Research Unveils Manipulative Tactics Impacting Young Consumers in Digital World
As young consumers spend a considerable amount of time online, they are susceptible to misleading or manipulative practices in digital marketing strategies. Protecting children and young people against these practices presents various challenges, mostly due to the constant evolution of the online risks, personalised targeting, peer influence, and surreptitious marketing tactics. As digital technologies and online platforms grow rapidly, it is important to address the concerns and raise awareness of marketing practices targeting young consumers in the digital world
Research into marketing practices targeting children
Ghent University conducted academic research, which uncovers four major persuasive strategies used by digital marketers, namely:
- Integration: integrating commercial messages into non-commercial content
- Interaction: stimulating children to actively participate in the marketing process by encouraging engagement with interactive content
- Personalisation: using data from children’s online activities to target them with ads
- Emotion: evoking an emotional response from consumers
These advertisement strategies profoundly challenge children's advertising literacy skills, especially when they are combined.
Young consumer’s rights in the digital landscape
The EU legal framework is being explored in depth in this research report, including directives, such as:
- the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive (UCPD)
- the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD)
- the Digital Services Act (DSA), the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
- the upcoming Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act)
As different legislation applies to digital marketing practices, enforcement authorities need to cooperate to ensure that all actors in the marketing chain comply with the EU rules to protect young consumers from harmful digital marketing practices.
The report recognises the difficulties stemming from complex practices in examining children’s rights in the context of digital marketing. At the same time, it stresses that positive opportunities arise when the market industry provides high quality services to young consumers. For example, they can contribute to children’s rights to participation, education, and play.
Campaign boosts youth awareness of digital marketing techniques
Considering the above challenges and risks, Better Internet for Kids (BIK) in collaboration with Safer Internet Centres and European Consumer Centres, launched the AdWiseOnline campaign on Safer Internet Day 2024. This initiative aims to increase children’s and young people’s understanding of digital marketing methods and provide them with information regarding their economic rights. It also seeks to illuminate the responsibilities that online platforms and companies should fulfil to protect young consumers from online influences. The campaign is organised in several stages: a pilot in 2024 and a full campaign in 2025.
Educational toolkit for young consumers
Overall, the study underlines the need for a balanced approach when it comes to protect children and young people from online harmful marketing practices as well as empowering and educating them to improve their media literacy and decision-making skills. To help young consumers develop their advertising literacy, ECC-Net has developed educational material that is available for free here: Educational Toolkit for Young Consumers.
Read more
- View and download the research report Manipulative digital marketing practices targeted at children and youth.
- For more information about the AdWiseOnline campaign, head to AdWiseOnline campaign - BIK Portal (betterinternetforkids.eu).