Personalized & Commercialized

The Children’s Plan identifies the early commercialization of children’s lives as an issue we need to address:

“However, some evidence suggests that the combination of a lowering in the age at which children begin to engage with the commercial world, along with an increase in the quantity of commercial messages targeted at children, may have some outcomes which are detrimental for children’s well being.”

We’ve done some small scale research which showed that children rather enjoy having their own personal money; many enjoy shopping; some shop online and they say that having enough money is a factor in their happiness and well being.

However we’ve also found that the technology is allowing some children to be commercially exploited on a scale not previously possible. When children are unsupervised online on their bedroom PC, or communicating privately on their mobile phones, there is opportunity for expensive mistakes.

Is that the bill for my daily horoscope?

We’ve discovered, for example, children who have been lured into mobile phone ring tone and download scams and found themselves unwittingly running up bills for services they didn’t want. They were consequently shocked when parents faced them with mobile phone bills for hundreds of pounds.

Selling has become so cleverly embedded in online technology, that it has even sneaked into the applications children use every day. Who would have dreamed even a few years ago that when we chose a track to play from our laptop’s music library, that the program would proactively tempt us to buy more music like the track we’ve chosen - but that’s exactly what iTunes does. It’s insidious, clever, seductive and almost irresistible. So, how do children cope when listening and buying are so symbiotically welded together.

Clearly there are issues we need to address and it’s essential that we begin to understand how children are relating to this intimately personalized commerce.