Youth Digital Marketing

In a 4-0 decision, the FTC agreed with CDD and a coalition of consumer, public health, and child advocay groups to reject calls from the online marketing lobby to delay the implementation of the new COPPA rules.   The decision can be read here.
 
Our coalition's oppostion to the industry request played an important role in the commission's decision.  It can be reviewed here.

This EU-commissioned report--"Assessment of Young people's exposure to alcohol marketing in audiovisual and online media" analyzes the role of Facebook and other social media.  It was written by Rand Europe (and CDD is cited, among many others).

Today's missive from the Direct Marketing Association--along with the Chamber of Commerce, advertising, marketing, and TV lobby groups--urging the FTC to delay for months much-needed children's safeguards reveals an industry that has been engaged in behaviorally profiling and digitally stalking kids online (that's what retargeting is--you are stalked from site to site--and now platform (computer) to platform (mobile) as well.
 

The leading U.S.

Both the Interactive Advertising Bureau and the Application Developers Alliance fought tooth in nail to prevent the FTC from adopting commonsense rules designed to protect children's privacy and empower parents.  So it's not a surprise that they would continue their efforts to undermine kid privacy by trying to derail the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) new rules via a lobbying maneuver.  Yesterday, the groups sent separate letters to the Commission asking that new rules not go into effect until the New Year--instead of this July.  The concept tha

The report released today by the Federal Trade Commission analyzing expenditures by food and beverage marketers to target both children and teens shows a dramatic increase in the use of digital marketing.  According to the report, "spending on new media, such as online, mobile, and viral marketing, increased by 50%."  The report also underscored how young people are the target of "integrated" campaigns, pursued across the "

Leaders of the Effort to Pass COPPA in 1998 Say Parents Should Now Have Greater Control of their Children’s Information Online
 

Center for Digital Democracy Charges that Nickelodeon’s Mobile SpongeBob Game
Violates the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act

Urges Federal Trade Commission to Investigate and Bring Action Against the Leading Children’s Cable Channel

Nickelodeon and PlayFirst Don’t Play Fair,
Collecting Personal Information from Kids and Inducing In-Game Purchases

We can tell you why the lobbyists representing Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo and the other consumer data-stealing giant members of the Interactive Advertising Bureau are afraid that the FTC will update its kids privacy rules on COPPA.  Their desperate cartoon attack using Santa Claus reveals an inability for the online ad industry to take the privacy issues seriously (which is what their actions on Do Not Track also reveal).  It shows

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 13, 2012
 
 
50+ ADVOCACY GROUPS CALL FOR UPDATES TO KIDS’ ONLINE PRIVACY PROTECTIONS