Kids Bombarded by Unsuitable Web Ads
By Mark Sweney
The Guardian Unlimited, UK
December 6, 2007
A
report looking at 40 websites popular with children has
found that users were exposed to more than 200 ads, with
many commercial messages promoting products unsuitable
for children, such as gambling and dating.
The study, called Fair Game?, assessed commercial
activity on children's favourite websites, including
Cartoon Network, CBeebies, Neopets, YouTube, Bebo,
MySpace, eBay and Lime Wire.
Because many of the websites popular with children are
actually targeted at older groups - including many
social networking and gaming websites - some of the ads
were found to be unsuitable for young web surfers.
An examination of 70 of the ads found on children's
websites found that 25% promoted products or services
that are prohibited to children under 16 in the UK -
including gambling and dating.
The report, by the National Consumer Council, children's
charity Childnet International and academic Agnes Nairn
argued that some of the online marketing used "hidden
persuasion techniques" in the form of ads and commercial
messages that cannot be easily identified by children.
Almost a quarter of ads were integrated into the content
pages, as opposed to being on a separate part of a
webpage that is clearly an advertising slot, such as a
banner, the study found.
Children can identity ads running in areas of a website
where they expect to see them, such as banners, but have
more difficulty with "advergames" - a game created by a
brand - or videos featuring product placement.
However, the report also found that commercial content
on websites is not a top priority for parents, who focus
on other areas of online security, such as bullying,
virus attacks and grooming by paedophiles.
Three quarters of the websites covered by the report
also collected personal information in some form or
other.
The study found that "most children" have been briefed,
at home and at school, on basic internet security rules
and concerns and that even the youngest are "well aware"
of the main forms of online advertising.
It urged the Advertising Standards Authority to be more
pro-active in making sure online users know they can
make complaints to the watchdog about internet ads.
The report also called for an education campaign,
targeted at schools and parents, to make them aware of
the commercial nature of the online environment.
Brands were urged to consider providing ad-free versions
of their websites in return for modest subscription
fees.
However, the Advertising Standards Authority argued that
the report is flawed. The ASA regulates paid-for online
ads but not websites created by companies specifically
to promote particular products and brand - a "loophole"
the report said should be closed.
"The NCC research is already out of date because it was
conducted prior to September 2007," said the ASA in a
statement.
"Now that the new rules for gambling advertising are in
place, pro-active monitoring of gambling advertisements
online is routinely undertaken and only permitted
advertisers can advertise in the UK," the regulator
added.
"The ASA has had a high-profile cross media advertising
campaign in place for the last two years, including
internet banner advertisements. Research shows that we
are one of the best known regulators in the UK, ahead of
Ofcom and the PCC."
Fair Game looked at 40 websites, which were selected on
the basis of a previous survey of 500 children aged nine
to 13 years old.
Qualitative research involved home observation of eight
"friendship pairs" of seven- to 15-year-olds, and four
discussion groups of a total of 24 children conducted in
schools with a mixture of children from the same age
group.
Four discussion groups were also created with 24
parents.