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Kids' Apps Are Flooded With Ads (reuters.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Those cute little apps your child plays with are most likely flooded with ads -- some of which are totally age-inappropriate, researchers have found. A stunning 95 percent of commonly downloaded apps that are marketed to or played by children age five and under contain at least one type of advertising, according to a new report in the Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics. And that goes for the apps labeled as educational, too, researchers say. Often the ads are intrusive, spread across in a banner or even interrupting play, said study coauthor Dr. Jenny Radesky, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Michigan and the University of Michigan C. S. Mott Children's Hospital.
Perhaps the most insidious ads are the ones you need to click a little "x" to get rid of, Radesky said. "The little 'x' doesn't show up for about 20 seconds," she explained. "If you're a 2- or 3-year-old you might think the ad is a part of the game. And you don't know what to do. You might click on the ad and that could take you to the app store. Many of these ads require you to do things before the 'x' will appear." Some ads are for products that aren't appropriate for kids, Radesky said. "I've seen banner ads for bipolar treatment in some of these apps," she added. One of the problems with these ads is that kids often can't tell where the game leaves off and the ad begins. "There's science to show that children aged 8 and younger can't distinguish between media content and advertising," Radesky said.
The researchers surveyed 135 of the most downloaded free and paid apps in the "age five and under" category in the Google Play store and found that 95 percent of them "contained at least one type of advertising, which included use of popular cartoon characters to sell products, teasers suggesting the purchase of the 'full' version of the app, and advertising videos that interrupted play to promote in-app purchases or purchases of other products," reports Reuters.
Perhaps the most insidious ads are the ones you need to click a little "x" to get rid of, Radesky said. "The little 'x' doesn't show up for about 20 seconds," she explained. "If you're a 2- or 3-year-old you might think the ad is a part of the game. And you don't know what to do. You might click on the ad and that could take you to the app store. Many of these ads require you to do things before the 'x' will appear." Some ads are for products that aren't appropriate for kids, Radesky said. "I've seen banner ads for bipolar treatment in some of these apps," she added. One of the problems with these ads is that kids often can't tell where the game leaves off and the ad begins. "There's science to show that children aged 8 and younger can't distinguish between media content and advertising," Radesky said.
The researchers surveyed 135 of the most downloaded free and paid apps in the "age five and under" category in the Google Play store and found that 95 percent of them "contained at least one type of advertising, which included use of popular cartoon characters to sell products, teasers suggesting the purchase of the 'full' version of the app, and advertising videos that interrupted play to promote in-app purchases or purchases of other products," reports Reuters.
Why hasn't Americans empeach TRUMP?
He's a racist will start World Word 3 Civic war.
Why you keep voting for this orange hair Rogaines man?
Whole world is laughing at you.
Who cares?
Leftism is the result of bad parenting.
Please ban machine guns. Thank you, the Universe.
Hmmm... Why might a psychological doctor and researcher's kids be served ads for bi-polar treatments?
Nothing immediately comes to mind...
Unless, maybe, could it be that the psychological doctor and researcher was the actual target of the AI targeted ad?
Aren't there laws dealing with advertising directed at kids?
This sounds like people are turning these kids apps into shitholes of ads and other predatory crap.
If you have an app marketed to kids 5 and under, it really needs to adhere to some standards, and not just what some asshole marketing company feels is OK.
Once again, ad companies are fucking useless parasites.
Kid applications are horrible. Its hard to find decent ones. We basically ended up ditching android, getting a reasonably cheap ipad on a Christmas sale and only loading it with PBS Kids and then paying for ABC Mouse. The iPad is easier for them to hold, and the little home button is very intuitive for kids. This then allows apps to take the whole screen and not having the other UI elements on the edge for an accidental hit.
I figure don't companies were providing games for free. What a strange concept to actually try tp get money.
You can't trick people into clicking the ad if you push the back button
DO NOT ALLOW YOUR KIDS TO GROW-UP USING SMARTPHONE/TABLET/IOT!!!
Make them grow-up (tried and true!) good old fashioned way: Books/toys (but NOT internet connected ones)!!!
Nintendo's Super Mario Run follows the same shareware model as Idthesda's Doom, putting up the paywall after a few levels. If "teasers suggesting the purchase of the 'full' version of the app" are objectionable, then what's the least dishonest way for a game studio to both allow a parent to evaluate a game and keep a roof over the heads of its programmers and artists?
my almost 4 year old year old clicks skip, and clicks x''s on Ads
Adult apps are riddled with ads. Why is anyone surprised kids apps are as well? Why anyone would be deploying apps to children without playing enough of it to get a feel for how much junk it pumps should be beyond me, but considering how many parents just hand these things off as virtual babysitters without a second thought, sadly it is not. Pile on the fact that the populous seems to be blind to intrusive, oversaturating and pervasive advertising and it's not really shocking at all.
Pony up for quality content, or enjoy your child getting indoctrinated. If you're not paying for the product, you are the product, and so is your child.
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"There's science to show that children aged 8 and younger can't distinguish between media content and advertising,"
Most adults can't either (FB, certain network "news" programs, etc...)
If you don't let the apps have network access you don't see the ads.
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Nintendo's Super Mario Run follows the same shareware model as Idthesda's Doom, putting up the paywall after a few levels. If "teasers suggesting the purchase of the 'full' version of the app" are objectionable, then what's the least dishonest way for a game studio to both allow a parent to evaluate a game and keep a roof over the heads of its programmers and artists?
If they want a roof over their heads, let them get a 2nd job doing real work instead of creating imaginary "property" and expecting to be paid for it.
It took less than 30 minutes to install a raspberry pi running pi-hole at home and it immediately eliminated 99.9% of ads for all devices on my network. Best $75 I have spent in a long time.
https://pi-hole.net/
You must be a riot at concerts.
You might have noticed how they haven't made another :)
Devices aren't babysitters, take some responsibility and don't leave your kid unattended playing random shit.
Sure you mean ALL APPS
Water is wet.
The sky doesn't have a color.
The gov sucks more than every vacuum cleaner sold in the last 50 years combined..
Apps have intrusive inappropriate ads.
http://progressquest.com/spoltog.php?name=Son+Of+Son+Of+DarkRookie
My 4 year inherited an old phone that had literally nothing but the youtube app so he could watch stuff. Within a day there was a couple games on it and within a week there was loads. Now it has all kinds of pop up shit and ad loaded screensavers going on. There's no payment or personal information or anything on it, it was wiped before he got it so whats the harm really but it is mad the amount of shit that can get on them. Before that he managed to subscribe to some service via a one touch thing on youtube on the wifes phone. I never let him touch mine.
Wanna buy a shirt?
https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
Everything targeted at kids is full of ads. Saturday morning cartoons? Not only are they unlikely to have the money to pay for apps but more importantly we've long known their influential power on the spending of their parents. Of course they're a prime target for advertising. No one should be surprised by this as it's been around long before apps were a thing.
I would like to see that research. I can't speak about 5,6 but around 7 I started watching TV and I was always switching to doing something else when advertising came between cartoons.
Don't stick a tablet in your kids' arms to "entertain" them (another word for "keep them quiet and have some peace" for many parents). Play board games with them. Buy them Legos or Playmobiles. That will develop their curiosity and their imagination - something electronic games don't do.
Only when they're old enough to understand the ugly world of big data, online scammers, profiteers and pedo predators, and you've tought them a healthy dose of cynicism and paranoia on the internet, should you introduce them to the craptastic world of free online games...
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
NYT: "In apps marketed for children 5 and under in the Google Play store, there were pop-up ads with disturbing imagery. There were ads that no child could reasonably be expected to close out of, and which, when triggered, would send a player into more ads. Dancing treasure chests would give young players points for watching video ads, potentially endlessly. The vast majority of ads were not marked at all. Characters in childrenâ(TM)s games gently pressured the kids to make purchases, a practice known as host-selling, banned in childrenâ(TM)s TV programs in 1974 by the Federal Trade Commission. At other times an onscreen character would cry if the child did not buy something."
I'm not sure what you meant by that, so I'll reply to each of two plausible interpretations:
Idthesda's Doom
You might have noticed how they haven't made another
Doom II, Doom 64, Doom 3, and Doom (2016) exist.
Nintendo's Super Mario Run
You might have noticed how they haven't made another
Fire Emblem Heroes exists.
Adults' Apps Are Flooded With Ads
Call it what it is.
Let me know when the majority of voters in major economies approve of the winding-up of the entire entertainment industry.
"There's science to show that children aged 8 and younger can't distinguish between media content and advertising,"
I don't believe it. Maybe some kids. But I remember knowing the difference when watching television, and I know my siblings and firneds kids know the difference. Maybe with deceptive app ads they can't tell, but ads and media in general?
The sun will rise in the east and set in the west. Must be a slow news day in the Slashdot universe.
Well, that's why I monitor and regulate my kids' networked computer use (yes, phones/tablets are computers). And educate them about what they see.
But I thought that made me an evil helicopter parent who is messing up my kids. So which is it?
Kids generally don't have much money, someone need to pay for the apps to be written. So when the kids don't pay the advertisers do.
Case in point. My son thought commercials were mini-documentaries. So when at the store and sitting in the cart, he would say something like "no mommy, we need to by Tide to get the whitest of whites", "only ZipLock bags hold freshness in", and "I want a healthy heart, so I need Cherrios." None of this is true, but for kids that grow up in homes where lying is not the norm, they see all advertisements as truthful.
You started out brilliantly there and then wound up in a big pile of crazy. Lying is the norm in your home, because you let your child watch commercial-supported TV, and commercials are all based on lies. (They may contain some truth, but that's not their thrust.) And on average, young children have an inability to distinguish the difference between commercials and programming. It's not whether lying is the norm but the intellectual development of the child that determines whether they believe everything they see on television or not.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
There's no such thing as an "age appropriate" ad.
A government is a body of people notably ungoverned - AC
I've met some children in chat rooms that tell me they want to learn to program a computer, but their parents impose harsh screen time limits, such as six hours per week, even if all homework is complete or school is on vacation, and even if the child purchased the computer himself. If one of your children shows an interest in learning to program a computer, then at what approximate age would you allow enough screen time to make this practical?
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To preface, I was a dual major in college, chemistry and marketing. Granted this was a few years ago (graduated in 2006), but I remember a class studying marketing and associated laws to various age groups, and childrens ads had the least amount of regulation. There have been efforts, but all have failed so far.
If I recall, the companies fight against regulation aimed at marketing towards children higher than any other group because they can get a customer for life. There are some regulations on ads aimed at adults (alcohol, cigarettes, gambling in some states, etc.).
I hate fat people.
All the Cool kids eat them. Are you a "Cool Kid"?
COPPA explicitly prohibits this. COPPA seems effective for websites (I don't know of any that blatantly ignore the law like this), so why doesn't it work for apps? Is there some sort of loophole?
I didn't realize they couldn't tell the difference on average... we don't watch much broadcast, so the kids were exposed to children's cartoons on Netflix first, then eventually we would turn on things like PBS and even the interstitials there (not even real commercials!) bug the hell out of them for not being the program. We watch sports on broadcast, and there they find real commercials disinteresting except for movie trailers.
the Atari 7800 out of the attic. It still mostly works and not once did it steal my private data, body-shame me, demand I purchase an in-game widget, or send me to a dubious website that would install all sorts of horrible malware on my TV. And, Pitfall 2!
Remember Soupy Sales' gag?
https://www.snopes.com/fact-ch...
They break stuff anyway and 'screen time' is bad for their development. Get them nice cheap dumbphones instead. Then 'apps' won't be an issue anymore, they won't learn to be distracted by a phone, and they might even (shocking!!!) learn to be social and actually pay attention in class, do their homework, have real hobbies, be physically active, etc.
Then you should definitely not be playing with with a complex electronics device. Such devices are intended for kids 10-year-old or older.
i dont understand why?
5 Best Linux Software Packages for Kids Even a trivial Google search proves you wrong. And at least some are for Windows, so it's not even a "must use Linux" thing.
Yea, I guess it starts with the parents. You believe the advertised lies about "the greater open source community", and you can't be assed to do any sort of a search. Or you're incompetent as a parent, and you can't be assed to do any sort of a search. Take your pick.
Didn't you know? All humans develop exactly the same way at exactly the same time.
They understand how to distinguish advertising when they are 13
They understand how to consent to sex when they are 18
They understand insurance contracts at 25,
and they are not "fully developed" until 28.
Everyone is the same. All the same. That's how it works, or so the psychologists and law would have you believe.
I think they meant that Nintendo has not released another smart device game with a payment model like Super Mario Run's, where you play a few levels for free, and pay for the remainder of the game. All other of their smart device titles (Fire Emblem, Animal Crossing, Dragalia Lost) are free to play the whole game. There are time restrictions you can pay to advance, and gacha-style purchases can be made, but otherwise you can play the whole game without paying. I am not familiar with these titles, so there may be paywalled content I am unaware of, but not in the same style as SMR demo=>pay=>full unlock.
You must be a riot at concerts.
The venue makes money leasing the space, the band makes money selling merch. All REAL physical property, not imaginary bullshit property.
By this analogy, should music in styles not quite suitable for live performance cease to exist?
"Kids' Apps Are Flooded With Apps"
By this analogy, should music in styles not quite suitable for live performance cease to exist?
There isn't anything preventing it to exist. But don't ask me to pay real money for your imaginary property. Ditto for software, video games, movies, etc. Find another way to fund your hobby.
I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
My kids (6 and 8) have their own little Linux machines (Pocket Chips) on which I've put some DOS games via Dos Box. So they need to boot the thing, open a terminal, start Dos Box, navigate to the game directory and type in the name of the .exe file to start it. It takes a few minutes...
The love it! They play the usual DOS goodness: Commander Keen, Duke Nukem, Populous etc. Currently they're hooked on Dune 2... now they want me to read them the book...
One day, when they do get their smart phones, they'll know they're crap and that the games on them are crap.
My kid (~ 3) has an Amazon Fire 8 for Kids. It has a huge selection of apps and videos. I have never seen an ad on it or any inappropriate apps or videos. It requires zero policing on my part.
What kid's device has this problem? Are parents actually letting their kids use adult devices or something?
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You can't go wrong if you just assume that all political advertising is fraudulent. That way you don't have to go around making up all sorts of stupid rules. Remember, censorship is always evil and fascist. The listener/reader is the only one responsible for the choices they make.
If your digital media has ads, it is doing something you are not directly in control of. Ads should be seen no differently than seeing people around you throw up - your computer is infected and should be investigated/cleaned. If children are being exposed to ads, that's a sign of parental neglect. Don't use proprietary software, you won't have this problem.
GENERATION 26: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation.
because a tree will not change.
The reason this happens is because a large amount of the mobile minority have never used a computer. If a computer program has ads, the users rightly scream bloody murder and give well-deserved threats to the programmer, blast his name, and crack the program to remove ads. Because this is normal for the dirty mobile minority the entire industry is corrupt as fuck.
Death to the mobile minority
> I doubt developers for GNU, Apache, Gnome, or QT care about making kiddo games for Linux
"Rare" I agree. But I still remember the libre GCompris project https://gcompris.net/ which runs on GNU/Linux. The GooglePlay/Android version is paid, though.