Mum, can I play on the internet?' parents' understanding, perception and responses to online advertising designed for children

Lara Spiteri-Cornish

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticle

    47 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Research about the role of parents in children's consumption of online advertisements is scarce. Parents are viewed as having a responsibility to deter children from invasive marketing, yet with the rise of non-traditional marketing it is unclear whether they have the knowledge and skills necessary to undertake this role. The authors address this research gap and demonstrate that parents have limited understanding of the effectiveness of online advertising and this restricts their ability to protect their children from online marketing endeavours. Parents recognize online persuasive techniques only when they themselves have been exposed to them (e.g. banners, pop-up advertisements) and are often unable to appreciate more subtle marketing techniques in their persuasive capacity (e.g. advergames). In addition, they erroneously believe that children respond to online marketing the same way adults do. Finally, parents display naivety in their conviction that their children would never be taken in by marketers but, paradoxically, this complacency is only limited to online advertising.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)437-473
    JournalInternational Journal of Advertising
    Volume33
    Issue number3
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2014

    Bibliographical note

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    Keywords

    • online marketing
    • advertising to children
    • parents

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