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Digital Advertising to Children

Jul 2020 🇺🇸 American Academy of Pediatrics PEER-REVIEWED PAYWALLED — LINKED, NOT HOSTED

Digital Advertising to Children is an American Academy of Pediatrics policy statement, with Jenny Radesky as lead author, reviewing how children and teenagers encounter marketing through sponsored content, influencer posts, data-driven targeting, and machine-learning-personalized ads across apps, games, and video platforms. It describes these newer formats as harder for young people to recognize as advertising than traditional commercials, and links exposure to persuasive digital marketing with associations reported elsewhere between advertising exposure and outcomes such as poor dietary choices and interest in age-restricted products. The statement raises particular concern that behavioral tracking of children's online activity for ad targeting could compound existing disparities. It recommends pediatricians build family digital-literacy skills and calls on policymakers and technology companies to adopt design and disclosure practices that support healthier decision-making rather than exploit developmental vulnerabilities.

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CITATION

Radesky, Jenny S., Yolanda (Linda) Reid Chassiakos, Nusheen Ameenuddin, and Dipesh Navsaria; AAP Council on Communications and Media. "Digital Advertising to Children." Pediatrics 146, no. 1 (July 2020): e20201681. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2020-1681

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