Kids and the internet

Companies who market themselves on the internet carry a special responsibility due to the interactive features of this medium: They must ensure that their marketing does not mislead children who can't tell the truth from simple white marketing lies. Companies such as LEGO and Playmobil have built websites that are more like an online Playstation than an informative website. And the danger lies in the fact that while game consoles like Playstation are easy for parents to control and supervise, online websites provide many more features to manipulate children. We are only seeing the surface of such problems now, but it could turn into a much more serious problem in the future to the extent where parents will have to reduce the childrens' exposure to the internet out of fear for what might lie out there hidden among the seemingly harmless websites (and this won’t be easy, since more and more kids as young as six or seven are getting their own laptops). Perhaps a solution for this would be increased certification. After an independent screening, a company's website could be approved as suitable for children and parents could access the certification institute to clarify which websites are safe to let their children use.

We have discussed several times in class how online security is flawed and how we as adults are being scammed, cheated and manipulated in all sorts of ways. It's almost scary to think about how easy it is to play such tricks with children online.