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What to know about kids apps and advertising
Toddlers with eyes glued to smartphones and tablets is unsurprising these days, but parents may be shocked by a new study from the University of Michigan Medical School that reports children’s so-called educational apps are loaded with advertising.
Nearly all smartphone and tablet apps targeted at preschoolers include commercial content, according to a study published in October in the Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics. For the study researchers analyzed 96 of the most popular free and paid apps aimed at kids under 5 and evaluated the prevalence, design and content of advertising.
Overall 95 percent of the apps had at least one type of advertising, including 100 percent of free apps.
“We were surprised by the heavy saturation of popular children’s apps with advertising. We were even more surprised by the advertising designs and approaches we discovered,” said Dr. Jenny Radesky, a development behavior expert, pediatrician and a senior author of the report.
For example, the pop-up ads, which appeared out of the blue during gameplay, would be really disruptive to a young brain who already has difficulty paying attention, Radesky said.
“The hidden ads, which appear upon clicking a fun-appearing gameplay item such as a sparkling cake or a pulsing present on the screen, seemed deceptive to a young child whose attention would be drawn to novel stimuli,” she said.
While watching a short ad may not seem that bad, parents should be concerned about how apps have ads embedded within the gameplay. For example, children are offered the opportunity to watch ads in order to gain more coins or tokens, get better items such as a faster tool that helps them play the game more easily, or unlock levels.
“This can lead to children watching many more ads than you’d expect, because they’d be motivated to get ahead in the game,” Radesky said. “While it’s not dangerous for children to watch ads per se, except the few we saw that were slightly violent or inappropriate, I think it’s a bad idea to get kids accustomed to the idea that ‘play’ equals a simple app puzzle that keeps nudging you to consume ads or purchase things. Many of these apps didn’t even feel like play — nothing like the fun, challenge, imagination and problem-solving that comes from play in the real world.”
While it’s important to monitor what kids are seeing online and in apps, Radesky said she doesn’t want the onus to only be on parents of young children who often have enough on their plates.
“Parents have a huge consumer power and should use it, and uninstall anything that is too full of ads or distracting to their child,” Radesky said.
As opposed to children’s television there are no regulations concerning in-app advertising to children, which is something Radesky believes should change.
Because kids playing online is not going away, parents should look for apps that have a clear educational or creative goal, allow children to be active learners or creators, and that parents and children can use together, said Heather Kirkorian, associate professor of human development and family studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“There are some useful review and curation sites to help parents find content that is more beneficial than most; Common Sense Media (commonsensemedia.org) is a popular one,” she said.
The most important things to consider are content (educational versus violent) and context (using media alone versus with a parent), Kirkorian said.
“If children are going to use devices by themselves, consider applying the same good-parenting practices that you would for any other situation: Know what your kids are doing, where they are going and who they are with. Always look for content that helps children learn and play in positive ways. Make sure that digital media do not displace other positive activities like outdoor play,