Children and advertising
Ten US consumer rights and child protection associations have signed a petition calling on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate whether YouTube Kids, launched on February 23, is misleading children by mixing advertising with content.
Television channels the world over are filled with advertising directed specifically at children. But aside from a few cases related to removing products that deliberately deceive, such as planes that don’t really fly, trying to influence children to get their parents to buy them stuff is pretty much accepted, and has been for many years. In the case of YouTube Kids, consumer rights associations are accusing the channel of “unfair and deceptive marketing practices”, based on the belief that young children are not sufficiently aware to be able to distinguish between content and advertising.
US children’s television, as in other countries, is subject to restrictions that have been introduced over recent decades, for example preventing presenters from endorsing products, precisely for this reason. Advertising in general has to abide by rules established to protect children, who are seen as more easily influenced, and in some countries and regions, such as Quebec, Norway, and Sweden, programs targeted at audiences aged under 12 cannot feature advertisements.
The question, therefore, is just how has YouTube Kids overstepped the mark. This is a free channel, financed by advertising, which means that in many countries it would already be banned. One of the videos cited in the complaint features announcers unwrapping toys:
Content that in conventional media like television would be seen as blatant advertising, in YouTube Kids is mixed in with different types of video, recommended when a child chooses content via a search by one of his or her favorite characters. While other media make the difference between content and advertising much clearer, or should do, YouTube has no clear programming schedule, meaning brands design content specifically designed to show up in searches. In the case of the video clip show above, which is part of a very long series of similar videos seen by large numbers of children, the design of the title itself, “Giant Surprise Egg with PLAY DOH McDonalds Arch filled with Happy Meal Toys Barbie, Star Wars Toy” is a pretty clear example of what might be called name dropping of brands that appeal to children of different ages.
Do we need to “protect” children from advertising? And does this idea of protection apply to advertising in general, or just to certain practices that blur the lines between advertising and content? Are we comfortable as parents submitting our children to this constant bombardment of advertising? Is YouTube responsible for possible misuse of advertising in YouTube Kids? Is it in effect collaborating, given that it makes money from it? Are parents also responsible, for failing to exercise more active supervision of what their children watch, and for using televisions and computers as baby sitters? A great many questions, and for the moment, a complaint to the FTC. We’ll have to see where this leads.
(En español, aquí)
