Click here, Kids!

As a kid, I remember anticipating commercials on the television. My sister and I would even remember the jingles and try our very best to sing along to it. Children are typically attracted by advertisements, due to their appealing and attractive nature. In this generation, with about 1,463 million Internet users worldwide, advertisers have begun marketing their products online (Internet Usage Statistics, 2008). Children are part of this digital community, with some kids under the age of five, accessing the Internet (Funnell, 2008). With internet readily available in schools and in most urban homes, cyberspace has become an after-school playground for kids.

Advertisers are frequently looking for new markets to target and although children may not spend as much as adults, they are more susceptible to marketing traps. In 1999, Jupiter Communications estimated that children will spend a total of $100 million in e-commerce come 2003 (Cai & Markiewicz, 2003, pp.1). Hence, children represent profit to marketers.

Children are increasingly using the Internet.
Source: sunderland.gov.uk

Now with the emergence of Internet, liquor and beer companies and, to a lesser extent, tobacco companies are switching their advertising effort to cyberspace. Strangely, these sites seem almost welcoming to children and underage youths. Critics say that, underage youths are vulnerable to advertisements in forms of games, online chat forums and other entertainment gimmicks that content messages touting drinking and smoking (Schiesel, 1997).

Cuervo Especial, a tequila drink company, sponsored a game on the brand’s Web site. It depicted a cartoonish rodent, J.C. Roadhog, racing through a desert littered with empty tequila bottles bearing the company’s label (Schiesel, 1997). The president of the Center for Media Education, Kathryn C. Montgomery stressed that marketers of alcohol and tobacco products see the Internet as a powerful tool to market their products to youths (Schiesel, 1997).

Furthermore, Web sites often lure children to give their personal information in exchange for membership, gifts, publications and prizes (Cai & Gantz, 2000). Moreover, a survey showed that children were more likely to say it was ‘Ok’ to give personal information to Web sites in exchange of a gift (Turow, 2001). This is because children have limited knowledge on the intent of such advertisements. They merely perceive these ads to be a source of entertainment. A study by Henke (1999) found that 74 per cent of the children studied thought commercial Web sites were meant to entertain (Cai & Markiewicz, 2003, pp.4-5).

Young children are more susceptible to online advertisements.
Source: knightsquest.org

In addition, online advertising has become more and more interactive, with ads in forms of games designed to attract youths. These ads are child friendly and engaging that the child does not see the nature of the content.

Given the susceptibility advertising has on children, parents have an important role to play as gatekeepers. Parents need to educate their children so as to become victims of such marketing scams. They should advice their children not to give their personal information on the Web without their permission.

Parents play an important role.
Source: asdfing.com

References:
Funnell, A., 2008. ‘New research on Australian internet usage’. The Media Report. ABC Radio National Transcripts, viewed 10 November 2008, <http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2008/2320016.htm > Janoschka, A., 2004. Web

Advertising: New Forms of Communication on the Internet. John Benjamins Publishing Company.Internet Usage Statistics, 2008. Internet World Stats, viewed 4 November 2008, <http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm>

Cai, X. & Markiewicz, K., 2003. Click here, kids! Advertising practices on popular children’s Web sites. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Communication Association, Marriott Hotel, San Diego, CA.

Cai, X., & Gantz, W., 2000. Online privacy issues associated with Web sites for children. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 44, 197-214.

Schiesel,S., 1997. ‘On Web, New Threats Seen to the Young’. The New York Times, viewed 10 November 2008, <http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E01E5D71030F934A35750C0A961958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all>

Turow, J., 2001. Family boundaries, commercialism, and the Internet: A framework for research. Applied Developmental Psychology, 22, 73-86.