Introduction to Mass Communication, Media Literacy and Culture by Stanley J. Baran

Worksheet 10-4 Online Children’s Advertising

One of the Web’s greatest strengths is its anonymity. You can be whoever you wish when you’re online. Let’s use this ability to role play to investigate online advertising for children. Find a commercially run, kids oriented Web site such as Disney, Nickelodeon, M&M, Mattel, or the Rug Rats. Visit it and become a child again.

  1. What site did you choose? Its URL?


  2. How would you characterize its look and feel?


  3. How did you identify yourself (e.g., gender, age, interests, etc.)?


  4. Did the site offer a privacy statement or other guarantee that the data you submit would not be sold or given to others? If so, what was it? If not, should you be troubled by this? Why or why not?


  5. Did the site encourage you to ask a parent’s permission to continue its use? If it did, how did it do so? If it did not, should you be troubled by this? Why or why not?


  6. As you surfed through the site’s pages and links, what information was asked of you? Were you offered gifts or other inducements to participate? What were they?


  7. Did you submit your personal data? If so, what response did the site make?


  8. Comment on the ethics of your site’s appeal to children. If you can remember to do so, revisit this item after you have read Chapter 13’s discussion of media industry ethics. Does your answer change? How?
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