MARKETING TO CHILDREN ON THE WEB

Angela Campbell

While most of the concern about children and the Internet has focussed on
indecency, recent studies by the Center Media Education have identified two
types of commercial content on the world wide web that is harmful to children.
First, there is advertising of products such as alcohol and tobacco that are
harmful when used by young persons. Second, there is advertising that employs
deceptive and unfair practices that take advantage of children*s trust and
lesser ability to identify and understand the purpose of advertising.
To protect children from these harms on broadcast television, the US has
relied on a combination of laws, government regulations and industry
self-regulation.

I argue that similar protections are needed on the Internet, at least for
commercial sites targeted to children on the World Wide Web. With computers
becoming more widely available and easier to use, the Web is increasingly
becoming a medium of mass communications and with sound, video and animation,
and the participation of major advertisers, is it also becoming more like
*TV-like.*

However, it is not possible to simply apply the same combination of laws,
government regulation and self-regulation used for television directly to
the Web. Unlike broadcasting where there is a finite number of stations
licensed by the government within a country*s borders, the Web has an infinite
number of sites that are unlicensed and can be located virtually anywhere in
the world.

The interactive quality of the Web also raises additional concerns. As
recently found by the Federal Trade Commission, numerous sites are collecting
personally identifiable information from children without disclosing the
purposes for collecting the information and without requiring parental consent.

The paper will explore various options for addressing these problems, including
self-regulation, reliance on software screening or blocking techniques,
legislative proposals, and government regulation. It will discuss the problems
that will likely arise in defining undesirable practices, enforcement, and in
balancing the important goals of nurturing children with protecting free speech.