Digital marketing and

advertising to children:
a literature review
Conducted on behalf of AEf
Prepared by Dr Barbie Clarke and Siv Svanaes
Family Kids andYouth

May 2012
© Advertising Education Forum
Table of Contents

Abstract. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Key Words and Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Background. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Review Process. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Papers Reviewed by Field of Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Papers Reviewed by Country . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Management Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Part 1: Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
1.1 Children’s role in Marketing in 2012 15
1.2 The report 15

Part 2: Children’s Use of the Internet and Digital Devices . . . . . . . . . . 16

2.1 Digital Devices 16
2.2 Access to the Internet 17
2.3 Children’s Use of Social Networking Sites 22
2.4 Protective Factors 23

Part 3: Children’s Understanding of Advertising and Marketing. . . . . 24

Part 4: The Current Debate on Digital Marketing to Children . . . . . . . 26

Part 5: The Digital Marketing Techniques Discussed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

5.1 Advergames 30
5.2 Social Networking Sites 33
5.3 Mobile and Location Based Marketing 36
5.4 Other Digital Marketing Techniques 37

Part 6: Arguments and Criticisms of Digital Marketing to Children. . . . 38

6.1 Wider Concerns 38
6.2 Food Marketing 39
6.3 Digital Food Marketing 40
6.4 Advocating Engagement with Websites and Social Media
to Promote Healthy Eating and Lifestyle 42
6.5 Parents’ View on Digital Marketing 42
6.6 Peer Influence 44

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Digital marketing and advertising to children: a literature review © Advertising Education forum
 Part 7: Children’s Understanding of Digital Marketing. . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
7.1 Recognition of Digital Advertising 45
7.2 The Relationship Between the Current Literature
on Children’s Understanding of Advertising
and Marketing and the Digital Environment 46
7.3 Does Digital Marketing to Children Make a Difference 47
7.4 The Nature of Children’s Understanding
of Digital Marketing: Theoretical Perspectives 47
7.5 Children and Privacy 50
7.6 Adolescents and Digital Marketing 50

Part 8: Regulation and Self Regulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

8.1 Implications for Regulation and Self-Regulation 53
8.2 Age (When it is fair to advertise to children) 53
8.3 Food Types and Nutritional Information
(What is advertised to children) 53

Part 9: Leading Academic and Practitioner Views. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Part 10: Implications for Methodology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Part 11: Further Research. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

11.1 Age Differences 62
11.2 Gender Differences 62
11.3 Long Term and Real Time Research 62
11.4 Vulnerable Groups of Children and Young People 63
11.5 Inappropriate Advertising 63
11.6 Assessing Consumption Practices 64

Part 13: Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Appendices
Appendix 1: Respondents’ Profiles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Appendix 2: Subject of Papers Reviewed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Figures
1: Distribution of Global Internet Users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2: Total Estimated Number of Internet Users, 2011. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3: World Internet Usage and Population Statistics
(Internet Wordstats, 2011) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

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Digital marketing and advertising to children: a literature review © Advertising Education forum
Abstract

This literature review looks at children’s use of digital devices on

a global scale and in particular considers in-depth the available
literature that has focused on digital marketing and advertising to
children. While many new marketing techniques are being devel-
oped using the internet and digital devices as communication
tools, little literature exists that has considered the implications
for children in-depth. Partly because the field of digital market-
ing is growing so rapidly, and partly because children’s use of the
internet is increasing so fast and at a younger age, much of the
academic literature struggles to keep up with new trends. What
literature does exist tends to be highly critical, but is not neces-
sarily based on sound research that looks at the real world of
children’s engagement with digital technology. There are many
similarities in the way digital communication is considered to the
way in which more traditional forms of advertising and marketing
to children are viewed, but there is a sense that digital market-
ing may be less easily recognised and therefore potentially more
harmful. In contrast, literature from emerging economies views
digital marketing as a powerful and effective tool, but does not
necessarily consider the possible harmful effects on children.
There is overall agreement that far more research needs to take
place that looks closely at what children are actually doing online
when using their various digital devices, and how marketing and
advertising messages are being absorbed and understood. Self-
regulation, particularly in developed countries, is well thought
through and robust, but may lag behind the reality of what is hap-
pening in the digital world.

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Digital marketing and advertising to children: a literature review © Advertising Education forum
Key Words

children’s understanding of advertising and marketing; digital adver-

tising and marketing; children’s understanding of commercial intent,
children, youth, young people, adolescents, online, Internet, digital,
marketing, advertising, advergames, social networking sites, mobile,
location based, geo-targeting, product placement

Acknowledgements

Thank you to colleagues David Buckingham, Professor of

Media and Communications, Loughborough University; Sonia
Livingstone, Professor of Social Psychology and Head of the
Department of Media and Communications at the LSE; Dr Julie
Tinson, Reader and Director of Research Centre for Consumers,
Cultures and Society, Stirling Management School, University of
Stirling; Dr Brian Young, Research Fellow, School of Psychology,
University of Exeter; Mike Cooke, Global Director, Panel
Management, GfK NOP, for their insightful comment, help and
advice on latest research and literature. Also thank you to Will
Gilroy, World Federation of Advertisers; Rocco Renaldi, Julien
Lafleur and Julie Paquay at the AEf in Brussels; and Karen Fraser,
Josh McBain, Emma Taylor at CREDOS for their enthusiastic sup-
port and for providing key reports and industry updates.

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Digital marketing and advertising to children: a literature review © Advertising Education forum
Background

The Advertising Education forum (AEf) is a non-profit organisa-

tion dedicated to understanding the interaction between adver-
tising, children and the media. AEf is a leading reference on
academic, political and regulatory developments on children, mar-
keting communications and the media.

AEf’s mission is twofold:
1. To be an information resource providing real-time information
on worldwide developments relating to all aspects of market-
ing communications and children.
2. To contribute to the public debate and to inform responsible
marketing practices, effective self-regulation and proportion-
ate policy-making.

The growth of digital media and digital communication is well

documented, and AEf has reviewed its objectives in view of the
growing importance of the media for children. The recent lit-
erature review that looked at Children and Advertising (Credos,
2011), carried out on behalf of CREDOS (The UK Advertising
Association’s think tank), highlighted the growth in digital market-
ing communication to children.

The overall objective of the literature review was to provide an

up-to-date, robust, and comprehensive picture of children and
young people up to 18 years and their use of digital media (includ-
ing different devices), and to explore the latest literature on chil-
dren, young people and digital marketing communications. The
review aims to highlight areas that are currently under-researched
that would benefit from increased robust scrutiny. In particular the
literature review asked the following key questions:

u What is the state of play of the scientific literature on digital

marketing communications and children? How much research is
there? In what disciplines, in what languages?

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Digital marketing and advertising to children: a literature review © Advertising Education forum
 u Is this research part of the broader research agenda on “tradi-
tional” advertising (TV, radio, print, cinema, outdoor, etc)? Or
is it rather separate? Are many of the same academics active in
both areas or is it a new field?
u Are the same research methodologies being used? What meth-
odological discussions are under way if any?
u What is the focus of the available research?
u What marketing techniques within the field of digital marketing
communications are being discussed?
u What are the leading academic views on the issue, in respect of
children’s understanding of and interaction with digital mar-
keting communications; their impact on children’s well-being,
development and health, also vis-à-vis traditional media?
u Can consensual views be drawn out of the available research
or is the debate still largely open? If so, on which specific
questions?
u What are the implications for future industry action/ (self)
regulation?

To answer these questions, the AEf asked Dr Barbie Clarke and

her team at Family Kids and Youth to carry out a literature review
that looks at the latest research both into children’s use of digital
media, and into digital advertising and marketing to children.

The literature review was carried out between 24 October 2011

and 31 January 2012. Using keywords: children, youth, young peo-
ple, adolescents, online, Internet, digital, marketing advertising,
advergames, social networking sites, mobile, location based, geo-
targeting, product placement we searched bibliographic data-
bases using CSA Illumina with access to more than 100 databases
including ERIC, BEI, Psychinfo and Web of Knowledge. The total
number of papers and reports located was 245 of which 85 were
used. Records have been kept of each paper used in the search.

The following charts give an overview of the review process.

Please see Appendix 2 (page 77) for the Subject of Papers
Reviewed.

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Digital marketing and advertising to children: a literature review © Advertising Education forum
Review Process

IDENTIFICATION
250 papers* 2 papers identified
identified through through additional
database searching sources

SCREENING 252 papers screened

2 duplicates removed

ELIGIBILITY 250 full-text papers asessed for eligibility

169 papers excluded, for reasons such as: being

too old; not specifically dealing with children;
not specifically dealing with marketing;
not specifically dealing with digital marketing.

INCLUDED 85 papers included in the final analysis

* Papers include peer-reviewed journals, reports, academic conference papers

and research reports.

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Digital marketing and advertising to children: a literature review © Advertising Education forum
Papers Reviewed by Field of Study

FIELD OF STUDY NUMBER OF PAPERS

Health and Nutrition/Food Policy 31

Media and Communications 22

Marketing and Consumer Behaviour 17

Psychology 10

Law 3

Sociology 1

Consumer Research 1

Please note that many of the papers are written by academics from different
disciplines and could potentially be put in different categories. This table there-
fore gives an indication of academic discipline. A full analysis of content of each
paper is included in the Appendices (page 77).

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Digital marketing and advertising to children: a literature review © Advertising Education forum
Papers Reviewed by Country

COUNTRY NUMBER OF PAPERS

United States 44

United Kingdom 11

Australia 6

Netherlands 4

Canada 3

Norway 2

Sweden 2

Denmark 2

China 2

New Zealand 1

Hungary 1

Turkey 1

Estonia 1

Nigeria 1

South Africa 1

Mexico 1

Singapore 1

Japan 1

Total Papers: 85

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Digital marketing and advertising to children: a literature review © Advertising Education forum
Management Summary

1. There is significant concern about advertising and marketing

to children, and academics are beginning to look at the emerg-
ing new forms of communicating sales and marketing mes-
sages to children, especially online. However because tech-
nology is developing so fast and children are accessing digital
technology at a younger age, much of the academic literature
is behind in its assessment of what is actually happening.
2. There is a perceived need to ensure that, as the use of digital
marketing communication techniques grows, both regulatory
restrictions and self-regulatory commitments applicable in the
offline world, e.g. in relation to high fat/sugar/salt (HFSS) food
and beverage product advertising, are adequately translated
into the digital sphere..
3. Much of the literature is critical of advertising and marketing to
children, but academic agreement on a) the level of children’s
understanding of what constitutes marketing and advertis-
ing, and b) children’s vulnerability to marketing and advertis-
ing messages, is uneven and inconsistent. Some of the most
knowledgeable academics express disquiet about the argu-
ments put forward that criticise marketers, and call for more
robust research that looks at children’s experiential interaction
with online marketing.
4. While some academics argue in the literature that any form
of marketing or advertising to children is unacceptable, oth-
ers recognise that children live in a commercial world where
marketing messages are rife and good media literacy is the
solution. However there is also some criticism of the nature of
media literacy programmes, questioning how effective these
are when they invariably make assumptions about children’s
level of social and cognitive competence.
5. Meanwhile regulatory bodies representing marketers, espe-
cially in developed markets, are making moves to self-regulate,
inform and educate parents and marketers, and allow a plat-
form for discussion and complaint. This is particularly the case
in the UK (parentport.org.uk) and Canada (Cbc.ca).

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Digital marketing and advertising to children: a literature review © Advertising Education forum
 6. In emerging economies however it may be that the interests
of children are not at the forefront of marketing research, with
the excitement about the opportunities that digital media pro-
vides overriding consideration of vulnerable audiences.
7. There is a strong argument to suggest that some of the skilful
marketing techniques used to target children online could be
equally used to convey positive messages such as healthy eat-
ing, exercise and learning about drugs and alcohol abuse. Such
behaviour-change campaigns may helpful to young consumers
and marketers alike.
8. The literature points out fairly consistently that parents are
unaware of much of what children are doing digitally, and
this in turn makes children particularly vulnerable. This is not
because parents are being negligent, but more because chil-
dren’s skills with digital devices and content often outstrip
those of their parents.
9. There is also evidence to support the use of peer influence by
marketers on product and brand choice. While the industry is
mostly in agreement that child brand ambassadors are unaccep-
table, nevertheless the use of communication using social net-
work brand pages and social network style language (e.g. ‘like’
something) on websites may be having a similar effect.
10. There is evidence in the literature that children have more dif-
ficulty recognising advertising, marketing and brand messages
within digital media than through traditional media, and this is
causing some concern. A clear indication that the communica-
tion is indeed one of marketing or advertising rather than just
information is sought.
11. Given the popularity of online games with children it is perhaps
not surprising that many marketers have chosen advergames as
a form of communicating advertising and marketing messages
to children. Inevitably therefore this has created the greatest
level of concern and criticism from some academics. There is
evidence that advergames are particularly prominent on HFSS
brands’ websites; in many countries such brands now have
restrictions on conventional TV and print advertising to children.

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Digital marketing and advertising to children: a literature review © Advertising Education forum
 12. The issue of privacy, and the collection of children’s data for
marketing purposes on websites and social networking sites
they visit generate a great deal of concern, although little
research has been carried out to monitor the extent of this, as
it is so new. Under accepted international guidelines for carry-
ing out research with children, the consent of an adult, as well
as the child themselves, must be sought before data is col-
lected that gives a picture of preferences and potential buying
patterns. Where such content is not sought, it raises ethical
concerns.
13. Location based, or geo-targeting advertising is barely covered
in the research literature to date. As it is a new phenomenon,
and many of its uses are still being mapped out, academic
research simply has not yet caught up with it.
14. There is some evidence to show that mobile marketing tech-
niques are being used to target young people. Mobile ads have
much higher click through rates than online banner ads, and
it is reported that more companies are expected to adopt a
mobile strategy.
15. One of the most recent digital developments is the creation
of “Apps” that can be downloaded by children. Many compa-
nies adopt this new marketing strategy, including those which
advertise HFSS products (such as fast food chains). Monitoring
the use of downloads by children (e.g. for their favourite fast
food restaurant) may be a challenge.
16. There are acknowledged advantages to children in using the
internet and accessing information, learning and entertainment.
However the relatively unregulated nature of such interaction
and the lack of parental knowledge or understanding of what
children are accessing (especially from 11 years) means that
children are a particularly vulnerable group. Reasonable, meas-
ured and well thought self-regulation needs to be discussed and
defined, and constantly revisited.
17. Overall there is a call for far more research to be carried out
into the real world of children and their engagement with
digital technology, and the effects of digital marketing and
advertising on the wellbeing of children. Such research should
not necessarily be ‘laboratory’ based (i.e. carried out in univer-
sities) but located in real time and in real homes where children
are more likely to access digital devices.

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Digital marketing and advertising to children: a literature review © Advertising Education forum
1. Introduction

Increased attention in recent years has been given to children’s

role in the commercial marketplace, as well as advertising directed
at children, and advertising that children are exposed to, whether
directed at them or not. New forms of marketing and what is
seen as a greater presence of commercial forces in the lives of
children have prompted a greater focus on children’s role in the
commercial world, as exemplified most recently by the Bailey
Review (2011) in the UK and the UNICEF UK Report on wellbe-
ing, inequality and materialism (2011). The Bailey Review in the
UK has led to a number of new measures, including the crea-
tion of the ParentPort. Set up by the UK’s media regulators to
protect children, the website allows members of the public to
report inappropriate material on TV, online, in film, advertising,
a video game or in print (parentport.org.uk). At the same time
stricter guidelines have been issued in the UK by the Advertising
Standards Authority, with a voluntary ban on under-16 year olds
being employed as brand ambassadors and an ‘active choice’ web
browsing parental control. In Canada, new legislation has been
introduced to protect children from data collection by advertis-
ers (Cbc.ca). In the US, increasing concerns over rising youth
obesity levels recently led consumer groups to file a complaint,
along with the Federal Trade Commission, against PepsiCo for
‘engaging in deceptive and unfair digital marketing practicing’
(Center for Digital Democracy, Consumer Action et al. 2011).
In Scandinavia, where children have traditionally been heavily
protected from advertising, new forms of advertising such as
social media and applications have caused concern, and there has
been an increased focus on the commercialisation of childhood
(Barneombudet.no).

As children spend increasing amounts of time online (Rideout,

Foehr et al. 2010; Livingstone, Haddon et al. 2011), and, impor-
tantly, not only in spaces created especially for them, advertising
and other aspects of the commercial world are an inevitable part
of their media environment. While there is a considerable body
of research focusing on the risks associated with children’s digital

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Digital marketing and advertising to children: a literature review © Advertising Education forum
 activities (such as privacy threats, cyber-bullying, sexting and stran-
ger danger) it is important to acknowledge that the online world
also provides opportunities for learning, exploration, entertainment
and is a source of fun for children.

1.1 CHILDREN’S ROLE IN MARKETING IN 2012

It is argued that children and young people have long been
viewed by marketers as a lucrative market, and one that wields
considerable spending power. David Buckingham, author of the
government report on the ‘Impact of the Commercial World on
Children’s Wellbeing’ (2009), has suggested that children have
acquired increased spending power and are thought to influence
the purchasing habits of family members (Buckingham 2000).
Research has been carried out looking at children’s role in simple
and planned purchases, and the child as primary instigator and
decision maker of purchases within the family (Kuhn and Eischen
1997). However Tinson and Nancarrow (2007) have pointed
out that this might be an exaggerated claim; whilst children do
have an influence, they are not the final decision makers. Other
research has shown however that children tend to frequently
make independent purchases by the age of eight (McNeal and Yeh
1993; Marshall 1997).

The debate still continues therefore about children and commer-

cial communications. Arguments regarding short and long term
effects of advertising on children, children’s understanding of
and engagement with advertising and following this, what is best
practice are likely to be at the forefront of the debate for some
time to come.

1.2 THE REPORT

This report gives a summary of the current state of global
research on and the debate over these issues. It considers which
disciplines are focusing on advertising and marketing to children
and in particular digital marketing. It also assesses which countries
research is mainly coming from, which forms of marketing are
given most attention, what the implications are for methodology
and regulation, and finally what is needed of future research.

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Digital marketing and advertising to children: a literature review © Advertising Education forum
2. Children’s Use of
the Internet and Digital Devices

A global view of children’s ownership and use of digital devices,

as well as children’s interactions with the internet, is difficult to
establish and some of the data appears to be somewhat dated,
meaning that latest figures are probably greater than summa-
rised below. There is a need to continue to monitor children’s
global use of the internet as this is a key factor in understanding
the extent to which children are exposed to digital marketing and
advertising.

2.1 DIGITAL DEVICES

Part of the difficulty in defining children’s use of the internet is in
establishing what devices are being used. No longer a matter of
simply measuring children’s use of PCs or laptops, it is now well
established that the internet can be accessed through many dif-
ferent devices including iPods and iPads, and other tablet devices
including Amazon Kindle, Sony Tablet, HP TouchPad, Samsung
Galaxy, BlackBerry Playbook and Motorola, to name but a few.
Many schools around the globe are now introducing internet
enabled tablets into schools to enable learning, with a particular
emphasis in Asia (http://www.ipadinschools.com/). Internet con-
nection is also available through games consoles such as XBox
Live, PS3, Nintendo Wii. Indeed research in the US showed that
23 per cent of households had games consoles that could be con-
nected to the internet (LRG 2011). The introduction of Smart TV is
likely to revolutionise the way that the internet is accessed. Access
to the Internet through smart phones is now well established, and
is especially a feature in Asia, where smart phone internet access
has overtaken access to the internet through PC’s (Carmichael
2012).

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Digital marketing and advertising to children: a literature review © Advertising Education forum
 2.2 ACCESS TO THE INTERNET
The latest figures available on global penetration figures for inter-
net access are as follows:

Figure 1: Distribution of global internet users

13% North America 10.3% Lat. Am./Carribb.

5.7% Africa
3.3% Middle East
1% Oceania/Australia

22.7% Europe

44% Asia

Source: Internet World Stats - www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm

Basis: 2,095,006,005 Internet users on March 31, 2011
Copyright © 2011, Miniwatts Marketing Group

Figure 2: Total estimated number of Internet Users, 2011

Asia 922.3

Europe 476.2

North America 272.1

Latin America/
Caribbean 215.9

Africa 110.9

Middle East 68.6

Oceania/
Australia 21.3

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000
Millions of Users

Source: Internet World Stats - www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm

Basis: 2,095,006,005 Internet users on March 31, 2011
Copyright © 2011, Miniwatts Marketing Group

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Digital marketing and advertising to children: a literature review © Advertising Education forum
 This highlights that Asia by far outstrips the rest of the world, fol-
lowed by Europe and North America. It is interesting also to look
at penetration versus population figures, which gives a different
picture. From this it can be seen that North America, followed by
Oceania/Australia and Europe have the highest penetration fig-
ures by percentage of the population (see figure 3 below).

Figure 3: World Internet Usage and Population Statistics

(Internet Wordstats, 2011)

World Internet Usage and Poulation Statistics

March 31, 2011
World Regions Population Internet Users Internet Users Penetration Growth Users %
(2011 Est.) Dec. 31, 2001 Latest Data (% Population) 2000- 2011 of Table
Africa 1,037,524,058 4,514,400 118,609,620 11.4% 2,527.4% 5.7%

Asia 3,879,740,877 114,304,000 922,329,554 23.8% 706.9% 44.0%

Europe 816,426,346 105,096,093 476,213,935 58.3% 353.1% 22.7%

Middle East 216,258,843 3,284,800 68,553,666 31.7% 1,987.0% 3.3%
North America 347,394,870 108,096,800 272,066,000 78.3% 151.7% 13.0%
Latin America/ 597,283,165 18,068,919 215,939,400 36.2% 1,037.4% 10.3%
Caribbean
Oceania/ 35,426,995 7,620,480 21,293,830 60.1% 179.4% 1.0%
Australia
WORLD TOTAL 6,930,055,154 360,985,492 2,095,006,005 30.2% 480.4% 100.0%

NOTES: (1) Internet Usage and World Population Statistics are for March 31, 2011.
(2) Demographic (Population) numbers are based on data from the US Census Bureau.
(3) Internet usage information comes from data published by Nielsen Online, by the International
Telecommunications Union, by GfK, local Regulators and other reliable sources.
(4) For definitions, disclaimer, and navigation help, please refer to the Site Surfing Guide.
(5) Information may be cited, giving the due credit to www.internetworldstats.com.
Copyright © 2001 - 2011, Miniwatts Marketing Group. All rights reserved worldwide.

While these figures are useful in giving a global picture of internet

penetration, they do not necessarily look at children’s use of the
Internet. For this we need to rely on a diverse range of studies,
some of them quite old (in Internet terms).

We have used as our main source the UNICEF report Child Safety
Online published December 2011, and the EU Kids Online survey
(Livingstone, Haddon et al. 2011). Reflecting internet penetra-
tion figures illustrated above, it appears that the highest levels of
online connectivity of children and young people are in developed

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Digital marketing and advertising to children: a literature review © Advertising Education forum
 countries, although emerging economies are fast catching up.
Within these figures it is clear that in all countries higher income
families are more likely to have access to the internet at home
than low income countries (Hasebrink, Görzig et al. 2011). It also
appears to be the case that children under the age of 18 make
up the highest percentage of users globally (ITU 2008; Lenhart,
Purcell et al. 2010), although in Europe the number of parents
accessing the internet is beginning to catch up with under 18’s
(Livingstone and Haddon 2009). As Livingstone et al (Livingstone,
Haddon et al. 2011) point out, the more familiar parents are with
using the Internet, the more children are likely to be protected
as parents are able to manage their child’s interaction online
effectively.

The literature shows that while there is little difference in use

between gender, not surprisingly there are differences in age,
with a significant increase in use as children grow older (ITU
2008; Livingstone and Haddon 2009). A survey with parents in
the EU in 2008 indicated that 60 per cent of 6-10 year olds were
using the Internet, compared with 86 per cent of 15-17 year olds
(Eurobarometer 2008). It could be assumed, given the availability
of internet-connected devices now available (see above), that in
2012 this number has increased. This usage pattern is reflected
globally although there appears to be a significant difference in
the time spent online. As the UNICEF (2011) report points out,
the time spent online in Europe by children aged 9 to 16 is one to
five hours each day (Livingstone, Haddon et al. 2011). In Bahrain
access is on average longer, between two and a half and five hours
each day (Davidson and Martellozzo 2010). Average time spent
online by children in South Africa is far less, on average once a
week for less than half an hour (Chetty and Basson 2006). Yet
another picture emerges in Brazil where 69 per cent of children
between 10 and 15 years old access the Internet every day (CSICT
2010), although this is challenged by other research that indi-
cates that children in Brazil aged 5 and 14 are less likely to use the
Internet every day (ITU 2008).

A more comprehensive global picture of children’s internet use

emerges from a 2009 report (Symantec 2009), although once
again this is likely to be outdated as the actual research was

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Digital marketing and advertising to children: a literature review © Advertising Education forum
 carried out in 2008. The survey was conducted online in 12 coun-
tries (the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France,
Germany, Italy, Sweden, China, Japan, India, Australia, and Brazil)
by Harris Interactive on behalf of Symantec between 13 October
and 5 December 2008 among 6,427 adults (including 1,297 par-
ents of children aged 8-17) and 2,614 children aged 8-17 who
spend one or more hours online each month.

The survey found that in the U.S. children report spending twice
as much time online as parents estimate (42 hours per month for
children vs. 18 hours per month for parents). Similarly, there is a
large discrepancy between how often US parents think they know
where their children are online and how often children believe their
parents know where they are online (73 per cent parents vs. 61 per
cent children). The survey also found that parents in Australia are
not aware of the time their children are spending online (children
spend on average 39 hours per month on the Internet, twice as
much time as their parents estimated). The research found that
parents in Australia however are the most confident about know-
ing what their children are doing online. In Brazil, children appear to
spend the most time online (70 hours per month), while their par-
ents believe they only spend 56 hours per month online. Children in
Brazil spend most time socialising online (13 hours). Parental con-
fidence in Brazil is high with 74 per cent claiming they know what
their child is looking at online; while 72 per cent of children report
that their parents know what they are doing online. Parents in
Canada are most likely to report being extremely/very knowledge-
able in discussing Internet activities in which their children partici-
pate, particularly websites frequently visited (73 per cent). Almost
three-quarters of adults (73 per cent) and an even higher number
of parents (77 per cent) in Canada believe that children spend too
much time online, in contrast to just over half of children (54 per
cent) who believe children spend too much time online. A very dif-
ferent picture emerges in Japan where the 2008 survey found that
parents are least likely to set parental controls (18 per cent), moni-
tor their children online (10 per cent), or discuss safe online habits
(10 per cent). More than other countries surveyed, a large propor-
tion of online parents in Japan (40 per cent) report that it is also the
child’s responsibility to protect himself/herself online.

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Digital marketing and advertising to children: a literature review © Advertising Education forum
 The Norton survey goes on to look at Europe, and again there
are differences in parental attitudes and children’s online behav-
iour. Children in Sweden (along with children in Brazil at 13 hours)
socialize online to a greater extent (nine hours) than those in
other countries surveyed (average five hours). Along with Japan,
Swedish parents were least likely to set parental controls on fam-
ily computers (22 per cent for Sweden, 18 per cent for Japan).
However in Sweden there was a high level of agreement between
parent and child about what their children was looking at online.
In the UK by contrast the survey found that there are major dis-
crepancies between children’s reports of time spent online versus
parents' reporting of their child’s online use. Children in the UK
reported spending twice as much time online as parents estimate
(44 hours per month children vs. 19 hours per month parents).
Over half (54 per cent) of parents in the UK say they have set
parental controls, higher than the global average of one-third, and
81 per cent of UK parents are confident they know what their child
is looking at online although just 69 per cent of UK children claim
their parents know what they are doing online. In France half of
parents admit they have monitored their children’s Internet use
by reading their email or tracking websites they visited, and inter-
estingly French parents are far more confident that their children
are following family rules for Internet use than the children are
reporting (85 per cent parents vs. 71 per cent children). The survey
also found that in Germany parents are most likely to have had a
media-free day at home, during which their child did not watch
TV, go online or use the computer. This is the highest out of the
countries surveyed by Norton, compared with 20 per cent glob-
ally. Parental confidence in Germany is extremely high with 81 per
cent claiming they are confident they know what their children are
looking at online. The children report a different story with just
two-thirds of children in Germany claiming their parents know
what they are doing online. Interestingly, Italy places the least
amount of responsibility on children to protect themselves online
(7 per cent) and feels that most of the responsibility lies with the
parents (91 per cent). In Italy, half of parents with access to the
internet admit to having monitored their children’s Internet usage
by reading email or tracking websites visited using cookies.

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Digital marketing and advertising to children: a literature review © Advertising Education forum
 Parental attitude towards children using the Internet may be a
little more relaxed in emerging countries and there may be less
of a sense that parents should take control. In contrast to other
countries, in India 16 per cent of parents feel their children are not
spending enough time online. While amongst all parents surveyed
in the twelve countries, one in three (35 per cent) agree that their
child is more careful online than they are, almost three in four (72
per cent) parents in India agree that their child is more careful
online than they are. In China (70 per cent) parents are among the
most likely to trust parental controls, and of all the countries sur-
veyed, China feels the strongest (54 per cent) that Internet secu-
rity companies have responsibility for protecting children online.

2.3 CHILDREN’S USE OF SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES

Social networking sites (SNS) create great opportunities for
children and young people to maintain friendships and develop
relationships (Clarke, 2009), but this nevertheless can pose risks,
not least because young people may not understand privacy set-
tings (Westminster Forum 2012), and can accept ‘friends’ they
do not necessarily know. It is also well established that children
lie about their age, claiming to be 13 (the age at which most SNS
start allowing children to register) when in fact they are younger
(Clarke 2009). As a result, the type of advertising children may
see on SNS could be inappropriate, and is also an area of concern
(see page 33). It is worth looking therefore at the available figures
for children’s SNS use, although once again it should be pointed
out that these are likely to be out of date. In the United States it
is now estimated that 73 per cent of teenagers online are using
SNS (Lenhart, Purcell et al. 2010). Across the EU it is estimated
that 59 per cent of 9 to 16 year olds use a SNS, and this includes
26 per cent of 9 to 10 year olds and 82 per cent of 15 to 16 year
olds (Livingstone, Haddon et al. 2011). In India it is estimated that
around 5 per cent of the 37 million Facebook users are between 13
and 15 years old, and 7 per cent are between 16 and 17 years old
(Socialbakers.com 2011). In Brazil the number of Facebook users
had reached 29 million by October 2011, and of these 6 per cent
were between 13 and 15 years old and 7 per cent were between 16
and 17 years old (Socialbakers.com 2011).

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Digital marketing and advertising to children: a literature review © Advertising Education forum
 Research has shown that young people are, perhaps naively,
placing a large amount of personal information online. In Brazil a
study has found that 46 per cent of children and adolescents con-
sider it normal to publish personal photos online on a regular basis
(SaferNet 2009). And similarly in Bahrain research has shown that
children frequently post personal information online with very
little concept of the notion of privacy (Davidson and Martellozzo
2010).

2.4 PROTECTIVE FACTORS

While it is undoubtedly the case that parental engagement
will help to protect children online (Cho and Hongsik 2005;
Livingstone, Haddon et al. 2011), there is growing evidence that
children and young people like to protect each other, and that
peer mentoring and educators might be most effective for chil-
dren to learn to be safe online (UN 2010; van der Gaag 2010). The
UNICEF report ‘Child Safety Online: Global challenges and strate-
gies’ (2011) perhaps sums up the challenges of children’s interac-
tion with digital devices that allow them access to the Internet:

A key dimension of the growth of online activity is that children and

young people are participating in, learning from, and creating an envi-
ronment that, in many parts of the world, still remains unknown and
unfamiliar to their parents. Growing numbers of children are now cre-
ating and exploring their own virtual social networks. Through online
advertising, through exposure to knowledge and information, and to
political, religious, cultural or sexual ideas that may be profoundly at
odds with those of their parents, their worlds today are significantly
more complex. There are also concerns that greater access and expo-
sure to electronic media can have harmful implications, including
potentially diminishing parental capacity to understand children’s
experiences or to offer effective protection and support. While the
generational divide around Internet usage is beginning to narrow in the
industrialized world, the gulf between children and parents in Internet
use in lower-income countries remains significant.

UNICEF (2011) Child Safety Online:

Global challenges and strategies page 4.

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Digital marketing and advertising to children: a literature review © Advertising Education forum
3. Children’s Understanding of
Advertising and Marketing

Much research has been dedicated to the question of children’s

understanding of advertising, and this is summed up in the Credos
Report (Credos, 2011). The available literature builds on cognitive
approaches to child development, and especially Piaget’s theo-
ries. Piaget argues that children grow gradually from a state of
incompetence, or immaturity, to competence, that is mature, logi-
cal thought. He makes the point that while each stage would be
achieved by all children at a certain age, children pass through the
same developmental stages as they get older. As Kellet, Robinson
et al. (2004) point out, Piaget sought to understand and to explore
the extent that children understood the situation they were in.
Similarly, understanding children’s social competence and ability
to take the perspectives of others is another area that is important
to assess children’s processing of advertising.

Roedder-John (1999) provided an influential three tier conceptual

model of consumer socialization which built on Piaget’s model
of development. She argued that the child develops from the
perceptual stage (3-7), through the analytical stage (7-11), and
reaching the reflective stage (11-16). It is not until the reflective
stage, Roedder-John argues, that children have a mature under-
standing of advertising and marketing, because it is at this age
that they are able to fully understand other people’s perspectives
and the complexities of communication. It is only at adolescence
that most children are able to make rational judgements, under-
stand abstract ideas, and question what they are being told, which
is needed to make judgements about the persuasive intent of
marketing.

Brian Young (1986; 1990) has argued that children need to have
acquired ‘advertising literacy’ to be able to fully understand what
advertising is and how it works. They thus need to understand
the persuasive intent to sell behind the advertisement, and the
function of the advertisement. The age at which children fully

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Digital marketing and advertising to children: a literature review © Advertising Education forum
 understand this is much debated. Some researchers (Donohue,
Lucy et al. 1980; Macklin 1987) point to children’s abilities to rec-
ognise an advertisement on TV, as distinct from the main pro-
gramme, as proof that they understand the intent of advertising.
As Oates et al. (2001) point out however, there is sometimes con-
fusion between children’s ability to make a distinction between
the programmes they are watching and the advertisements. Levin
et al. (1982) established some time ago that children can identify
television programmes from advertising, but Butter et al.(1981)
have shown that children cannot explain the difference between
the two. As Andronikidis and Lambrianidou (2010) point out, the
fact that children can distinguish advertising from programming
or other content does not necessarily mean that they also under-
stand its persuasive role. It is significant that most recent research
has indicated that the age at which children understand advertis-
ing has been over-estimated (Oates, Blades et al. 2001; Oates,
Gunter et al. 2003; Owen, Auty et al. 2007). It is argued that real
understanding does not emerge until early adolescence.

There has also been a debate over the ways in which research with
children has been carried out. Much of it has relied on questions,
but children’s ability to verbalise their thoughts and feelings take
some years to be established. Using more sophisticated and child-
orientated research methods and observation have helped to give
a greater accuracy to the research. However, new forms of mar-
keting have sparked another debate over methods and validity in
research on children’s understanding of advertising.

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Digital marketing and advertising to children: a literature review © Advertising Education forum
4. The Current Debate
on Digital Marketing to Children

To a large extent, the debate over children and digital marketing

follows the debate over traditional advertising, and indeed tradi-
tional media use, predominantly TV. This debate reflects a wider,
familiar issue in the research literature concerning whether chil-
dren are active media savvy consumers, or vulnerable innocents.
For example Buckingham’s (2007) main argument is that this
polarisation is indeed constructed and that the truth probably lies
somewhere in between the two. He contends that the growth of
a consumer society is a complex social development which can-
not be understood, explained or blamed solely on advertising and
marketing.

This polarisation of the debate is seen again in the gap between

industry research on marketing, and sometimes highly critical
blame-led academic research. It seems that the research field
between the two should be explored more, as this would help
construct a balanced debate and contribute towards consistency
in the conceptualisation of the issue and measurement techniques
(Sandberg 2011). It is argued that better collaboration between
practitioners and researchers is needed to ensure that an under-
standing of how children engage with digital media can inform
good practice (Miyazaki, Stanaland et al. 2009).

Not surprisingly, academic research on digital marketing commu-

nications to children lags behind industry developments. There is
little research published, from a relatively small number of coun-
tries, and with limitations in terms of research focus and meth-
ods applied. One of the main challenges to academics following
this issue is how fast technologies and practices are evolving.
Academic research in many areas struggles to keep up. One issue
is that websites are never constant; many of the papers conduct-
ing content analyses of popular websites might even be outdated
by the time they get published. Another reason why research has
become outdated is due to the rapid changes in regulation, and

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Digital marketing and advertising to children: a literature review © Advertising Education forum
 thus by the time papers commenting on the ‘current’ situation are
published the situation might have already changed (Jones and
Reid 2010).

What research exists is still mainly coming from countries famil-

iar with the field of children and media such as the UK, the US,
Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands and the Scandinavian
countries. Few papers have been found in this literature review
that debate emerging marketing trends in new areas where mar-
keters have up until now not directed much focus, such as China
(Chan and McNeal 2006), Turkey (Bati and Atici 2010), Nigeria
(Gbadamosi 2010), Mexico (Hernandez and Chapa 2010) and
South Africa (Wright 2011). In these new areas, advertisers tend
to have much more freedom, and there tends to be more focus on
the opportunities provided by the ability to target audiences, and
less on ethical or regulatory constraints. In the case of Nigeria for
example the emphasis is on the many social benefits of advertis-
ing to children (Gbadamosi 2010). A common theme is discussion
about whether new forms of marketing can bypass more tradi-
tional forms, and thus allow marketers to reach a much greater
audience than before (Bati and Atici 2010; Hernandez and Chapa
2010; Wright 2011). It is also suggested, in the case of China, that
the more sudden rise of a consumer society may have an impact
on how children understand the commercial world (Chan and
McNeal 2006). The authors argue that the Chinese parents in their
study did not play an important role in their children’s consumer
socialisation. They speculate whether this is due to the current
generation of parents not yet being sophisticated consumers, and
argue that the media environment children are in might influence
children’s understanding of advertising. While young children
in their study could not fully understand the intent of a specific
commercial due to their lack of cognitive development, more
understood the intent of the commercial system. According to the
authors, the children’s responses were especially triggered by the
mention of ‘making money’, and they hypothesise whether this
is due to the drastic change in the media economy and rapid rise
of the consumer society in China over the past two decades. They
however point out that more research is needed to validate this.

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Digital marketing and advertising to children: a literature review © Advertising Education forum
 Clearly more research is needed to map out industry practices
in these areas, especially since new forms of marketing, such as
mobile, are expected to be very important due to low Internet
figures but high mobile penetration. There is also a need for more
research with children looking at their responses, understanding
and engagement with the material. It is important to note that
in some of these areas regulation is much less stringent than in
European and North American contexts (Valero 2009; Gbadamosi
2010; Wright 2011), and thus advertising might not follow the
same patterns. There is also research suggesting that marketing
is more successful in less advertising saturated environments, and
that where regulation is already weak it will also develop slower
(Hawkes 2007).

Digital marketing in many ways evades national boundaries. An

example of this is the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act
(COPPA). COPPA applies to website operators targeting children
under 13, and requires them to seek parental permission before
seeking any kind of personal information, and further details
what responsibilities the operator has to protect children’s privacy
and safety online. A child can legally give personal information if
parental permission has been obtained, however many websites
choose not to target under 13 year olds altogether. This is the
reason social networking sites such as Facebook officially do not
target children, although it is widely recognised that children as
young as 7 or 8 are now using Facebook (Clarke, Harrison et al.
2010). Although COPPA is a US law, the requirements of COPPA
also apply to overseas websites that are directed at US children.
Similarly, US websites that target overseas children must also
comply.

As with regulation and marketing itself, it is important not to

assume that the child and youth market is a global homogenous
market, as cultural differences do exist with regards to spending
and acceptance of advertising. In relation to the ‘tween’ market
(in this example ages 10-12) Andersen, Tufte et al.(2008) reported
a contrast in attitudes towards advertising between tweens in
Denmark and Hong Kong, due to differences in their media use
and spending habits. Both countries have high Internet penetra-
tion and usage, but large variance in youth culture, resulting in

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Digital marketing and advertising to children: a literature review © Advertising Education forum
 disparity in how young people use media, as well as differences in
spending and perceptions of advertising. Therefore, the authors
advise marketers as well as researchers not to assume this mar-
ket to be globally homogenous, but to expect cross cultural
differences.

It is important to point out that while some research is quite

critical of and concerned about the commercial climate children
and adolescents are living in, researchers also see the need to
acknowledge the role advertising can play in identity formation
and entertainment for children and adolescents (Skaar 2009;
Montgomery 2011).

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Digital marketing and advertising to children: a literature review © Advertising Education forum
5. The Digital Marketing
Techniques Discussed

5.1 ADVERGAMES
The use of Advergames is noticeably the marketing technique
targeting children that attracts most comment from academic
literature (Moore 2006; Turnipseed and Rask 2007; Dahl, Eagle et
al. 2009; Lee, Choi et al. 2009; Culp, Bell et al. 2010; Hernandez and
Chapa 2010; Purswani 2010; Cicchirillo and Lin 2011; Hofmeister-
Tóth and Nagy 2011; Quilliam, Lee et al. 2011; Van Reijmersdal,
Rozendaal et al. in press). The research studies report the high
prevalence of advergames on websites popular with children, and
there is considerable disquiet about their use. Particularly, a number
of food brands have popular advergames dedicated to them, and
it is thought that the fun and excitement associated with playing
the game will have a positive impact on children’s food preferences
(Lee, Choi et al. 2009; Cicchirillo and Lin 2011). These can be food
products which because of their nutritional value are not recom-
mended as part of children’s diet (Lingas, Dorfman et al. 2009), and
the concern is therefore that the popularity of the games will have a
harmful impact on children’s health.

A quantitative study carried out in the US showed that already in

2007 over seventy-eight per cent of American children aged 6-11
had played games online (Mediamark Research & Intelligence
2007), showing just how popular these are with children. Using
Advergames therefore could be seen as a particularly successful
means of attracting and appealing to children. Some authors argue
that advergames promoting HFSS foods on their branded websites
are particularly prominent since the promotion of these products to
children on traditional media (print, TV) is restricted in many coun-
tries. Interestingly, this also confirms a link between low nutrition
food types and digital advertising that had been identified previ-
ously (Calvert 2008; Chester and Montgomery 2008; Sandberg
2011). Researchers such as Purswani (2010), Culp, Bell et al. (2010),
Quilliam, Lee et al. (2011), Turnipseed and Rask (2007), Pempek and
Calvert (2009) and Mallincrodt and Mizerski (2007) have made a
similar correlation between HFSS and advergames. Lee and Youn

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Digital marketing and advertising to children: a literature review © Advertising Education forum
 (2006) argued that food was among the top three industries that
incorporated advergames into their marketing strategy, and in the
literature on advergames covered in this review companies such as
Kellogg’s, McDonalds, Cadbury, Kraft and Millsberry, and brands
such as Froot Loops, Lucky Charms, M&M’s, Apple Jacks, Walker’s
Crisps, and Red Bull are frequently mentioned as popular exam-
ples (Moore 2006; Mallinckrodt and Mizerski 2007; Dahl, Eagle et
al. 2009; Culp, Bell et al. 2010; Purswani 2010; Thompson 2010;
Thomson 2010; Quilliam, Lee et al. 2011).

In advergames, the brand is an integrated part of the game, offer-

ing children an immersive, fun experience (Bailey, Wise et al. 2009).
It is therefore argued that advergames are extremely effective in
terms of attracting children because they increase exposure time
to the brand (Mallinckrodt and Mizerski 2007; Dahl, Eagle et al.
2009; Culp, Bell et al. 2010; Hernandez and Chapa 2010). They
are argued to be persuasive by creating positive emotional invest-
ment, increased brand memory and loyalty (Lee, Choi et al. 2009;
Purswani 2010). Because the brand is incorporated into the game
itself, the game offers a positive emotional experience with the
brand, which is thought to increase memory of and loyalty towards
the brand (Hernandez and Chapa 2010). Brands are in this way
thought to capitalise on the emotional experience of the game,
and of the association of fun and entertainment with the brand
(Bailey, Wise et al. 2009; Culp, Bell et al. 2010; Thomson 2010).

Advergames are thought to be especially effective with children

because they have been shown to be particularly susceptible to
affective communication (Van Reijmersdal, Rozendaal et al. in press).

Due to advergames’ popularity and cost–effectiveness, it is argued

that they can form a central and important part of wider marketing
strategy (Hofmeister-Tóth and Nagy 2011). Researchers also point
out the high levels of engagement on the part of the child with the
game, and therefore with the brand, because of the prominence of
the branding within the game. These important aspects of adver-
games are argued to have positive effects on cognitive and affec-
tive responses, which in the case of children is thought to increase
brand memory (Van Reijmersdal, Rozendaal et al. in press). It is also
argued that interactivity and positive affect has an impact on short

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Digital marketing and advertising to children: a literature review © Advertising Education forum
 term memory (Hernandez and Chapa 2010). In other words, if the
child can engage with the brand, and finds the experience fun and
exciting, he or she is more likely to remember the brand, and have
a positive association to it, and potentially request this product.
However, there is agreement that more empirical research is needed
to validate this (Hofmeister-Tóth and Nagy 2011; Van Reijmersdal,
Rozendaal et al. in press). Many games encourage the use of an ava-
tar, that is the ‘persona’ within the game that the player can adopt.
It is suggested that customising an avatar may make games more
immersive and effect their persuasive impact and prolong exposure
time to the brand (Montgomery and Chester 2007; Bailey, Wise et
al. 2009). Such increased exposure time and engagement with the
product, it is argued, make the commercial message more powerful,
and creates a conflation of the food item with fun and excitement
(Thomson 2010).

A major question that is asked about advergames in the literature

is whether children understand that these games are a form of
advertising products (Dahl, Eagle et al. 2009). There is concern
expressed about their effectiveness, and whether they are likely
to influence children more if they do not recognise the commer-
cial intent behind the game (Ali, Blades et al. 2009; Cicchirillo
and Lin 2011). This leads to a belief that advergames should be
more clearly labelled (Purswani 2010; Cicchirillo and Lin 2011).
Interestingly it is also argued that given the popularity of gaming
for children, websites using games could include more nutritional
information, and could actually be used to encourage healthy
behaviour (Kelly, Bochynska et al. 2008; Culp, Bell et al. 2010;
Montgomery and Chester 2011; Quilliam, Lee et al. 2011). Due to
their popularity with children, and children’s willingness to share
them with their peers, it is also suggested that social networking
sites might function as an important space for viral marketing of
advergames (Hofmeister-Tóth and Nagy 2011).

Although there is more research on this particular technique

than on any other, it is still a new area of research, and academ-
ics are still debating how to explain their use, purpose and effect
(Turnipseed and Rask 2007). Turnipseed and Rask argue that
product placement and integrated marketing communications
(IMC) are two ways in which to describe advergames. Although

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Digital marketing and advertising to children: a literature review © Advertising Education forum
 advergames as product placement fits in the broadest sense, they
argue that seeing these as IMC better explains their role in an on-
going, interactive, synergistic marketing campaign. Any theory
aiming to explain the influence of advergames must therefore
account for their place in wider, on-going campaigns, and how
they tie in with other aspects of them.

5.2 SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES

To date, very little academic research has been carried out on
advertising on social networking sites. There is evidence however
that an increasing number of children are using social networks such
as Facebook and Twitter and at a younger age (Clarke, Harrison et
al. 2010; Livingstone and Brake 2010; Ofcom 2011). A report from
the Kaiser Family Foundation (Rideout, Foehr et al. 2010) claimed
that 18 per cent of the 8-10 year olds in the US used social net-
working sites, jumping up to 42 per cent for 11-14 year olds and
53 per cent for 15-18 year olds. In Europe,38 per cent of 9-12 year
olds and 77 per cent of 13-16 year olds have a social network profile
(Livingstone, Ólafsson et al. 2011). Facebook is the most popular
network; one in three 9-16 year olds have a Facebook account, and
one in five 9-12 year olds, rising to four in ten in some countries. 65
per cent of Australian 9 - 16 year olds have social network profiles,
including 44 per cent of 9-12 year olds (Green, Hartley et al. 2011).

While many social networking sites (SNS) have age limits, for
example Facebook is age 13, these barriers to using a SNS are
fairly easily overcome by children and it is acknowledged that
children lie about their age (Clarke 2009). While research has been
carried out about children’s use of SNS, these studies have been
mainly in relation to issues of privacy, cyber-bullying and sexual
harassment (Lenhart and Madden 2007; Duncan 2008; Hinduja
and Patchin 2008; Livingstone 2008; Ybarra and Mitchell 2008;
De Souza and Dick 2009; boyd and Marwich 2011).

Just two papers have been identified that focus specifically on

social networking sites and advertising to children (Skaar 2009;
Kjørstad, Brusdal et al. 2011), although it is important to note
that the presence of advertising on social networks is mentioned
in several of the general reports on marketing (Harris, Schwartz
et al. 2009; Harris, Schwartz et al. 2010; Berkeley Media Studies

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Digital marketing and advertising to children: a literature review © Advertising Education forum
 Group 2011; Harris, Schwartz et al. 2011; Montgomery 2011;
Montgomery and Chester 2011; Montgomery, Grier et al. 2011).
The two papers take a close looks at two different social net-
works, Habbo and Piczo. Skaar (2009) looks at how Piczo is an
important part of identity exploration for eleven to twelve year
olds, and how their online social world related to their offline
world. The other paper (Kjørstad, Brusdal et al. 2011) looks at
Habbo from the perspective of consumer rights, and whether
Habbo is conducting good practice with regards to its young
users. Both of these papers originate from Norway, where broad-
cast advertising to children under 13 is banned, and thus the
exposure of new forms of advertising may be causing particular
concern. Internet penetration is also very high, with 98 per cent of
children having access to the Internet according to Medietilsynet
(Medietilsynet 2010). Along with other Scandinavian countries,
academic research on children and digital media in Norway has
therefore been substantial. Research has looked at the risks of
children’s increasing use of digital media, but has also given a
great deal of attention to social and educational benefits for
children (Tingstad 2007; Staksrud 2008; Staksrud 2008; Tingstad
2008; Staksrud 2011).

No studies have been identified that look specifically at Facebook

and Twitter in relation to advertising, as these sites are not sup-
posed to be targeting children. As children are lying about their
age in order to get onto these social networking sites (Clarke
2009; Livingstone, Ólafsson et al. 2011), it is questionable
whether advertising on Facebook and Twitter counts as targeted
advertising, however it is a very real factor in children’s exposure
to online advertising, and should therefore be addressed. There
appear to be two main issues regarding advertising and social
networks. One of them is data collection and targeted advertis-
ing. Networks such as Facebook and Twitter are in compliance
with COPPA (see page 28) in that they have set their age limit to
13, and thus do not collect personal information without parental
consent. Another issue is that social networks often highlight the
ubiquitous nature of marketing communication in that they can
blur the previously clear distinctions between advertising, infor-
mation and entertainment and thus make marketing communica-
tions harder for children to recognise. Most of the major players in

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 marketing to children have a presence on Facebook and Twitter,
and these interactive spaces allow for a variety of techniques
including viral, peer to peer, user-generated content and mobile
marketing (Chester and Montgomery 2008).

Skaar (2009) and Kjørstad, Brusdal et al. (2011) both deal with
SNS directed at children and youth (Piczo and Habbo). The two
papers are somewhat critical of the forms of stealth marketing
children are exposed to, although they acknowledge the positive
aspects of these networks, such as their role in identity forma-
tion and expression of self in a fun way. Skaar (2009) argues that
such sites could lay the foundations for social competition and
reinforce tendencies to social exclusion. Piczo for example is a
social network where users can share blogs and pictures with
their contacts; Habbo is a commercial social network where users
construct avatars and can then purchase clothes and furniture
for their avatars. Brands such as H&M, Summit Entertainment
(producers of the Twilight Saga films) and MTV are present on
Habbo, which counted 168 million users in 2010 (Business Insider
2011). Research has suggested that advertising through avatars
provides opportunities for identity experimentations, which fur-
ther increases brand memory and positive associations (Bailey,
Wise et al. 2009). Although Skaar (2009) and Kjørstad, Brusdal
et al. (2011) argue that their research indicates that the websites
(Habbo and Piczo) have become an important social space for
children and offers them important experiences, the research-
ers are concerned that SNS encourage consumerism, and blur
the lines between games, information, user generated content,
entertainment and market research and advertising. They are also
critical of the terms of conditions being too complicated to expect
children to be able to give informed consent. Particular criticism
is levelled at Habbo, the authors arguing that the purchase agree-
ments are too complicated, and made without parental consent
(Kjørstad, Brusdal et al. 2011).

Skaar (2009) and Kjørstad, Brusdal et al. (2011) point out however
that many of the ethical concerns stem from a lack of knowledge;
academics simply do not know or understand the implication or
use of data collection. In a way it could be argued that we can-
not be certain of how children understand online advertising, nor

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Digital marketing and advertising to children: a literature review © Advertising Education forum
 the long term effects of children’s exposure to advertising. It is
also the case that there needs to be more research into the posi-
tive aspects of these social spaces in order to maintain a balanced
discussion. Skaar (2009) and Kjørstad, Brusdal and Ånestad (2011)
acknowledge that one of the main challenges for potential regu-
lation is fairly placing responsibility; deciding who is responsible
when a child sees something he or she is not meant to see in the
interconnected world of digital is a much more complicated issue
than with traditional media advertising.

Other papers relating directly to social networks are concerned

with alcohol marketing (McCreanor, Barnes et al. 2008; Griffiths
and Casswell 2010), and both originated in New Zealand.
Although alcohol marketing is not included in the brief for this
review, it is interesting to note that these papers discuss how mar-
keting on social networks can create commercial digital spaces,
where peer to peer and viral marketing are causing marketers
and consumers to merge. The advertising message becomes
incorporated into users’ profiles, and is passed on from consumer
to consumer through their social network, reinforcing the mes-
sage of the advertisement. Griffiths and Casswell briefly discuss
the implications for methodology and recommend cyberspace
ethnographies as the most beneficial route. It should be pointed
out however that there are ethical issues to be considered in this
regard. The notion of children giving informed consent to take
part in research would be severely challenged, and their privacy
could be compromised.

5.3 MOBILE AND LOCATION BASED MARKETING

Mobile marketing refers to marketing to a mobile phone device,
and includes text message advertising, mobile website banner
ads, QR codes and smartphone applications. Location-based
marketing is a way of sending targeted advertising to custom-
ers based on their current location. Mobile marketing is not well
covered in the specific research literature based on fieldwork,
but is mentioned in almost all general discussions of the field.
Although it is still fairly limited, it is predicted to become a major
trend (Harris, Schwartz et al. 2009; Harris, Schwartz et al. 2010;
Berkeley Media Studies Group 2011; Harris, Schwartz et al. 2011;
Montgomery and Chester 2011; Montgomery, Grier et al. 2011),

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Digital marketing and advertising to children: a literature review © Advertising Education forum
 and companies like Burger King, McDonald, Kellogg’s, Subway
and PepsiCo are already making use of this strategy. Mobile
advertisements have much higher click through rates than online
banner advertisements, and thus more and more companies
are expected to adopt a mobile strategy (Miller and Washington
2011). In the US market there has been an extensive rise in mobile
marketing, including location based services and banner advertis-
ing. One of the newer developments is that of Apps for download-
ing, with one report claiming that 8 of the 12 biggest fast food
chains have adopted (Berkeley Media Studies Group 2011).

Location based, or geo-targeting advertising is barely covered in

the research literature to date. As it is a new phenomenon, and
many of its uses are still being mapped out, academic research
simply has not yet caught up with it. However the indications are
that there are likely to be many more studies done on this, espe-
cially in relation to youth in urban areas and studies relating to
food advertising to ethnic minorities or less affluent youth; both
these cohorts are seen as particularly vulnerable (Montgomery,
Grier et al. 2011). The Pew Internet and American Life Project
reported that twenty-eight per cent of adult Internet users had
used location based services (Zickuhr and Smith 2011).

One particular concern voiced about location-based advertising,

as with mobile marketing or behavioural targeting, is that it can
radically reduce the time between exposure and consumption,
and thus increase impulse buying, to which adolescents especially
are thought to be vulnerable (Calvert 2008).

5.4 OTHER DIGITAL MARKETING TECHNIQUES

It is interesting to note that product placement is barely mentioned
in the literature (Hunter 2009). While it is argued that product
placement forms part of high levels of branding on websites (Linn
and Novosat 2008; Jain 2010) , and has been a feature for example
of Habbo Hotel, more focus is given to techniques that offer interac-
tion between the screen and the user, as this is viewed as an impor-
tant area that makes digital marketing successful and interesting.

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6. Arguments and Criticisms
of Digital Marketing to Children

While there is some research commenting on digital marketing

as part of the larger concern about children’s constant exposure
to commercial messages, and the commercialisation of child-
hood (Buckingham 2007; Linn and Novosat 2008; Skaar 2009;
Thomson 2010), most of the research focuses on food marketing
and its potential role in the current childhood obesity epidemic.
Childhood obesity is, according to the World Health Organisation
(WHO) one of the most public health challenges of the 21st cen-
tury, with over 42 million children under 5 estimated to be over-
weight (WHO). The epidemic is caused by a global trend towards
radically reduced physical activity levels. This is coupled by a
global shift in diet towards energy-dense foods that are high in
fat, salt and sugars (HFSS), but low in vitamins and minerals, and
advertising and marketing for these types of food products are
argued to be partly to blame for the shift in dietary intake.

6.1 WIDER CONCERNS

This review referred earlier to children’s use of SNS (see page 22)
and there is some considerable concern expressed about the level
of children’s exposure to brands on social networks, leading to
complex arguments about children’s resulting sense of reality and
feelings of self-esteem. Skaar (2009) for example argues that the
constant viewing of brands and products online, and the opportu-
nity for children to adopt the strategies and resources of profes-
sional marketers to market themselves, lay foundations for social
competition and reinforces patterns of exclusion and uniformity.
Similarly, Thomson (2010) argues that the presence of advertising
in children’s digital lives, particularly advergames, are familiaris-
ing children with the notion of ‘maximum consumption’, and so
encouraging social consumption within peer groups. Although
discussing the effects of food advertising, a similar argument is
put forward by Linn and Novosat (2008) who suggest that even
if the same marketing techniques were used to promote healthy
lifestyles, the marketing itself would still be harmful to children.
They suggest that advertising makes unrealistic promises of

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Digital marketing and advertising to children: a literature review © Advertising Education forum
 happier, more successful lives, with little relationship to reality,
and thus should not form the basis for children’s product prefer-
ences. Buckingham (2007) on the other hand views such advertis-
ing and marketing in a far wider context and accepts that it is part
of children’s world, in other words it is part of their reality. He sug-
gests that the notion of the commercialisation of childhood must
also include the commercialisation of parenthood, and argues for
the importance of considering the wider context of social class,
gender and ethnicity when discussing the role of marketing and
advertising in children’s lives. Not all children are the same, and
not all have the same experiences, so they are unlikely to respond
to advertising and marketing in the same way.

6.2 FOOD MARKETING

The current debate around food marketing and its need for regula-
tion or self-regulation is polarised. As Hawkes (2007) points out,
on one hand advertising is being blamed for rising obesity levels
(Montgomery and Chester 2007; Jones, Wiese et al. 2008; Kelly,
Bochynska et al. 2008; Corbett and Walker 2009; Hunter 2009;
Pempek and Calvert 2009; Brown and Bobkowski 2011; Hawkes
and Harris 2011; Montgomery, Grier et al. 2011), and on the other
advertising is viewed as a positive contributor to children’s lives,
and indeed something they are entitled to (WFA, 2006; ICC, 2004).
Because of the focus on food and nutrition, much research is com-
ing out of health organizations, such as Yale Rudd Centre (Yale
Rudd Centre for Food Policy and Obesity ; Harris, Schwartz et al.
2009; Harris, Schwartz et al. 2010; Ustjanauskas, Eckman et al.
2010; Harris, Schwartz et al. 2011), the Institute of Medicine (2006),
the Cancer Council (Jones, Phillipson et al. 2011) and Robert Wood
Johnson Foundation (Berkeley Media Studies Group 2011).

The concerns stem from a link between HFSS products and the
companies at the forefront of digital advertising (Calvert 2008;
Chester and Montgomery 2008; Lingas, Dorfman et al. 2009;
Sandberg 2011). At this end of the debate the research argues that
because of the amount of unhealthy food advertising children are
exposed to, HFSS manufacturers and retailers must take some of
the responsibility for the rising levels of obesity among children
and young people, and therefore proposes that such advertising
must be more heavily regulated. An alternative view is that the

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Digital marketing and advertising to children: a literature review © Advertising Education forum
 integration of commercial messages into all aspects of children’s
environment may normalise HFSS products, and thus impact on
eating habits (Kelly, Bochynska et al. 2008). They argue that the
evidence to date is too weak to draw conclusions.

6.3 DIGITAL FOOD MARKETING

Research findings are being used to link HFSS advertising, includ-
ing digital advertising, to obesity levels. There is some research
that considers the extent of advertising for HFSS products, and
the link to short term eating preferences, causing some to argue
for a ‘cause and effect’ relationship (Hunter 2009). There is less
research however on the long term effects on eating habits. The
main study cited for this is Mallincrodt and Mizerski (2007) which
was carried out with 295 children aged 5-8 year olds in a laboratory
setting, testing for their ability to recognise advertisements online
and brand preference after playing an advergame. Mallincrodt
and Mizerski reported lower levels of awareness of advertising
amongst those playing the advergame, compared with television
advertising, and higher preference of ‘Fruit Loops’ in groups that
had played the Fruit Loops advergame compared to the control
groups. While this was a substantial sample, and the immediate
effect of exposure to the advergame was clearly a preference for
the product, which could be a cause for concern, it is difficult to
argue that this has a direct effect on obesity levels or prove any
large scale impact on overall dietary intake. It is clear that more
research is needed therefore to establish the long term effects of
food advertising exposure online, and the role it plays in the much
wider picture of a global health issue (Jones, Wiese et al. 2008).

Perhaps not surprisingly, the amount of research on advertising

and obesity mirrors the countries and areas where this concern is
most prevalent, such as the United States, Australia, New Zealand
and the United Kingdom. The concern over the link between HFSS
foods and emerging marketing techniques such as digital market-
ing has spawned reports presenting overviews and commenting
on the current general picture in food marketing, pointing out
the prevalence of new ways of food advertising. Examples of this
are three reports from the US by the Yale Rudd Centre for Food
Policy and Obesity (Harris, Schwartz et al. 2009; Harris, Schwartz
et al. 2010; Harris, Schwartz et al. 2011), looking at the marketing

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Digital marketing and advertising to children: a literature review © Advertising Education forum
 strategies used to advertise sugary drinks, cereal and fast food.
The reports argue that new techniques such as social network-
ing sites were used by almost all the brands they studied which
included Coca Cola, Kraft, PepsiCo Red Bull, McDonald’s, Burger
King, KFC and Subway, and the children’s virtual world website
Millsberry. All three reports include content analyses of company
websites, counting the various techniques used, and similarly
counting Facebook pages and number of friends, although it is
questionable how much of the effect of these pages is captured by
this method.

Mobile marketing was used by most fast food and sugary drink
brands, but was not reported in the survey of the cereal brands.
Researchers note that even though most of the advertising budg-
ets are still spent on TV advertising, the non-traditional advertis-
ing budgets are increasing, and these strategies are often less
expensive than TV ads. An important issue for health policy advo-
cates such as the Yale Rudd Centre is the lack of nutritional infor-
mation connected to the products and within the adverts, and
the lack of marketing of healthier food options. All three reports
also express concern over disproportionate targeting of American
ethnic youth.

It appears to be that emerging trends in marketing are used in

tandem with more traditional techniques such as characters, TV
ads, celebrities and give-aways (Corbett and Walker 2009). Much
of the research is attempting to map out what is happening and
trying to measure the potential exposure children have to such
digital marketing through techniques such as content analysis.
This is done through tracking websites popular with children and
counting banner ads, advergames, links and so on (Jones, Wiese
et al. 2008; Kelly, Bochynska et al. 2008; Lee, Choi et al. 2009).
Other examples of this are the three Yale Rudd Centre reports
discussed above. These papers do give an accurate picture of the
prevalence of advergames, the uses of banner ads and downloads
and how people are finding well-known brands on Facebook, but
they say very little about what children and young people do with
this material, what it means to them and how it affects them.
The prevalence of such content analysis and similar techniques
as a research tool may not be the most effective way of assessing

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Digital marketing and advertising to children: a literature review © Advertising Education forum
 affect and behaviour, and the ideal methods for assessing the
impact of what is sometimes described as ‘stealth advertising’ on
children are still very much in development.

6.4 ADVOCATING ENGAGEMENT WITH WEBSITES

AND SOCIAL MEDIA TO PROMOTE HEALTHY EATING
AND LIFESTYLE
There is some interesting and relevant discussion of non-profit
versus for profit websites, and the marketing tactics used (Cai
2008; Pempek and Calvert 2009; Cai and Zhao 2010; Cicchirillo
and Lin 2011) to promote healthy eating. Some of these claim that
‘not for profit’ digital communications such as charities and educa-
tion should learn from ‘for profit’ companies in terms of creating
interactive, engaging digital environments. It is argued that the
same techniques used by highly skilled marketers could be used
to promote learning and healthy eating habits (Cicchirillo and Lin
2011). Recognising the role that friends play in children’s lives, and
the importance of peers for information and recommendations
on products and consumption, as well as behaviour, similar peer
related techniques could be used to promote a healthy lifestyle.
Social media is seen as especially important, and the opportuni-
ties for customization, personalization, user generated content,
sharing and interaction presented is considered to be a valuable
and productive vehicle for healthy messages (Brennan, Dahl et al.
2010). As an example American ethnic minority youth, particularly
African Americans and Hispanics, have been shown to be dispro-
portionately exposed to and targeted by corporate marketing,
causing Pempek and Calvert (2009) to question whether the same
methods can target such young people to promote healthy eating.

6.5 PARENTS’ VIEW ON DIGITAL MARKETING

Parents’ views can be expected to have an influence on their
children’s behaviour and decision making and the extent to which
they are concerned about digital marketing is therefore impor-
tant. Several studies that have looked at the view of parents
report little awareness of digital marketing amongst them (Bakir
and Vitell 2010; Ustjanauskas, Eckman et al. 2010; Clarke 2011).
However once parents are shown examples of digital market-
ing they express concern. In both the Yale Rudd (2010) research,
and the Credos (2011) research, whilst expressing concern about

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 advertising, parents did not want to ban advertising in general,
but rather preferred the notion of finding ways of limiting chil-
dren’s exposure to advertising. Another study shows that parents
under estimate how much advertising their children see during
their day, especially with regards to non-traditional forms of mar-
keting (Speers, Harris et al. 2008).

When considering parental views however it appears that they

might vary from country to country, or between different cultural
groups. Two of the studies mentioned above (Speers, Harris et al.
2008; Ustjanauskas, Eckman et al. 2010) were carried out in the US,
and both reported differences in levels of awareness and concern
between ethnic groups, income levels and social groups. The papers
also reported differences in attitudes towards government regula-
tion between cultural groups. It seems likely therefore that differ-
ences in attitudes and awareness will also exist between countries,
although more research is needed to confirm this.

Bakir and Vitell (2010) report that specific advertisements might

be seen differently from advertising in general, so for example if
parents are not very concerned with advertising per se, a specific
advertisement or strategy such as food advertising targeted to
children might upset them. Similarly, parents’ negative perception
of a specific advertisement in these findings did not impact their
overall attitudes to food marketing. Others argue that the gen-
erational gap between young and old Internet users, and parents’
sense of not understanding what their children are doing online is
causing some concern (Consumers International 2009).

Importantly, much of the scepticism towards digital marketing

comes from a sense that it is going on ‘under the radar’, bypassing
parents and governments, and is therefore not sufficiently regu-
lated (Brady, Farrell et al. 2008; Thomson 2010; Berkeley Media
Studies Group 2011).

6.6 PEER INFLUENCE

Some argue that research must move beyond merely measuring
children’s exposure to digital advertising. Brady, Farrell, Wong and
Mendelson (2008) attempted to measure children’s awareness of

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 and engagement with digital marketing, and found that children
were eager to recommend commercial websites to each other,
and that, unsurprisingly, this increased with age. Many children
found these websites after watching TV ads, leading the authors
to argue for more research on the synergistic impact of marketing
campaigns, as well as to go beyond preference when measuring
impact. Hunter (2009) suggests that websites represent a fur-
ther channel for previously well-developed character marketing,
such as Tony the Tiger, Ronald McDonald and Chester Cheetah.
Similarly, it is argued that the new marketing ecosystem does
not exclude traditional channels, such as TV, but adds new routes
for marketing strategies, and thus creates an even greater, cross
media marketing campaign exposure for the same characters or
actors that were successful in traditional forms of marketing, such
as McDonalds, Burger King, PepsiCo and Kraft (Montgomery and
Chester 2007). However, the effects of synergistic impact of cross
media marketing is as of yet not pursued further in the litera-
ture reviewed here, as the research framework is still designed
to capture isolated mediums (Montgomery, Grier et al. 2011).
The combination of greater exposure, targeting, user generated
content and the possibilities for peer-to-peer marketing on social
networks add great potential for large, viral marketing campaigns
(Montgomery and Chester 2007).

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7. Children’s Understanding
of Digital Marketing

The advances in digital marketing question the legitimacy of

previous research on children’s understanding of advertising and
marketing. The ethics of marketing to children, the question of
when it is ‘fair’ to advertise to children revolves around when chil-
dren can critically understand persuasive intent, and thus presum-
ably defend themselves from it. Most studies looking at children’s
understanding of advertising and marketing have been carried
out with traditional forms of advertising (see Young 1990; Chan
and McNeal 2006; Andronikidis and Lambrianidou 2010; Carter,
Patterson et al. 2011) and it could be argued that digital market-
ing changes the context of children’s advertising. It is recognised
for example that children make use of structural cues to distin-
guish advertising from content, for example being shorter than
the main program (Cai 2008; Ali, Blades et al. 2009; Cai and Zhao
2010), but with digital marketing this becomes more complex.

7.1 RECOGNITION OF DIGITAL ADVERTISING

Some studies have focused on children’s ability to recognise adver-
tisements on webpages (Mallinckrodt and Mizerski 2007; Ali, Blades
et al. 2009). These papers found lower awareness of advertising on
websites compared with television, and greater difficulty recognis-
ing it, and they discuss what structural cues might help children spot
advertisements. However, this research is still fairly limited. Some
argue for the widespread use of digital cues, such as labelling or
bridge windows to help children recognise advertising online (Cai
2008; Nairn and Fine 2008; Cai and Zhao 2010; Rozendaal, Capierre
et al. in press). Currently these are not widely used. Two papers by
Xiaomei Cai (2008; Cai and Zhao 2010) assessed the use of advertis-
ing labelling and bridge windows on popular US websites, and found
them to be scarcely used. These papers did not include any evidence
of the effects of labelling or bridge windows on these websites. The
use of price as a cue has been proved to be unsuitable, as it is not until
adolescence children fully understand the relationship between prod-
ucts and prices (Ali, Blades et al. 2009). Questions also remain about
how to implement structural cues across all types of advertising.

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 Rozendaal, Buijzen, Valkenburg (2011) have argued that children
will understand the intent of different tactics, such as celebrity
endorsements, premiums and peer popularity appeal, at differ-
ent points. This research was however carried out with traditional
marketing methods such as television and print, and the authors
argue that the same kinds of questions should be asked with
regards to digital marketing tactics to explore which of them
children find easier or more difficult to understand. It is suggested
that due to their ubiquitous nature, digital marketing strategies
will be harder for children to understand. The studies so far sug-
gest, not surprisingly, that recognition and understanding of digi-
tal advertising is complex, and in need of more research, includ-
ing into the effects of unrecognised advertising (Ali, Blades et al.
2009; Van Reijmersdal, Rozendaal et al. in press).

7.2 THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE CURRENT

LITERATURE ON CHILDREN’S UNDERSTANDING
OF ADVERTISING AND MARKETING AND THE DIGITAL
ENVIRONMENT
It is has been pointed out earlier that this is a very new area, and
academic research is so far quite limited. Interestingly much of the
most recent research on children’s understanding of advertising is
coming out of the ‘Center for Research on Children, Adolescents
and the Media’ at the University of Amsterdam. Although previ-
ously mostly concerned with television and print advertising,
researchers there have now begun to focus increasingly on digital
marketing and what this means to research on effects of adver-
tising and persuasive literacy. An important study from 2010
compared children to adults in terms of advertising competences
(Rozendaal, Buijzen et al. 2010). They argued the importance of
differentiating between recognising and understanding advertis-
ing. Their fieldwork showed that in terms of understanding at
ages 10-11 children’s competences become comparable to adults,
but even at 12 years there was a gap between them and ‘adult’
levels. However, the researchers predict that these results might
not keep up in light of newer marketing developments. They
also remind us that there are several other competencies in play
besides persuasion knowledge; and they may not be related to
advertising competencies.

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 7.3 DOES DIGITAL MARKETING TO CHILDREN
MAKE A DIFFERENCE?
Currently there is little consensus on whether digital marketing
changes the previously accepted research that considered per-
suasive intent and children’s understanding of advertising and
marketing. There is an argument that persuasive understanding
of advertising is a complex process, and remains in development
for a long period of time (Ali, Blades et al. 2009; Leslie, Levine et
al. 2009; McAlister and Cornwell 2009). It is therefore difficult to
categorise children into different groups (Kunkel 2010). Attempts
have been made to understand the different stages of this pro-
cess and the age differences that occur. Some studies for example
differentiate between ‘selling’ and ‘persuasive intent’ (Carter,
Patterson et al. 2011), and similarly ‘selling intent’ and ‘source
bias’ (Kunkel 2010) and argue that understanding ‘selling intent’
precedes understanding of ‘persuasive intent’ and ‘source bias’.
In other words, children will understand that someone is trying
to sell them something before they understand that someone
is also trying to persuade them and that this intent influences
communication.

7.4 THE NATURE OF CHILDREN’S UNDERSTANDING OF

DIGITAL MARKETING: THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES
The understanding of persuasive intent is the critical factor for ‘cog-
nitive defence’. According to this theory once children fully under-
stand that the advertisement is created to try and convince them to
buy something, they can defend themselves from it. The cognitive
defence model has been the foundation for research on advertising
literacy in relation to traditional media, but has come under critique
with the growth of what is described in the literature as ‘stealth
marketing’, meaning marketing where the persuasive intent is less
obvious. Some studies therefore argue for the introduction of ‘dual
process models of persuasion’ (Livingstone and Helsper 2006; Nairn
and Fine 2008; Montgomery 2011; Montgomery, Grier et al. 2011).
This model attempts to account for both conscious and unconscious
processes of persuasion. The dual processes of persuasion model
claims that there are two routes through which we process persua-
sive communication: the main or peripheral route. The main route
is associated with high levels of elaboration of the content, and with
explicit forms of persuasion, e.g. a spokesperson for a brand telling

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Digital marketing and advertising to children: a literature review © Advertising Education forum
 his audience that it is cheaper and more effective than competing
products, leading the audience to consciously process the argu-
ments and make a decision. The peripheral route on the other hand
is associated with low levels of elaboration, implicit processing and
affective responses. In this form of commercial communication the
selling intent is less clear, and the focus is more on attitude changes
and on associating the brand or product with positive feelings.
The argument is that digital marketing techniques rely heavily on
implicit processing of information and affective responses, and that
they will result in low levels of critical evaluation of the persuasive
message, which in the case of children makes it unlikely for them to
retrieve knowledge of persuasion and advertising and protect them-
selves from these messages (Rozendaal, Capierre et al. in press).
It is argued that these advertising techniques will not give children
the motivation and ability to retrieve information, and therefore
that they might be in need of external cues to make them do so.
The authors suggest factual comments as one strategy that might
help children, although they acknowledge that much more research
is needed to determine which types of cues will be most success-
ful. They also note that more research is needed to establish which
formal features of the advertisement will reduce or increase under-
standing of advertising and retrieval of persuasion knowledge.

In addition to dual process models the ‘theory of mind model’ has

been suggested as an addition to our understanding of children’s
development of persuasion knowledge (McAlister and Cornwell
2009). Theory of mind is the ability to understand other people’s
perspectives, and use this to predict and understand behaviour.
Theory of mind is said to precede persuasion knowledge. The
strength of theory of mind models is that it would account for
variance within age groups as it can be influenced by background
and environment (McAlister and Cornwell 2009).

The link between advertising or media literacy and effects is a

complicated one, and here there is little consensus. Livingstone
and Helsper (2006) argue that in fact advertising or media literacy
has very little influence. They reviewed the research literature
on advertising effects, and found that younger children were not
more influenced by advertising than older children, teenagers
and adults, despite the assumption that these groups should have

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Digital marketing and advertising to children: a literature review © Advertising Education forum
 higher levels of media literacy and therefore be less susceptible.
They instead argue that marketers use different ways of persua-
sion depending on the age of the target audience. Because their
results suggested that advertising literacy did not impact the
effect on brand or product preference they proposed the introduc-
tion of the ‘Elaboration Likelihood Model’; a duel process model of
persuasion that would account for advertising influencing brand
preference or product choice, despite the audience recognis-
ing and understanding the nature of marketing. It is argued that
digital marketing will increasingly foster emotional and uncon-
scious choices (Montgomery, Grier et al. 2011), and that therefore
research into persuasion and communication must take this into
account, and try and explain how these forms of communication
affect us and our product choices (Calvert 2008). Similarly, Van
Reijmersdal, Rozendaal and Buijzen (in press) found that ‘persua-
sion knowledge’, recognising and understanding a commercial
message, has less of an impact in relation to new marketing strat-
egies than with traditional ones, specifically TV advertising, and
therefore argue that if persuasion knowledge is to have an effect
we need to find cues to make children apply it.

Another piece of research from the Amsterdam Center for

Research on Children, Adolescents and Media (Rozendaal,
Capierre et al. in press) argues that we must break down advertis-
ing literacy into three categories: conceptual advertising knowl-
edge; advertising literacy performance (being able to apply our
knowledge of advertising); attitudinal advertising literacy. These,
it is argued, would account for the more affective responses and
implicit communication processes of digital marketing practices.
Rozendaal et al further critique the cognitive defence model
(which argues that once we recognise and understand advertis-
ing we can defend ourselves from it) for its lack of empirical sup-
port for its effect, and advertising literacy research for a lack of
focus on children’s ability to actually use their acquired persuasion
knowledge. According to their theory, there is not enough evi-
dence to claim that once children understand advertising they will
not be influenced by it. Nairn and Fine (2008) similarly argue that
cognitive abilities do not decrease effect, and that research into
advertising must give greater attention to implicit persuasion.

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 7.5 CHILDREN AND PRIVACY
A related issue to the one of fairness is one of privacy, as children
cannot be expected to understand the intricate ways data collec-
tion works. Research therefore has focused on the extent to which
websites that are popular with children collect personal informa-
tion, with or without parental consent and how easy these are to
circumvent (Cai 2008; Miyazaki, Stanaland et al. 2009; Cai and
Zhao 2010; Kjørstad, Brusdal et al. 2011). Several of these track
compliance with COPPA (see page 28), and some criticise age veri-
fication systems. There are also questions posed about the dis-
tinction between websites that target children, and websites that
are merely ‘child centred’, which could be seen as one way of cir-
cumventing COPPA regulations (Miyazaki, Stanaland et al. 2009).
However data collection is an area where there is not yet sufficient
empirical evidence, making it difficult to draw any conclusions
around the effects of this (Dahl, Eagle et al. 2009). Reflecting the
call for better structural cues in digital marketing, demands are
also made for more reliable age verification devices. Although
Facebook is in compliance with COPPA, it has been criticised for
not taking protection of minors online seriously enough. Founder
and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has caused controversy by claiming
that younger children should be allowed to use the social network,
and that Facebook might challenge COPPA on this ‘at some point’
(Huffington Post 2011; Warman 2011).

7.6 ADOLESCENTS AND DIGITAL MARKETING

With relation to age, most research focuses on young children and
children in early adolescence (i.e. 10-14 years), due to their develop-
ing cognitive abilities. There is however also some focus on ado-
lescents (Leslie, Levine et al. 2009). Adolescents are thought to be
especially susceptible to digital marketing due to the importance
of their peers and social environments and their susceptibility to
emotional arousal (Chester and Montgomery 2008; Leslie, Levine
et al. 2009). It is argued that they are especially vulnerable to risky
behaviour, with a tendency to be drawn to products which may not
be healthy, and which they are said to increasingly come into con-
tact with online. It is claimed that advertising at this developmental
stage taps into adolescent development where identity forma-
tion, independence, and peer contacts are extremely important
(Montgomery and Chester 2007; Calvert 2008; Montgomery 2011).

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 Even though the cognitive defence model has come into question
in light of new marketing development and new research, there
is as of yet no new consensus concerning digital marketing and
age. No new age limits have been introduced, and it has yet to be
proven if the age at which most children can understand digital
advertising is different from the age they can understand tradi-
tional advertising, although it is predicted that there might be a
difference. As far as regulation goes, most research agrees that
restrictions should extend to children at least up to 12 years old,
as it is really not until early adolescence that children fully under-
stand advertising (Carter, Patterson et al. 2011).

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8. Regulation and Self-regulation

There is some discussion in the literature of the possibilities of

regulation and self-regulation. While some remain critical of the
power of pledges to self-regulation alone (Hunter 2009; Hawkes
and Harris 2011; Quilliam, Lee et al. 2011), others see it as the
most likely way to regulate, and see many examples of good
industry practice (Ambler 2008), and others again who expect
organisations such as the World Health Organisation (WHO)
to take leadership in global self-regulation pledges (Hawkes
and Harris 2011). There has been extensive development in
self-regulation in recent time. Hawkes (2007) argues that self-
regulation always follows from external pressure from govern-
ments and civil society, and with recent debates in the US and
UK that would certainly be the case. In the UK, the Buckingham
(2009) and Bailey (2011) reviews led to new regulations to
protect children from commercial forces. In the US increased
attention on major fast food companies led to pledges to self-
regulation in 2011, which included a common nutritional stand-
ard. Recommendations by the WHO (2010) led to global pledges
by some of the major food and beverage companies (Burger
King, Coca-Cola, Danone, Ferrero, General Mills, Kellogg, Kraft
Foods, Mars, Nestlé, PepsiCo, Unilever, the European Snacks
Association (ESA) and McDonalds). Interestingly, Hawkes (2007)
further argues that evidence is a much weaker policy driver
than ethics. Thus she argues that future development of self-
regulation will depend more on some form of ethical consensus
than on research evidence. Considering the current polarisa-
tion in the debate this is perhaps not surprising, however there
should be more of a collaboration and conversation between
researchers and practitioners in order to have sufficient regula-
tion or self-regulation that is informed by good research. Due
to the ubiquitous nature of much of digital marketing, problems
of defining what actually constitutes as advertising becomes
another challenge for any regulatory consensus. Another chal-
lenge for regulation is of course also the borderless nature of
the Internet, and the task of regulating a global phenomenon
on a national level, or attempting to introduce universal stand-
ards into widely different markets. Some of the areas where

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 researchers are looking for more of a consensus in terms of
regulation or self-regulation however are age, nutrient criteria,
and data tracking.

8.1 IMPLICATIONS FOR REGULATION

AND SELF-REGULATION
Regulation of data tracking is one of the main discussions
that surrounds digital marketing to children (Chester and
Montgomery 2008). Since the beginning of this literature review,
Canada has introduced new regulations that ensures collection
of data can only take place with informed consent. It stipulates
that giving consent must be easy and accessible and, impor-
tantly, children’s data cannot be collected as they cannot be
expected to give consent (Cbc.ca 2011). The recommendations
for regulation in the literature can be summed up in relation to
two main issues:

8.2 AGE (WHEN IT IS FAIR TO ADVERTISE TO CHILDREN)

Much of the research supports the previous notion that 12 is
an appropriate age limit in terms of children and advertising
(Ali, Blades et al. 2009; Rozendaal, Buijzen et al. 2010; Carter,
Patterson et al. 2011; Rozendaal, Buijzen et al. 2011). That is,
under this age, children are not believed to fully understand the
nature of advertising, nor its commercial intent. Some however
suggest 16 as an age limit due to adolescents’ susceptibility
to new marketing strategies (Consumers International 2009;
Corbett and Walker 2009; Leslie, Levine et al. 2009), however
there is no widespread consensus on this as of yet. As previ-
ously mentioned there is a need for more research into children’s
understanding of digital marketing, and how it differs from tra-
ditional media advertising.

8.3 FOOD TYPES AND NUTRITIONAL

INFORMATION (WHAT IS ADVERTISED TO CHILDREN)
With regards to product type, universal nutritional criteria are
suggested to enable consistent regulation according to nutri-
tion (Kelly, Bochynska et al. 2008; Culp, Bell et al. 2010; Berkeley
Media Studies Group 2011; Hawkes and Harris 2011). Restrictions
on ‘unhealthy’ food marketing, such as the UK ban on HFSS
food during children’s television programmes are suggested,

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 as are increased advertising for healthier options (Mallinckrodt
and Mizerski 2007; Speers, Harris et al. 2008; Hunter 2009;
Ustjanauskas, Eckman et al. 2010; Quilliam, Lee et al. 2011).

Because of the time lag between academic research that might

be seen to assess effects, and industry developments in terms
of marketing and advertising to children, there are calls for the
regular monitoring of marketing practices, and to have a continual
source of information for researchers and experts to comment
(Montgomery and Chester 2007; Lingas, Dorfman et al. 2009).

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9. Leading academic
and practitioner views

To ensure that relevant literature was not missed and that the lat-
est thinking from leading academics and practitioners in the field
was recorded this review has also included interviews with the
following:

u Professor David Buckingham, Director of the Centre of the

Study of Children, Youth and Media, Institute of Education,
University of London; author of Government report ‘The
Impact of the Commercial World on Children’s Wellbeing’.
u Professor Sonia Livingstone, Professor of Social Psychology

and Head of the Department of Media and Communications at

LSE; director of the 33-country EU Kids Online Programme.
u Dr Julie Tinson, Reader and Director of Research Centre for

Consumers, Cultures and Society, Stirling Management School,

University of Stirling; author of book ‘Conducting Research
with Children and Adolescents’.
u Dr Brian Young, Honorary University Fellow, Department of

Psychology, University of Exeter; Editor of the journal ‘Young

Consumers’.
u Mike Cooke, Global Director, Panel Management, GfK NOP and

Vice President, ESOMAR

(For full profiles of respondents see Appendix 1 – page 73).

Academics argued that the debate over the commercialisa-

tion of childhood could be seen as a vehicle to criticise a bigger,
more complex issue, which is the capitalistic consumer society.
They were in agreement that some of the arguments that criti-
cise advertising and marketing to children are not always well
thought through or consistent, and that digital media is an area
in which new, more relevant, and better research is needed. It
was argued that divergent methods of research and contradic-
tory estimations of children’s exposure to advertising and mar-
keting have led to different results and therefore a lack of con-
sensus. One academic noted for example that new marketing

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 techniques called for the measurement of children’s exposure
to advertising and marketing as well as an assessment of their
effects on children.

It was felt that there was a need for more child-centred

approaches, with a behavioural focus, looking at what children
are actually doing online. Related to this was a call from some of
our respondents for a shift from merely studying marketing tech-
niques, and alongside this a blame culture towards marketers, to
studying consumption practices as an integrated and inseparable
part of a capitalistic society. Academics argued for more partici-
patory as well as experimental research. As media is increasingly
immersed in children’s personal lives, it was pointed out that
research that looks at advertising and marketing to children will
inevitably bring up issues of ethics, but equally strong criticism of
the validity of the research and the risk of generalisation on the
part of researchers. As an example it was argued in particular that
studies that focus on food advertising must be careful to ensure
external validity in their research and to ensure there was not an
exaggeration of the link between food preference and obesity.

It was also pointed out by our respondents that the age of child
included in the research is made very clear, as well as the out-
comes for different ages; children up to eighteen will clearly
include many developmental stages, media uses and different
levels of exposure to digital content. There was also a call for more
research into gender differences in levels of exposure, the effect
this has on children, and understanding of advertising. As children
tend to be unsupervised in their digital media use, it was sug-
gested that it might be relevant to revisit the parental mediation
debate. Academics called for more research into social networks
and the importance of peer influence, while warning that there
will be big age differences as children use social networks differ-
ently according to age and development.

In terms of regulation, some of our respondents felt more govern-

ment regulation was needed, while others felt that a self-regu-
latory approach would be more effective. This belief is founded
on problems of definition: defining what is advertising and what
is targeted advertising is a challenge. There is also a problem of

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Digital marketing and advertising to children: a literature review © Advertising Education forum
 operation; it was argued by one respondent for example that in
terms of data tracking and targeted advertising children cannot
be expected to be able to give informed consent, and therefore,
from an ethical standpoint children should not be tracked online.
Similarly, it was argued by another respondent that the under-
standing of online advertising entails an understanding of the
systematic workings of an abstract system; this refers to the age
at which children can master abstract thought, their level of social
competence, and the ability to recognise commercial intent.

It was also pointed out that digital marketing changes what ‘con-
sumer literacy’ entails, and that this must be taken into account when
considering children’s acquisition or development of these skills.

Our respondents pointed out that not only will there be many
operational challenges, but also issues connected with attempting
to nationally regulate something which does not have a national
remit. These are the same challenges, it was suggested, that face
social networks such as Twitter and Facebook in terms of opera-
tion and of fairly placing responsibility. It is likely that social and
commercial content will merge completely, and providers will
need to find a way to make sponsorship, brand ambassadors and
social marketing explicit. One respondent felt that regulating
advertising was likely to push marketing activities towards prod-
uct placement and sponsorship, hence the importance to make
their commercial intent explicit. It was felt that weaker regulation
and the growing presence of consumer groups in emerging mar-
kets in particular would make such markets essential and interest-
ing case studies for future research.

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10. Implications for Methodology

There is some discussion amongst academics about the implica-

tions for methodology in relation to digital marketing and adver-
tising to children. Montgomery, Grier et al. (2011) argue for a new
framework for research on digital (food) marketing, and point out
that some of the key concepts for research must include

u Ubiquitous connectivity: Children and young people have

access to an increasing number of media devices and are
increasingly connected to technology. Marketing campaigns
directed at them therefore also move across platforms, increas-
ing exposure. This makes it very difficult for researchers to
grasp the sum of an individual’s interaction with marketing.
u Engagement: Unlike traditional media like television and maga-
zine advertisements, digital media is increasingly interactive
and allows for active engagement with the material. Rather
than merely exposing the consumer to the brand or product,
digital marketing creates environments where people can inter-
act with the brand, create emotional connections and integrate
it into their social relationships. Researchers must therefore
find ways of assessing people’s interaction and emotional
involvement with the brand.
u User generated content: With digital media, children and
young people can engage in creating brand related content,
such as videos or personalised packaging. This form of active,
creative participation with the brand may intersect with impor-
tant identity development during adolescence.
u Personalisation and behavioural targeting: With the help of
data collection and tracking digital marketers can create per-
sonalised marketing based on the customer’s behaviour and
preferences. This requires researchers to take into account the
personalised nature of digital marketing.
u Social graph: Social networking sites have added an impor-
tant element to digital marketing; the ability to tap into the
social graph, the complex web of relationships among individu-
als online. This allows marketers to understand the nature of
online social relationships, how they work and who influences

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Digital marketing and advertising to children: a literature review © Advertising Education forum
 whom. As previously mentioned (see page 38), this may be
especially important for teens as they are relying more on peers
than on parents and family. Researchers therefore need to
explore the role of peer influence in brand promotion, and how
social interactions online intersect with eating behaviours.
u Immersive environments: Immersive environments create an
experience of being inside the action, and a sense of ‘presence’,
using interactive games, three-dimensional virtual worlds,
realistic images and sounds and other multimedia applications.
These environments are designed to create intense experiences
and a strong sense of subjectivity and emotional arousal.

Montgomery, Grier et al. (2011) argue that research should move

from a focus on viewing advertising as the notion of the com-
munication of received messages to a new focus on advertising
as an interactive form of communication between multiple play-
ers, including the brand, the company, the receiver (which in this
case is the child) and the end user. These authors also point out
that the research currently being carried out focuses mainly on
areas that can be covered by traditional methods, such as content
analysis. This might explain the proportionately large amount of
research on advergames, apart from the popularity of gaming
with children. Advergames are relatively easy to identify, locate,
and separately analyse; the process of assessing exposure to
them, and understanding them is quite easy to measure, com-
pared to the exposure to more ubiquitous commercial messages
that might be found on social networks. Therefore, there are
many studies that focus on food-company-sponsored advergames
that are easy to quantify (Moore 2006; Moore and Rideout 2007;
Lee, Choi et al. 2009; Montgomery, Grier et al. 2011).

Speaking generally of Internet research, danah boyd (2008) sug-

gests that the main challenge for researchers is the problem of
boundaries, as digital media, and social networking in particular
becomes increasingly entwined in people’s lives. boyd argues
that when ethnography first went online it tended to focus on
more static spaces, with a clearer sense of boundaries. The ques-
tion becomes how to set the limits of a research project when the
online world is constantly changing. The continuously evolving
nature of, for example, social networks, and the way different

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Digital marketing and advertising to children: a literature review © Advertising Education forum
 websites are integrated into each other through links or embed-
ded texts or videos with users moving between them present
a challenge to any researcher. boyd points out that in trying to
understand social spaces it is difficult to separate online from
offline worlds. Thus in the case of understanding digital marketing
it might be difficult to isolate the impact of one medium (e.g. SNS
or advergames) separately from other more traditional media such
as TV or print, as well as its connection to wider social aspects.
This is particularly the case when TV can be viewed online and the
internet can be accessed on the move through a smart phone.

It has also been suggested by researchers that another methodo-

logical issue is to do with time. Because the digital world is mov-
ing and developing so fast, particularly in relation to children and
their interaction with digital media, the time lag between industry
developments and academic research is inevitably great. As such,
there is a call for scientific, objective but efficient methods that
can allow the critical debate to keep up to date with the industry
(Jones, Wiese et al. 2008).

It is argued that a methodological confusion and the lack of a

common conceptual ground is leading to a lack of consensus in
the field (Kunkel 2010). Kunkel argues for more research into age
related understanding, but warns that there might be individual
differences in terms of children’s understanding of persuasive
intent (e.g., levels of sophistication and exposure; learning difficul-
ties etc), and that it may therefore be difficult to categorise young
people by age groups.

It is evident that in the literature there is a large proportion of

content analysis and before exposure/after exposure experiments
(Mallinckrodt and Mizerski 2007; Ali, Blades et al. 2009; McAlister
and Cornwell 2009; Pempek and Calvert 2009; Rozendaal, Buijzen
et al. 2010; Van Reijmersdal, Rozendaal et al. in press). Much of
this could be described as being carried out in ‘laboratory’ con-
ditions. While the measuring of the amount of advertising on
websites, and the testing for effect after exposure could both be
said to be using scientific methods, such research runs the risk of
drawing a quite different picture from the natural media environ-
ment children inhabit, and ending up with results that might be

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Digital marketing and advertising to children: a literature review © Advertising Education forum
 quite different from more organic environments. For example
asking children to watch content in a controlled environment and
measuring their responses might be very different from viewing at
home where siblings and parents are present and where the child
might well be multi-tasking and distracted by other tasks such as
eating and playing. In terms of measurement there is a possible
discrepancy between potential and actual exposure. While typical
‘content analysis’ will measure the potential exposure, predicting
exactly what children are exposed to, and their recognition, the
actual understanding and processing of this is a rather more com-
plicated issue (Sandberg 2011).

It can also be argued that these methodologies make it difficult to

make any claims over and critically discuss long term effects, as
this is not being measured, but which nevertheless is what many
researchers are most concerned about. While some researchers do
make it clear that they cannot make the leap to claims on behav-
iour, many do use results on short term eating preferences as proof
of long term behaviour change. As Vandewater and Lee (2009)
argue, the challenge for any type of media measuring methodol-
ogy in a digital age is connecting exposure to individual children’s
behaviour. There is a further question of how close the researcher
needs to be to their subject, as he or she runs the risk of sacrific-
ing ethical concerns for validity. Any researcher must decide how
much detail and information they need to collect in order to get a
reasonable estimate for what it is they want to assess. With digital
media increasingly entwined in young people’s lives, the question
becomes how close we want to get, and how we can generalise our
findings. There is thus a need for both long term studies, as well as
studies that take into account the convergences of media and the
synergistic effects, rather than trying to isolate marketing medi-
ums (Brown and Bobkowski 2011; Montgomery, Grier et al. 2011).
Media content is increasingly converging online, and it will become
important to understand whether platform or context matters,
and in what ways. Synergies across platforms and how platforms
and content within them relate to children’s perception of advertis-
ing also need to be assessed.

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11. Further Research

There are still many gaps in the research literature, and future
research should seek to shed more light on the following areas:

11.1 AGE DIFFERENCES

As children’s activities online change as they grow older, so
does their exposure to and engagement with digital advertising
(Brady, Farrell et al. 2008; Rideout, Foehr et al. 2010). Thus, more
research is needed into the age related differences in exposure
to, engagement with, understanding, and the impact of digital
marketing. Tweens for example are a social group given much
attention both by advertisers and academics. At this age (8-12)
children are increasingly consuming digital media but their use has
different patterns from that of older teenagers on whom much of
the research has been focused (Tufte 2006; Clarke, Harrison et al.
2010).

11.2 GENDER DIFFERENCES

There are differences in girls’ and boys’ perceptions of advertising
as well as their consumption patterns and media use. For example,
boys tend to play more games and are likely to watch more videos,
while girls spend more time on social networking sites and instant
messaging (Rideout, Foehr et al. 2010; Livingstone, Haddon et al.
2011). Thus, further research should look more closely on engage-
ment with digital media, and the effects of advertising between
genders (Tufte 2006; Buckingham 2007).

11.3 LONG TERM AND REAL TIME RESEARCH

Due to the previously mentioned time lag between the market-
ing industry and academic research there is a call for research and
monitoring practices that can better keep up with developments.
It is argued that one of the limitations of many pieces of research
on advertising on websites directed at or popular with children
is that too much time passes between the researchers initially
visiting the website and the research finally being published
(Cowburn and Boxer 2007; Jones and Reid 2010), leading to many
of the websites already having changed or closed. Jones, Wiese

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 et al.(2008) therefore argue that research must, and themselves
attempt to, report website findings in ‘real time’, thus shortening
the time period between fieldwork and publication.

There are also calls for more long term research in order to take
into account the complexities of advertising children’s dietary
intake and food preference behaviour (Brady, Farrell et al. 2008;
McAlister and Cornwell 2009; Pempek and Calvert 2009; Van
Reijmersdal, Rozendaal et al. in press). The previously mentioned
‘laboratory’ type experiments (see page 40) may prove effects on
short term brand preference, but they are less suited for account-
ing for long term effects of eating habits and health. Long term
research projects could potentially also account for how advertis-
ing interacts with other issues related to food intake, such as food
prices, availability, location and social class.

11.4 VULNERABLE GROUPS

OF CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE
US research literature indicates that ethnic youth have been
shown to be disproportionately targeted by, and more accepting
of new forms of marketing, especially urban forms (Buckingham
2007; Montgomery and Chester 2007; Berkeley Media Studies
Group 2011; Montgomery 2011; Montgomery, Grier et al. 2011).
African Americans and Hispanics in the US for example have been
shown to have much higher Internet and mobile use, making them
a lucrative market (Rideout, Foehr et al. 2010). There is however
to date very little research on particularly vulnerable groups, and
more research should be conducted to assess whether this is also
the case in other countries, and what the long term effect of this
may be. Researchers outside the US should also focus on differ-
ences in social and cultural groups, and assess whether less afflu-
ent groups or ethnic minorities are targeted or affected in signifi-
cant ways.

11.5 INAPPROPRIATE ADVERTISING

This literature review has focused on digital marketing and adver-
tising targeted to children. It has not looked at inappropriate
advertising that children might see, for example advertising for
alcohol, gambling or weight loss, all of which have been observed
on children’s social networking sites (Clarke 2009). While there is

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 no sense that such advertising is targeted to children, it is never-
theless the case that children younger than 13 are lying about their
age to gain access to social networking sites such as Facebook,
and so are vulnerable to inappropriate digital advertising and mar-
keting messages. A wide-scale review of what children are actu-
ally viewing online would establish the extent to which children
are vulnerable to inappropriate advertising and marketing mes-
sages. While the literature has referred to concern about this, and
there is widespread concern expressed (Bailey 2011), it is difficult
to establish the extent of children’s exposure to such advertising
without further research.

11.6 ASSESSING CONSUMPTION PRACTICES

The academics and practitioners interviewed for this review called
for a shift in the way research is carried out to assess the effects of
digital marketing and advertising on children. Buckingham (2007)
argues for the focus to be on consumption practices, that is to gain
a clear understanding of how children are using digital media, and
the role of marketing and advertising communication within this.
In particular the focus should be on the role of parents in monitor-
ing their children’s consumption, potential differences in under-
standing and consumption in terms of age, gender and class, and
the role of consumer literacy within this. Related to this is new
measurement techniques, that take differences in medium and
platform, and how they are interacted with into account (Brown
and Bobkowski 2011).

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13. Conclusion

Research on digital marketing to children still has significant

gaps, but is no doubt an area of increasing interest. A large pro-
portion of the research focuses on the role of digital marketing
in children’s diets and rising obesity levels. There is to date little
research assessing the wider role of digital marketing in the social
lives of children and young people.

It is suggested that digital marketing challenges previously estab-

lished research on children’s understanding of advertising, as it
is argued that the techniques employed in digital marketing will
prove more difficult for children to critically understand compared
to traditional advertising. There appears to be a consensus that
the research on children’s persuasion literacy needs to be revised
in light of new techniques and forms of exposure. Equally some
suggest that the ages of children in advertising regulation and
self-regulation need to be reviewed. However, there is too little
research evidence to establish a consensus on what age children
can understand digital forms of marketing. There are also calls
for food marketing regulation to include common nutritional
standards, as well as the encouragement to market healthier food
products in order to attempt to decrease the levels of HFSS food
in children’s diets.

Research has mainly focused on the levels of advertising on popu-

lar children’s websites, the number of banner ads, links, videos,
logos, and on advergames. Advergames are shown to be very
popular with children, and it is argued that this popularity may
influence children’s brand preferences and, when it comes to food
marketing, eating habits, as the products marketed by adver-
games tend to be lower in nutritional value. There is very little
research to date on social networking sites, mobile and location
based marketing and product placement, although these are pre-
dicted to become increasingly important.

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Digital marketing and advertising to children: a literature review © Advertising Education forum
 There is also a call for research into age and gender differences in
terms of understanding of and engagement with advertising, as
well as vulnerable social groups and their exposure to and engage-
ment with advertising. With regards to food marketing there is a
need for more research into long term effects of marketing, and
its role in interaction with other issues related to children’s health,
such as food prices, health care systems and parenting culture.

It is argued that new forms of digital marketing challenge the

methods previously employed to study children and advertising.
In particular effective methods to assess the web of cross-media
marketing, the levels of interactivity and engagement with mar-
keting, the social aspects of marketing on social networks and the
fast pace and fluid nature of digital advertising is needed.

The debate about children and digital marketing and children’s

role in the commercial world more generally is still fairly polarised,
and there is a need for more research to ensure a more balanced
discussion. Research should attempt to fairly assess the role of
digital marketing in the social lives of children and their family and
peers, not only in relation to eating habits but also other aspects
of children’s lives, positive or negative. Digital media is becom-
ing an increasingly integrated part of children’s lives globally, and
digital marketing in one form or another will be part of their online
experience. Research can play an important role in assessing the
potential harm or benefits of digital marketing to children and
young people, and ensure best practice and sound regulation or
self-regulation. As Internet and mobile penetration increases in
areas where marketers have previously struggled to reach large
audiences, digital marketing is likely to be very important, and
thus research should monitor and critically assess these develop-
ments. This will be an important aspect of establishing digital
marketing to children as an independent field of study, separated
from research on television and print advertising, with its own
methodology and encompassing wider social issues.

66
Digital marketing and advertising to children: a literature review © Advertising Education forum
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Report: Focus Groups With Parents: What Do They
Young, B. (1986). Children’s food choices, parents
Think About Food Marketing to Their Kids?, Yale
understanding and influence, and the role of food
Rudd Centre For Food Policy and Obesity.
promotion. Commercial Television and European
Valero, M., P. (2009). "Advertising to Chinese chil- Children. S. Ward and R. Brown. Aldershot, UK,
dren." Young Consumers 10(2): 5. Gower.
van der Gaag, N. (2010). Because I Am a Girl: The State Young, B. (1990). Children and television advertising.
of the World’s Girls: Digital and Urban Frontiers Oxford, UK, Claredon Press.
Plan International.
Zickuhr, K. and A. Smith (2011). 28% of American
adults use mobile and social location-based ser-
vices, Pew Internet and American Life Project, Pew
Research Center.

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Appendices

1. RESPONDENTS' PROFILES

David Buckingham,
Professor of Media and Communications,
Loughborough University

David Buckingham is a Professor of Media and Communications

in the School of Social Sciences at Loughborough University. Prior
to joining Loughborough in 2012, he was Professor of Education
at the Institute of Education, London University, where he
directed the Centre for the Study of Children, Youth and Media.
His research focuses on children’s and young people’s interactions
with electronic media, and on media education. He is currently
directing a project on learning progression in media education;
and has recently completed projects on childhood, ‘sexualisation’
and consumer culture, and on young people, the internet and
civic participation. He recently led an independent assessment
for the UK government on ‘the impact of the commercial world
on children’s wellbeing’. David is the author, co-author or editor
of 25 books, including most recently Beyond Technology (2007),
Youth, Identity and Digital Media (2008), Video Cultures: Media
Technology and Amateur Creativity (2009) and The Material Child:
Growing Up in Consumer Culture (2011).

Professor Sonia Livingstone, LSE

Sonia Livingstone is Professor of Social

Psychology and Head of the Department of Media
and Communications at LSE. She is author or
editor of sixteen books and many academic arti-
cles and chapters. She has held visiting professor positions at the
Universities of Copenhagen, Stockholm, Bergen, Illinois, Milan,
and Paris II, and is on the editorial board of several leading journals.
She was President of the International Communication Association
(2007-8) and served for six years on ICA's Executive Committee.

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 Her research examines media audiences; children, young people
and the internet in social, domestic and educational contexts;
media and digital literacies; the mediated public sphere; internet
use and policy; and the public understanding of communications
regulation. These interests also shape her teaching on core MSc
courses in theories and methods of research in media and commu-
nications, her graduate option course 'The audience in media and
communications', and her supervision of PhD students.

Currently, Sonia Livingstone directs a 33-country network, EU

Kids Online, for the EC's Safer Internet Programme. She serves on
the Executive Board of the UK's Council for Child Internet Safety,
for which she is the Evidence Champion. She has, at various times,
served on the Department of Education's Ministerial Taskforce
for Home Access to Technology for Children, Ofcom's Media
Literacy Research Forum, and the boards of Voice of the Listener
and Viewer and the Internet Watch Foundation. She has advised
Ofcom, Department for Education, Home Office, Economic and
Social Research Council, BBC, The Byron Review on children's
online risk, and Higher Education Funding Council for England.

Dr Julie Tinson,
vReader and Director of Research Centre for
Consumers, Cultures and Society,
Stirling Management School, University of
Stirling

Julie has an MA from Edinburgh University and a PhD from Napier

University which sought to understand how social factors affected
the expectations of women using the maternity provision. She has
subsequently researched consumer behaviour in relation to chil-
dren, adolescents and the family. Before arriving at the University
of Stirling in 2005, Julie worked at Southampton Business School
for six years and Bristol Business School for four years. Julie has
a particular interest in working with practitioners and has previ-
ously been successful in securing project funding from a range of
organisations including Barclays, Associa, Tpoll and most notably
Channel 4.

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 Julie's research considers consumption behaviour associated with
consumer socialisation and periods of transition. She has pub-
lished widely in the areas of families and family decision making
as well as on the consumer behaviour of children and adolescents.
Media, advertising and gender have also featured in past research
studies.

Dr Brian Young,
Honorary University Fellow,
Department of Psychology,
University of Exeter

Dr Brian Young is a leading media psychologist at the University

of Exeter and an expert in the field of TV and media. He has writ-
ten extensively on the topic of TV and media, editing and publish-
ing journals and academic papers. He acts as a consultant for The
Independent Television Commission (ITC) and the Advertising
Association (AA). Dr Brian Young graduated with a BSc in psychol-
ogy at the University of Edinburgh where he started his career
researching children’s minds as part of project with Professor
Margaret Donaldson. He spent seven years in Hong Kong explor-
ing cross-cultural psychology and was awarded a PhD by the
University of Hong Kong for a thesis on Chinese-English bilingual-
ism. After working at the University of Salford where he began
his work into children’s understanding of advertising, he moved
to the University of Exeter where he is now an Honorary Research
Fellow. He is Editor of the Journal Young Consumers.

Mike Cooke,
Global Director,
Panel Management, GfK NOP

Mike Cooke is Vice President of ESOMAR, the

global Market Research organisation, and is a
senior director at GfK NOP where he is Global Director of Online
Panel Management. Mike assisted in the redrafting of the
ESOMAR "Guidelines for Internet Research”, the "ESOMAR 26
Questions to help research buyers of online sample”. He has been
the ESOMAR representative on the Association Collaborative

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 Effort, which has developed global definitions for online market
research and is active in global initiatives to ensure knowledge
sharing.

Mike is a Fellow of the Market Research Society and the Royal

Society of Arts and a Trustee of the Marketing Sciences Institute
in the USA. He was Vice Chairman of the British Market Research
Society, on the Executive of the Social Research Association and
on the Council of the Association of Management Sciences.

Cooke is a well known speaker, and has given many papers at

ESOMAR, CASRO, MRS and other research events. He is also a
regular lecturer on market research educational courses. He sits
on the Executive Editorial Board of the International Journal of
Market Research.

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2. SUBJECT OF PAPERS REVIEWED

A B C D E F G H I
Paper: All Mar- HFSS Healthy Kids’ Adver- SNS/ Under- Mo- Method-
keting Foods Foods Web- games Social Standing bile ology
sites Mkt. Adverts Mkt
Ali et.al. (2009) X X
Ambler (2008) X
Andersen et.al. (2008) X
Bailey et.al. (2009) X
Bakir and Vitell (2010) X
Bati and Atici (2010) X
Berkeley Media Studies (2011) X X X X X X X
boyd (2008) X
Brady et.al. (2008) X X
Brennan et.al. (2010) X
British Heart Foundation X X
(2007)
Brown and Bobkowski (2011) X X
Buckingham (2007) X X X
Cai (2008) X X
Cai and Zhao (2010) X X
Calvert (2008) X X X X X X
Carter et.al. (2011) X
Chan and McNeal (2006) X
Chester and Montgomery X X X X X X X
(2007)
Chester and Montgomery X X X X X X
(2008)
Cicchirillo and Lin (2011) X X
Consumers International X X
(2009)
Corbett and Walker (2009) X X X X
Cowburn and Boxer (2007) X X
Culp and Bell (2010) X X X X
Dahl et.al. (2009) X X
Evans (2008) X
Gbadamosi (2010) X
Hara and Nakagawa (2011) X
Harris et.al. (2009) X X X X
Harris et.al (2010) X X X X X
Harris et.al. (2011) X X X X X
Hawkes (2007) X
Hawkes and Harris (2011) X
Hawkes and Harris (2011) X
Hernandez and Chapa (2010) X X
Hill (2011) X X

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Digital marketing and advertising to children: a literature review © Advertising Education forum
 A B C D E F G H I
Paper: All Mar- HFSS Healthy Kids’ Adver- SNS/ Under- Mo- Method-
keting Foods Foods Web- games Social Standing bile ology
sites Mkt. Adverts Mkt
Hunter (2009) X
Jain (2010) X
Jones et.al. (2008) X X
Jones et. al. (2011) X X
Jones and Reid (2010) X X
Kaiser Family Foundation X X X
(2006)
Keller and Kalmus (2009) X
Kelly et.al. (2008) X X X
Kjørstad et.al. (2011) X X
Kunkel (2010) X X
Lee et.al. (2009) X X
Lee and Youn (2006) X X
Leslie et.al. (2009) X
Linn and Novosat (2008) X X X X X
Lingas et.al. (2009) X X
Livingstone (2009) X
Livingstone and Helsper X X
(2006)
Mallinckrodt and Mizerski X X X
(2007)
McAlister and Cornwell (2009) X X
Miller and Washington (2012) X
Miyazaki et.al. (2009) X
Montgomery (2001) X X
Montgomery et.al. (2011) X X X X X X X
Nairn (2008) X X X
Nairn and Dew (2007) X X
Nairn and Fine (2008) X X X X
Ostry et.al. (2008) X
Pempek and Calvert (2009) X X
Purswani (2010) X
Quilliam et.al. (2011) X
Rideout et.al. (2010) X
Rozendaal et.al. (2010) X
Rozendaal et.al. (2011) X
Rozendaal et.al. (in press) X
Sandberg (2011) X X x
Skaar (2009) X X
Speers et.al. (2008) X
Thomson (2010) X X X
Thomson (2011) X X

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 A B C D E F G H I
Paper: All Mar- HFSS Healthy Kids’ Adver- SNS/ Under- Mo- Method-
keting Foods Foods Web- games Social Standing bile ology
sites Mkt. Adverts Mkt
Thornley et.al. (2010) X
Turnipseed and Rask (2011) X X
Tufte (2006) X
Ustjanauskas et.al. (2010) X
Valero (2009) X
Vandewater and Lee (2009) X
van Reijmersdal et.al. (in press) X X
Wright (2011) X
Yngve (2007) X

KEY:
A All marketing
B HFSS foods
C Healthy foods
D Children’s websites
E Advergames
F Social networks/social marketing
G Understanding of advertising
H Mobile marketing
I Methodology

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