FTC Staff Paper Warns of Risks to Kids from Blurred Advertising, Urges Marketers to Avoid It.
A new Federal Trade Commission (FTC) staff paper underscores the need for businesses, social media influencers, and online marketers targeting children to clearly separate advertising from other content to minimize potential harm to kids. The paper, based on insights from the agency's October 2022 workshop titled "Protecting Kids from Stealth Advertising in Digital Media," highlights the challenge children face in distinguishing between advertising and other digital content, especially in immersive online environments. It emphasizes that younger children, in particular, are unlikely to benefit from disclosure efforts.
The FTC's Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection, Samuel Levine, emphasized the seriousness of concerns surrounding blurred advertising in today's digital landscape. The workshop revealed that many young consumers lack the cognitive skills to identify or assess blurred advertising effectively, leaving them vulnerable to deception and various potential harms, including physical, psychological, financial, and privacy-related issues. Children frequently encounter such advertising on gaming platforms, video channels, and social media, where marketing seamlessly blends with the content.
Blurred advertising allows marketers to disguise their promotional messages, and younger consumers may struggle to discern or evaluate them due to their focus on the content itself. Additionally, children may be more trusting of such messaging, especially if it comes from sources they trust, such as social media influencers or in-game avatars. The potential harms associated with blurred advertising for kids include the promotion of harmful products, financial repercussions from unauthorized purchases, and susceptibility to targeted advertising based on their personal information. The staff paper suggests five recommended practices to mitigate these risks when entities engage in blurred advertising, recognizing that a single approach may not suffice and that parental monitoring alone is not a reasonable solution.
You can read the full FTC article and see the recommendations here.