Parental Tips on How to Efficiently Handle Online Advertising and Protect the Kids

Online advertising pops out everywhere and all the time bringing products and services personalized to the viewers. The kids are specially being influenced.

As parents, naturally, they would want to protect their children from what and when they are being influenced. But, how do they monitor and manage these online advertising? Much more, how do they have the talk with their kids and make them understand?

What is the danger?

When children are on their devices, whether they are surfing the net, browsing through their social media, playing video games or using apps, they become targets for marketing messages and online advertising. And, these are not the usual advertisements because they have evolved. Right now, advertising can already be in the form of a shout-out from kids' favorite influencers or it can be in the form of a game, which is called "gamified ads" or "advergames."

A research about commercial content in downloadable kids apps revealed that 96 percent of the most-downloaded free apps for children under age 5 have commercial content that includes "hidden and pop-up ads," and advertisements that offer tokens or easier gameplay when tapped and viewed. It was also found that advertisers "use invisible data collection tools that let them tailor ads and other information meant to affect behavior."

Targeting online advertising to children can seem nearly harmless. However, there has been a large amount of studies that show how easily children are persuaded by these ads, and this is due to their critical thinking skills and impulse control that are not yet fully developed. Here lies the danger if parents are uninvolved with their kids' usage of devices and the internet and if they do not know how to keep their children safe from all the influence and persuasion.

Read Also: Why The Digital Age Of Marketing And Advertising Is Posing Risk To Young Ones

Helpful Tips to navigate online advertising

Two of Amazon's top leaders in ads and policies, namely Catherine Teitelbaum, who leads Amazon Kids' family trust programs, and John Cathey-Roberts, Amazon's Worldwide Advertising Policy director, are sharing their knowledge to parents on how online advertising works and giving tips on how to navigate this digital landscape.

According to Teitelbaum, parents should go for apps and subscription services for kids that are completely free of ads like Amazon Kids+, which can provide the kids with premium books, videos and games for learning, and other educational content. Parents can rest knowing that the company has strict advertising policies especially with respect to children and teens. Amazon maintains strict advertising policies with respect to children and teens.

However, if parents want to have additional content like games and school-related apps that may include advertising, she recommends that parents should check on the guardrails. They should not fail in reviewing the features of the app and the disclosures in the app store before they approve the download or add it on their kid's profile. In this way, they can be assured that the content, experience, and all the ads that will pop-out of the screen are in line with their expectations.

She further suggested reviewing apps in the app store together with the kids so they can learn as well, and make it an opportunity to be clear with each other's expectations.

Cathey-Roberts, on the other hand, emphasized how discussion is crucial. Parents should explain to their children how advertisers will persuade them and through what means advertisers try to influence. The kids need to know the difference between a content and an advertisement.

Parent's involvement is still the most effective way, he stressed. They should "stay on top of kids' interests and exposures that change over time." As parents, they should know that checking ratings and reviews to determine if programming is suited to their children is a priority. But, as important, is also being actively aware of the ads that are shown within the programming.

"If my 8-year-old says they want to play a game, I play the game first to check the content and see the kind of ads that are in there. Or if it's a new channel they want to watch, I look at that channel and make sure that it's appropriate for my children. Whenever you download a new app, check the settings and parental control options," Cathey-Roberts shared.

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