Internet Marketing to Kids Is Seen as a Web of Deceit

The nation’s children are being subjected to manipulative advertising on the Internet, with companies using questionable tactics to amass information about their tastes and preferences, a watchdog group and the national PTA charged Thursday in calling for the government to control such practices.

The Center for Media Education said businesses, including Kellogg, Nabisco and Frito Lay, have designed areas on the Internet’s World Wide Web with strong kid-appeal that are little more than advertisements.

In some cases, the center said, children as young as 4 are asked to provide detailed information about themselves before they can enter a Web site--places where companies or individuals post information on the Internet, often using games and other forms of entertainment to attract traffic.

“Marketers are pursuing children with a no-holds-barred approach,” center president Kathryn Montgomery said at a press conference in Washington. “Never before has there been a medium with this kind of power to invade the privacy of children and families.”

She said that many of the marketing tactics used on the Internet are not allowed on TV.

The call for controls comes amid a heated national debate over whether and how to regulate the burgeoning Internet. But until now, the fight has centered mainly on fears about criminal activity and online pornography. A telecommunications reform bill approved last month imposed a broad ban on “indecent” communications over the Internet in the name of protecting children from pornography, but civil libertarians and many Internet backers are fighting the law as an unconstitutional infringement of free speech.

Consumer products companies, whose Internet activities thus far have largely escaped scrutiny, vehemently denied Thursday that they are manipulating children and said that any personal information collected was closely guarded. They accused the center of scaring parents with Big Brother imagery.

“We are very disturbed and dumbfounded by this attack, and we reject it as unfounded,” said Nabisco spokesman John Barrows, asserting that most of the visitors to the company’s Web site are adults. “I think they are preying on the fears of people who lack knowledge of the Internet.”

The center, along with the National Parent-Teacher Assn. and other advocacy groups, formally asked the Federal Trade Commission to regulate electronic advertising aimed at kids. The commission polices false or deceptive advertising claims but has no specific rules for Internet advertising.

“We take all allegations about deceptive marketing practices toward children seriously,” said Lee Peeler, the FTC’s assistant director for advertising practices.

“The thing that leaps out at you is the whole question of people collecting identifiable information from children without any intervention from the parents.”

While advertising to children on television and in magazines is closely regulated, the Internet is wide-open territory where few of the old rules apply.

On the information superhighway, “we don’t have designated children’s time, we don’t have bumpers”--five second breaks--”between shows and commercials. It is more seamlessly interwoven,” said Elizabeth Lascoutx, director of the Better Business Bureau unit that regulates children’s advertising.

The ability of marketers to directly survey children presents another set of issues, she said.

“It is much easier for children to give a lot of information not just about themselves but about their home and family, and this goes to privacy and safety issues,” Lascoutx said. “We are dealing with things we haven’t seen before in the traditional media.”

Lascoutx said her organization is developing guidelines for electronic advertising.

Estimates on how many children use the Internet run as high as 1 million. Advertisers view the interactive medium as a unique way to build loyal customers. Speaking at an industry conference last October, an executive from Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising declared that “there’s probably no other product or service we can think of that is like it in capturing kids’ interest.”

Advertisers disagree over how far they can go to reach children on the electronic superhighway. When conducting online surveys, Saatchi & Saatchi first obtains parental permission. Not all marketers do.

A Web site singled out by the center was developed by the marketing research company SpectraCom. To enter the Web site, children must first provide information about themselves, including name, sex, age, e-mail address, favorite TV show and musical group. In return for completing the survey, children receive “kids cash,” a form of virtual money they can turn in for toys, games and other prizes. After entering the site, children can receive more “kids cash” for filling out other surveys.

Jori Clarke, SpectraCom president, said the information is needed to match children with electronic pen pals, one of the Web site’s features. She said that while her company conducts research for such companies as Nabisco and Atari, the identities of the 25,000 children registered at the site are protected and the list is not sold.

“The whole focus of the site is educational,” Clarke said, noting that it includes writing contests and geography games.

“The ultimate purpose for that site is marketing and research,” said Shelly Pasnik, a researcher for the Center for Media Education. “Their purpose is to gather information as a marketing tool.”

The center and the other advocacy groups are asking the commission for a ban on marketing surveys directed at children, a clear separation between advertising and content, and a prohibition on interaction with product spokescharacters, like Frito Lay’s Chester Cheetah and Kellogg’s Tony the Tiger.

A Kellogg representative said that its Web page is “consistent with existing children’s advertising guidelines.”

A Frito Lay representative could not be reached.

In calling for government action, the center noted that technology is not available for parents to block many advertising messages. They noted that it is difficult, if not impossible, for parents to monitor every move a child makes on the Web.