Paul Icamina - AHN News Writer
Washington, D.C. (AHN) - The digital generation is more vulnerable than ever to increasingly intrusive Internet advertising, says Kathryn C. Montgomery, an expert on children and online marketing at American University’s (AU) School of Communication.
“Digital marketing has made (children and teens) more vulnerable to the influence of Madison Avenue,” says Montgomery who was consulted last week by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission on privacy-related issues and digital marketing practices.
Online behavioral marketing collects information about a consumer’s activities online - including searches, Web page views, shopping cart behavior, social network relationships and broadband video use, Newswise reported.
That information is used to target the consumer with advertising that reflects the consumer’s individual interests.
Montgomery is the author of the new book “Generation Digital: Politics, Commerce and Childhood in the Age of the Internet” (MIT Press). It documents how children are targeted by fast food and snack food companies that subtly slip marketing messages in everything from avatars to video games.
As president of the Center for Media Education, Montgomery led the way for the congressional passage of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act in the 1990s.
She is co-author of the report “Interactive Food & Beverage Marketing: Targeting Children and Youth in the Digital Age” sponsored by the Berkeley Media Studies Group and the Center for Digital Democracy.
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