Advertising on Children’s Web Sites 2
people leave their “footprints”---personal information--- either voluntarily or
involuntarily when they surf the Web. Misuse of personal information may result in risks
to an individual’s physical security, economic injury, and with practices that are
unwanted intrusions in people daily lives (Muris, 2001). Seventy percent of consumers
reported that they worried their privacy was at risk online (Jupiter Media Metrix 2002).
An important dimension of online privacy is the collection of personal
information from children. Congress passed the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act
(COPPA) in 1998. The goal of the law is to regulate online marketers’ practices when it
comes to collecting personal information from children under age of 13. The law went
into effect April 2000. The law requires online operators to post links to their privacy
policies, and ask for parental permission before collecting personal information from
children. Over the past couple of years, studies have shown that more and more online
operators are complying with the law (CME, 2001; FTC, 2002).
While COPPA regulates online operators’ practices of information collection, it
does not apply to advertisers who place ads on these Web sites. More than two-thirds of
Web sites that are designed for children and teens use advertising as their primary
revenue. The number of children’s Web sites with no advertising has dropped to from 10
percent to 2 percent in 2001 (Neuborne, 2001). With this prevalence of advertising
practices on children’s Web sites, it is critical to explore the nature of these ads and what
features these ads carry.
This study analyzes the advertisements appeared on the most popular children’s
Web sites. It will examine an ad in the following aspects: its position, its structural
Convention