirely.
Behind that brand promise, Netflix built what the complaint calls a massive behavioral-data operation. Every title a child opened, every search they ran, every moment they stopped watching and never came back – Netflix logged it. Billions of interactions, all of it recorded.
Kids Profiles are marketed to parents as a child's "own space" and described as "Great for kids" – a dedicated area designed for children 12 and under. What Netflix didn't tell parents: the same tracking systems running on adult accounts were running on their children's accounts the entire time.
Netflix then used that data for the one purpose Hastings spent years swearing it would never pursue. In November 2022, the company launched an ad-supported subscription tier.
The behavioral data quietly collected over years – including data generated by children – became the engine powering that advertising business.
"Netflix told Florida families they could pay a monthly fee to escape Big Tech surveillance," Uthmeier said. "That was false."
Florida's case arrives after Uthmeier's office already sued TikTok for violating child safety laws and sued OpenAI over consumer safety concerns. This marks the first time the legal strategy used against addictive social media platforms has been applied to a subscription streaming service.
Netflix Autoplay on Kids Profiles Was Built to Keep Children Watching Longer
Florida's lawsuit goes beyond data collection. Uthmeier accuses Netflix of using autoplay – enabled by default on Kids Profiles – as a deliberate tool to extend children's screen time.
Netflix's interest in keeping children watching had nothing to do with entertainment. Longer sessions produced more behavioral data, and behavioral data was what Netflix was selling.
"Netflix collected detailed data on children and families, designed its product to keep kids watching, and then commercialized that information to launch the advertising business it promised never to build," Uthmeier said. "Parents, not corporate executives, direct the upbringing of their children."
Florida is charging Netflix with violating the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act and the Florida Digital Bill of Rights. Uthmeier is demanding the company delete all data collected from Florida residents, pay civil penalties, and permanently end the practices his office identified.
Netflix called the lawsuit meritless and said it intends to fight it in court.
Florida is not the first to make this argument. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued Netflix in May 2026 with nearly identical claims – accusing the company of operating as a logging operation that records and monetizes billions of behavioral events while streaming movies on the side.
Netflix marketed itself as the subscription that kept data-mining out of the living room.
Now two state attorneys general are making the same argument in court: Netflix used that trust to build exactly the machine its own CEO said would never exist – a data-exploitation operation inside a product marketed to six-year-olds. Reed Hastings called his competitors "data-exploiting." Two states are now arguing in court that Netflix was one all along.
Sources:
- Brittany Miller, "Florida sues Netflix, alleges streamer tracked children after promising families privacy," Fox News, September 9, 2026.
- "Attorney General Ken Paxton Sues Netflix for Spying on Texas Kids and Consumers by Illegally Collecting Users' Data Without Their Knowledge or Consent," Office of the Texas Attorney General, May 2026.
- "Florida sues Netflix over children's data, alleging broken ad-free promise," Washington Times, September 11, 2026.
- Paul Bois, "Florida Attorney General Sues Netflix for Data Tracking Children, Selling Info," Breitbart, September 10, 2026.
