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Coca-Cola, McDonald's and Nestle
'Obtaining Children's Personal Details'
Matt
Johnston
Herald Sun
December 03, 2008
Junk food companies are collecting children's personal
details via websites to direct marketing messages to
them.
New advertising regulations standards and privacy
concerns have not stopped companies such as Coca-Cola,
McDonald's and Nestle obtaining children's phone
numbers, dates of birth, and even home addresses through
their youth-friendly websites.
Some companies go a step further, asking children and
teens to explain their personal spending habits and
interests.
A new study of internet-based marketing found young
people are frequently offered online rewards to supply
their friends' details to food companies, or to pass
marketing messages to other people.
Study author Prof Sandra Jones, of the University of
Wollongong, said few parents knew what their children
were signing up for.
"I don't think a lot of parents realise. They think it's
pretty harmless, going on a cereal or noodles website.
It's a lot of information to be collecting from a child,
and these websites have pretty token methods of getting
parental approval.
"It's a real privacy concern, because if parents thought
people were walking up to kids in the street asking for
names and addresses they'd object. They might not know
that is what's happening to their kids on these
websites."
The study, presented at the Australian and New Zealand
Marketing Academy Conference in Sydney, looked at
websites for eight leading Australian food companies
used by children - McDonald's, Coca-Cola, Streets,
Nestle, Cadbury, Kraft, Uncle Toby's and Kellogg's.
Prof Jones said regulations for online marketing to
children were poor.
A Coca-Cola spokeswoman said last night the company had
a strict policy not to market to children under 12.
A McDonald's spokeswoman was unable to comment, and a
Nestle spokeswoman said it had very strict policies on
marketing to children but, without having seen the
research, it was not able to comment.
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