Television and Internet Marketing to Children as Consumers- Current Trends and Issues

Abstract

This article addresses marketing to children and though marketers have targeted childrenfor decades, few trends have further increased their interest in children as customers. First, thedisposable income of children have increased, alongwith influencing power over parents. Second, theinvasion of technology in advertising has opened many previously unknown opportunites. Childrenare more adept as using technology than adults, to the advantage of advertisers. The marketingtechniques used in television and the internet have been elaborated. The current trends of digitalmarketing is percieved as more economical and it is argued these trends could adversely affect thebehaviorial development of children leading toconflict with parents, health issues and cynisim atyoung age and so on. Television can be more easily mediated by public policy while digital marketingcannot due to its inherent nature. The article concludes with recommendations for regulations to beuniformly framed across all mediums of advertising.