InformationWeek

February 12, 2001

Printer-friendly

Ad Creep: Is It Hurting Teens?

By Eileen Colkin (ecolkin@cmp.com)

ot everyone thinks finding new, smarter ways to market to kids is a good thing.

Advocacy groups such as the Center for Media Education are pressuring politicians to protect teens from what they see as advertising creeping into every aspect of a child's life. "We're seeing advertising disguised as content," says CME president Kathryn Montgomery. "Kids often don't know they're being marketed to and that the intent is to sell something to them."

Montgomery's organization wants to extend the protections given those under 13 years old to teens. It also wants closer monitoring of how data collected on children is used and restrictions placed on advertising in places such as schools. "We've been looking at a lot of teen sites, and the business model is really data collection," she says.

Internet companies are well aware of the potential for backlash against collecting information about children in order to market to them. It's a sticky enough issue that Dan Owsen, online manager for video gamemaker Nintendo of America Inc., requires parents to sign and fax in permission forms before teens can join Nintendo's online club. Owsen says most kids are fanatical enough about Nintendo that they're willing to go through the process, but it's worth it even if it means some don't join. "We have a lot of young users, and we want to do the right thing," he says. "The whole idea behind self-regulation groups is to put guidelines in place so they're not legislated."

Children older than 13 aren't covered by the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, passed by the Federal Trade Commission in 1998. Even for pre-teens, some Web-site operators complain that the law's standards--such as parental consent--are too difficult to meet. But the Interactive Digital Software Association, the trade association for the entertainment software industry, created its own guidelines for children 12 to 18 that include provisions from the act such as notifying parents.

Most teens are willing to share information online in exchange for free products, a survey by the research firm eMarketer found. More than half of teens in the survey say they would disclose their own or their parents' favorite store, and more than one-fourth would disclose what their parents like to do on weekends.

Dan Pelson, CEO of the teen-focused site Bolt, says his teen members are interested in the site's privacy policy, and some have sent him E-mails to discuss the policy. Only Bolt staff have access to the database, managing and segmenting it for clients. A member can access his or her data file and amend it--or make it more widely available to other teens on the site. "They're aware of this stuff, but they understand the importance of sharing information," Pelson says. "But we need to share it back."

Are the steps that companies such as Nintendo are taking enough? Montgomery says the problem needs to move beyond the business world and into the homes to make parents aware that they need to keep monitoring after they sign a permission form. "Parents need to realize," she adds, "that even if they do [grant permission], there may still be manipulative advertising."