Study finds potentially manipulative ads in apps marketed to preschoolers
APPS marketed to children 5 and younger deploy potentially manipulating tactics to deliver ads to children, raising questions about the ethics of child software design and consumer protection, according to a new study.
Researchers from the University of Michigan C. S. Mott Children’s Hospital looked at more than 100 apps, mostly from the Google Play Store, and found that nearly all of them had at least one type of ad, often interwoven into the apps’ activities and games.
The apps, according to the researchers, used a variety of ways to deliver ads to children, including: using commercial characters, pop-up ads, in- app purchases and, in some cases, distracting ads, hidden ads or ads that were posed as gameplay items.
The authors suggest that the deceptive and persuasive nature of the ads leave children susceptible to them, because of their lack of mental development in controlling their impulses and attention.
“Our findings show that the early childhood app market is a Wild West, with a lot of apps appearing more focused on making money than the child’s play experience,” Jenny Radesky, a developmental behavioural expert and an author of the study, said in a statement. “This has important implications for advertising regulation, the ethics of child app design, as well as how parents discern which children’s apps are worth downloading.”
Young children use mobile devices one hour every day, on average, highlighting the importance of researching what they encounter and how it may impact their health, Radesky added. The study comes amid a broader backlash against technology giants and the popular apps that compete for users’ time and attention.