Kids are on the Internet and marketers are there waiting for them, big time. Should we care? Should we prepare kids?
Almost one-third of young people say they would give their real name and address to sign up for a free e-mail account (30 per cent) or to create an online profile on a site like MSN (27 per cent). Nineteen per cent would give this information to enter an online contest.
(Source: The Young Canadians in a Wired World Survey, Media Awareness Network, 2005)
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Yes, to both questions.
In the whole history of advertising, there has never been a medium like the Internet—a medium able to actively engage young consumers, and even target them individually.
Whether kids are online for fun or for schoolwork, they will eventually be exposed to marketing aimed specifically at them. So it's important that they understand when, how and why they're being marketed to.
This section offers resources to make help your students recognize online marketing techniques. For information about online marketing to kids and the protection of personal privacy, as well as tips on how to address marketing and privacy in the classroom, check out the sections How Marketers Target Kids Online and Protecting Kids' Privacy on Commercial Web Sites (below) and the resources in the right-hand sidebar.
