Research has previously shown that children under the age of seven can’t tell the difference between ads and other content, and yet countless children using their parents’ smartphones and tablets are being targeted by advertisers.
Much of this advertising is being done with “manipulative and disruptive methods”, says the study’s senior author, Jenny Radesky.
“With young children now using mobile devices on an average of one hour a day, it’s important to understand how this type of commercial exposure may impact children’s health and well-being,” says Radesky, a developmental behavioural expert and paediatrician at University of Michigan’s C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital.
The study, published in the Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics, reviewed 135 different apps, many of which were clearly focused more on making money than on the child’s experience, despite often being categorised as “educational”.
