Children, as anyone who has watched Saturday morning television can attest, are a huge buying group for many brands, despite their lack of earning power. The lure of this market is increasingly attracting digital advertising - despite pushback from the government that shows no sign of letting up.
The NPD Group released a report about the growth of children consuming digital media - and presumably the accompanying ads - nearly the same day as the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade scheduled called "Protecting Children's Privacy in an Electronic World."
Apps and Kids
The NPD report shows that children and young teens have become increasingly comfortable with downloadable digital content. There has been a noticeable shift in digital content purchases by children ages 2-14 over the last two years. "Kids are not skittish to use technology that is available to them, and the convenience and instant gratification afforded by downloading content is alluring to them," NPD analyst Anita Frazier told USA Today. "The ease and short downloading times associated with music downloads means that this is often the gateway activity to downloading for kids, but the large increase in digital games acquisition over the last two years points to how this is becoming a more mainstream way of acquisition across all types of entertainment content."
The government has caught wind of this trend too, and has been stepping up pressure on advertisers to limit their involvement in this medium.
Mostly Benign But Some Danger
In most cases, ad campaigns are relatively benign, in the form of kid-friendly content and design. Netflix, for example, launched a “Just for Kids” section of the website, designed for better navigation for this demographic. There is a seedier side to children’s marketing, though, and lately it has been coming under closer scrutiny by the Federal Trade Commission. PaidContent tells of the fine app-maker Broken Tumbs has agreed to pay in a settlement with the FTC over violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act: $50,000. The company reportedly collected children’s email addresses.
The industry has been active in self-policing to prevent such incidents, the National Advertising Review Council says, pointing to the Children’s Advertising Review Unit of the Council of Better Business Bureaus (CARU) and the new Online Behavioral Advertising Principles adopted by the advertising industry and enforced by the CBBB. These prohibit collection and use of information for behavioral advertising purposes on websites directed to children under 13 or to consumers known to be under 13 years old unless there is parental consent.
