As most children have a ‘digital footprint’ before they are born, digital advertising raises questions about privacy and childhood
Today’s children grow up in world saturated with technology and advertising. Pictures of mothers’ bellies on Facebook begin a child’s social media profile. Coupons for diapers arrive before the baby comes home from the hospital.
More than 90% of children under two have a digital footprint – an online presence such as photos and other personal identifiable information. This may begin before they are even born, according to research by AVG Technologies, a global security software company that sponsors the Child Internet Safety Summit in London.
“The younger children are, the more vulnerable they are,” said Dr Allen Kanner, a family and child psychologist and co-founder of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood. “It’s becoming almost impossible to function as a child without a constant barrage of advertising.”
Children are learning to use computers and smartphones before they learn basic life skills. An AVG study of children ages three to five found that 66% of children know how to play an online game and 62% can turn on a computer, but only 14% can tie their shoes, said Tony Anscombe, AVG’s senior security evangelist.
Kids can get online or use apps before they are “cognitively capable of understanding what is advertising and what is truth”, said Kanner. This is also true of teenagers who may recognise advertising, but are still not as cognitively sophisticated as adults. They may experiment via social media without understanding the consequences, uploading pictures that may haunt them for years to come.
But it’s not all doom and gloom. Kids are teaching their parents a thing or two about technology, and using social media in new and creative ways. “Teens are experimenting with tools that most of us haven’t even tried,” said Pamela Rutledge, director of the Media Psychology Research Center. “They just jump right in and I love that. That’s the positive use of social media.”
YouTube channels such as Kids React and Teens React give youngsters a forum to express their opinions about pop culture, politics and brands. Younger children find ideas for offline play on fun, imaginative websites such those created by Lego and Hasbro’s Play-doh, where kids can upload photos of their creations.
Toms, a US shoe company popular with young people, gives away one pair of shoes to a child in need for every pair of shoes purchased. The company started a yearly event called One Day Without Shoes, which encourages adults and kids to go without shoes for a day and find out what it’s like to go barefoot, building awareness about global children’s issues of poverty, health and education.
Kids of all ages – from elementary to college – posted videos of students walking to classes barefoot on YouTube, tweeted their thoughts about childhood poverty on Twitter and uploaded pictures of their bare soles to Flickr, Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook.
As kids get smarter about being manipulated, the trend towards “branded experiences” and “advertising that turns into content” will continue to grow, said Rutledge.
Although Facebook’s user policy does not allow minors under 13 to set up profiles, Facebook has about 20 million minors and 7.5 million of them are under 13, according to a 2011 survey of Consumer Reports. Earlier this month, Facebook settled a class action lawsuit by parents and children’s privacy groups for allowing kids’ pictures in sponsored ads without parental consent. A number of parties denounced the settlement and are appealing.
Parents have more choices than ever before. Both Apple’s iTunes App Store and Google Play host over 1m apps. One highly rated app for kids aged 9-11, NFL Play 60, was released before the Superbowl. The app is part of a campaign to make kids more active and was co-created by the National Football League (NFL) and American Heart Association. The game interacts with the player; when the child runs or jumps, the character on the screen also runs or jumps. Kanner points out that it would be better if kids went outside to play and made up games on their own.
On mobile devices, there can be a blurred line between what is advertising and what is not. Labelling advertising on mobile apps is much more difficult than labelling ads online due to size and screen real estate, said Parry Aftab, cyberlaw expert and founder of Wired Safety.
Children are also purchasing apps or costly add-ons unintentionally or without parental permissions. In January, Apple reached a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission and will refund parents $32.5m for unauthorised purchases.
New challenges for parents continue to arise as huge amounts of data, including geolocation data, are being collected by advertisers online and on mobile devices. Geolocation data can show where parents commute, where kids go to school and where they go to piano practice after school, said Aftab.
“We have laws in the United States now for kids under 13 for geo-data, but a lot of the big data companies are violating those right and left.”
Most agree that more education is needed. The ad industry is working to raise media literacy, said Alex Scott, public policy manager of the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) in the UK. IAB recently released an animated film for youths called What Does That Ad Say?” in conjunction with Media Smart, for Safer Internet Day.
Scott also points to self-regulation of the advertising industry through the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) and the EU Framework for Online Behavioural Advertising. In the US, advertisers must comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).
“Of course the ad industry takes its responsibilities to children seriously,” she said.
Rachael Post is a writer, digital strategist and professor of social media in Los Angeles.
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