Marketing for Children Using Social Interaction Technologies

Early use of social interaction technologies by young people seemed to elicit one primary concern from adults. That concern was safety, because children and teens often reveal too much private information online in blogs, chat rooms, and such social networking sites as MySpace. However, a related issue is gaining momentum. It is the power of interactive marketing on social networking sites and similarly interactive websites for children. The concerns are that (1) young children are unable to discern marketing messages, and (2) even for older children, much of the advertising on social networking sites is so closely tied to the environment that it may be seen more for its participatory nature rather than for its marketing purpose. This chapter will look briefly at the safety issue and then move to explanation and discussion of the growing concern over marketing branded products to children through immersive interactive environments of the Internet. ABSTRACT