some ethical issues of digital marketing towards children

Digital Marketing to Generation Z

Dreammachine Kids | Rue Auguste Frison 56, 6040 Jumet (Charleroi) | +32 (0) 10 86 12 42 | www.dreammachine.be | 10 april 2023 Dreammachine Kids presentation, p. 2

Ethical issues of digital marketing towards childrenGerda Van Damme (Dreammachine Kids)


The concerns

AD AWARENESSvulnerability PESTER

POWERUNCONTROLLED

PRESENCE ON SOCIAL NETWORKS

screen addiction

online safety

obesity

lack of parental control

age inappropriate content

UNRECOGNIZED PRODUCT PLACEMENT

violenceUNCONTROLLED PURCHASE

PRIVACY

PEERPRESSURE


• Kids develop ad awareness only over years (and as a next step

they develop ‘banner blindness’).

• This means that for young kids ‘Advertising should be

recognizable as such’ gets a new meaning.

• Advertising-free world doesn’t exist solution in education

about advertising.

• Studies have been done to detect how kids recognize ads

between editiorial content parts. But what about content that is

completely commercial?

• Nielsen, Children on the web (2010 – revised 2013): ad

unawareness creates usability problems

Ad (un)awareness


• Kids are more receptive to publicitary messages. They are an ‘easy target’.

• Especially in immersive experiences such as games, virtual worlds.

• More receptive to emotional messaging.• Tendency towards impulsive buying behaviour.

Vulnerability

Very immersive experience from McDonald’s (Avatar)


• Parents hate it if kids come with very explicit ‘demands’ for things they found on the internet.

E.g. Morrisons banned ad “They’re not open yet darling”.

Pester power


• Strong lobby in US against (unhealthy) food advertising

• Even a stronger issue in digital marketing, as digital media and screen addiction are held responsible for cases of obesity (unhealthy lifestyle).

Obesity


• Parents prefer their children to live ‘unplugged’ experience, play outdoors, be creative, etc.

• Constant struggle of parents to get their kids away from the screen (TV, mobile, computer,...).

• Debate about the consequences of long term screen exposure and long term gaming.

Screen addiction


• Violence is highly accepted by the industry in digital media, especially in games

• Debate about the effect on children

Violence


• In general (not esp. within marketing context),

people have concerns about the safety of kids going

online. This is relevant within a digital marketing

context, e.g. When brands create online kids

communities.

• This has been an issue ever since the first

chatrooms appeared on the internet.

What Ketnet is doing:“Wanneer een kind zich inschrijft, moet hij eerst een KET-profiel aanmaken, met een foto en met de gegevens van de ouders.

Pas na de formele goedkeuring van deze laatste krijgt het kind een volledig profiel dat hen toelaat vrienden toe te voegen of toe

te treden tot de vriendenkring van andere kinderen. Hiervoor moet hij zowel zijn naam als voornaam gebruiken. Dezelfde

vereiste is van toepassing als u commentaar wenst te geven op de artikels. Als iets gepubliceerd wordt en het kind het om welke

reden dan ook niet meer kan terugvinden, kan hij op een vlagje klikken en aangeven waarom dat niet mogelijk is. Andere

voorwaarde van beperkte toegang: een meerderjarig persoon kan geen kinderen toevoegen die jonger zijn dan 18 jaar. De

presentatoren van Ketnet zijn in elk geval vrienden met elke kind dat een profiel heeft.”

Sonia Livingstone: authority in the field, 16 publications,

several requested by E.U. (‘’Kids Online’)

Online safety


• Online identity of kids without their consentE.g. commercial photo contests with kids pictures

• Undesirable contacts and spreading of contact data

• This is quite well ‘covered’ in legislation (see Gerrit’s presentation).

Privacy


• Digital advertising loves to use viral techniques.

• Kids being used within testimonials towards other kids is NOT DONE, whether user generated or not.

Peer pressure


Gender stereotyping

• Lego news of girl complaining about gender stereotyping makes the news.

• Mattel producing Barbie on Mars and Lego producing female scientist is also world news.

• One of attention points of legislators


• Parents feel they can’t ‘keep up with kids’. UK study 2013: Close to half of parents say that their child knows more about the internet than they do. Nearly half of all parents of a child aged 5-15 (47%) agree with the statement: “my child knows more about the internet than I do”.

• Speed (always new games, new apps, new rules, new hypes).

Parents feel ‘out of control’.

Parental control (or lack of it)


• ‘Guilty’ parents

• ‘Guilty’ advertisers (in the eyes of the parents)

• ‘Guilt’ makes parents of today spend more than any other generations on their kids,

especially in the area of digital products.

Your minimal option: stay away from what annoys parents

Leveraging the GUILT-feeling: ‘Compensation marketing’

– Offer parents ways to make them feel less guilty

– Makes advertisers ‘look good’

– Makes parents ‘feel good’

– Compensate for perceived bad characteristics of the product or medium by offering ‘contradictory’

content (e.g. Fast food company giving healthy food tips) trend! (‘helpful and human brands’).

The concept of GUILT and some tips


• Offer them ‘unplugged’ experiences through digital media.

Example of ‘compensation marketing’

In January 2011, UK based dairy company Arla Foods launched a campaign called Nature Adventure Club, aimed at encouraging children to explore the outdoors. A child-friendly website has been designed to let kids, parents and teachers explore the outdoor activities planned for 2011 and share their achievements on a ‘leadership board’.