Advertising has been around since the very early days of society. The invention of the printing press and the development of mass media distribution, such as posters and newspapers, has assisted in the growth of advertising, and the advent of technology has strengthened the dissemination of thoughts and ideals throughout the years. As television extensively starts being adopted by families, concern over how advertising approaches children has taken place. Furthermore, the inception and explosive growth of the internet plus the creation of many kid-oriented websites, following the increase of unsupervised access to computers, tablets and many other technological items, has generated more opportunities for youth to be exposed to marketing. Advertising
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Big corporations have been using internet to wrongly approach youth through advertising that is immersed in entertainments content, and it is difficult to protect them from so much publicity. As Joel Baker explains in his article “Kids are Not All Right,” “deregulation, privatization, weak enforcement of existing regulations and legal and political resistance to new regulations have eroded our ability, as a society, to protect children” (7). Baker’s point is that the lack of societal advocacy towards marketing in the virtual platform and the delayed actualization on present regulations have allowed companies to do what they want. Fair rules and guidelines are necessary so companies can gain the trust of children and their parents through an effective and honest form of advertising. Federal regulations on TV ads during children’s programing have already been implemented, and online platforms should also have rules in place for advertisers aiming at kids. Unfortunately, Federal agencies lack interest in regulating online ads. Mary Engle, head of the Federal Trade Commission - advertising division, has said, “I think it 's clear there 's no congressional appetite for even government-proposed voluntary guidelines, much less regulation" (qtd. in Troianovski). As the Internet is wide and full of possibilities, regulating what happens online might be expensive and demand the development of new programs to track marketing, and the government is probably not willing to develop and implement such things. It is worrisome that federal agents are not concerned of the social damages that online unregulated advertising exposure might cause on
Big corporations have been using internet to wrongly approach youth through advertising that is immersed in entertainments content, and it is difficult to protect them from so much publicity. As Joel Baker explains in his article “Kids are Not All Right,” “deregulation, privatization, weak enforcement of existing regulations and legal and political resistance to new regulations have eroded our ability, as a society, to protect children” (7). Baker’s point is that the lack of societal advocacy towards marketing in the virtual platform and the delayed actualization on present regulations have allowed companies to do what they want. Fair rules and guidelines are necessary so companies can gain the trust of children and their parents through an effective and honest form of advertising. Federal regulations on TV ads during children’s programing have already been implemented, and online platforms should also have rules in place for advertisers aiming at kids. Unfortunately, Federal agencies lack interest in regulating online ads. Mary Engle, head of the Federal Trade Commission - advertising division, has said, “I think it 's clear there 's no congressional appetite for even government-proposed voluntary guidelines, much less regulation" (qtd. in Troianovski). As the Internet is wide and full of possibilities, regulating what happens online might be expensive and demand the development of new programs to track marketing, and the government is probably not willing to develop and implement such things. It is worrisome that federal agents are not concerned of the social damages that online unregulated advertising exposure might cause on