Tech Shout!

A joint report released by National Consumer Council (NCC) and Childnet International said that today’s kids are bombarded with improper online ads.

The report further says that nearly a quarter of the adverts on children’s favorite sites is targeted at adults and contains contents like gambling and dating services. Such children sites are usually accessed by 7-16 year olds kids and they are well versed with internet usage.

Speaking at the report’s launch, NCC Chief Executive Ed Mayo said, “Children are enthusiastic explorers of the online world. But parents should be aware that the internet is highly commercial. Every hour that a child spends in front of the computer is like letting them run loose in a shopping centre.”

It was also observed by researchers that many times children spot and ignore the adverts however, many times kids also fail to tell where factual or entertainment content ends and the advertising begin. Almost 25 percent of adverts are integrated into content and nearly 73 per cent of these are not labeled as ads. Hence it makes it difficult for the young generation to differentiate between the two.

That’s not all, the adverts also ask children to give information like friends’ contact details or send information to a friend in return for free offers.

One girl aged 11 told researchers that, “On all of my addresses I’m 20. Games, Bebo. If you want to go on a website, you lie about your age. They’re not as safe for, like, six-year-olds.” And a boy of 14 explained them further by saying. “If they give you extra for being 18 or over, then I put myself down as over 18.”

Dr Agnes Nairn, an expert in the field of children and marketing, said, “One important conclusion from our research is that both parents and children are alert to stranger-danger and are beginning to understand basic internet security. But our concern is that parents are not aware of the pervasive and often covert format and content of some advertising found on sites popular with children. Children are quite savvy in this area, but in many cases children cannot distinguish content from commerce and so can’t really make informed choices.”

One must complain about such dangerous acts of showing indecent ads to children, but where? Children as well as their parents are unaware of this. But it’s the website’s responsibility to filter and execute appropriate ads to children.