Making a play for data
Popular children’s online playsites are being used by marketers to pump kids for information and even manipulate their behaviour, experts attending an international conference warned yesterday.
The academics from three Canadian universities highlighted several sites where surveys are wrapped within games and participants score points by filling them out. The surveys go beyond general marketing toward accumulating extensive information on individuals. The sites are also used to promote affiliated brands and coerce children into frequently returning to the site, the panel said.
One site explicitly states: “Tell us more about you so we can get you more surveys and you can earn more (points).”
Others use quotes from other apparent kids suggesting the surveys might be long but are “verrry interesting.”
University of Ottawa assistant professor of criminology Valerie Steeves said these sites attract millions of kids to their pages with the use of games, pets and virtual dolls.
“Turning a playground into a market research laboratory invades children’s privacy in a profound way because it opens up their private lives to seamless surveillance and allows corporations to colonize their play,” she said.
Steeves and the other panelists also argued that beyond gathering data on the children, the sites manipulate kids into coming back more often than they might otherwise wish.
In one example, a child must return to the site frequently or her online pet will become unhappy and sick.
Read the full story at CNEWS
