Data Mining the Kids: Surveillance and Market Research Strategies in Children’s Online Games

Abstract

This paper explores privacy issues in relation to the growing prominence of marketing research and data mining in websites for children. Whereas increasing protection is given to individuals' personal information, little attention is paid to information that is aggregated, electronically scanned, and sorted -despite the fact that aggregate information is often highly valued by the marketing industry. The authors review current trends in Internet market research, data mining techniques, policy initiatives, and the contents of some of the most highly frequented children's game sites. The paper demonstrates how common data mining practices constitute a threat to children's emerging rights online.Résumé : Cet article explore la question de la vie privée des enfants et la proémi-nence croissante de la recherche marketing et le « data mining » dans le dévelop-pement et gestion des sites Web pour enfants. De plus en plus, l'incorporation des technologies «data mining» dans les sites Web résultent en un fusionnement de contenu et commerce, ce qui élève un nombre de questions concernant les droits des enfants et les responsabilités des chercheurs. Les auteurs concluent que les droits naissants des enfants en ligne sont à risque dans ce contexte commercial de l'Internet.

Young Children's Literacy Practices in a Virtual World: Establishing an Online Interaction Order

“…Club Penguin, therefore, contains many of the features of other virtual worlds for children, such as the use of a market-based system in which shopping is a key activity and the tight control of user engagement through the design of the site, but it also has distinct features, such as the lack of in-world marketing and the provision of a range of written texts beyond game instructions and shopping resources. Virtual worlds for children have been the focus of a range of critique, not least because the producers often embed sophisticated data mining software, which enables surreptitious surveillance of users' online practices (Chung & Grimes, 2005), and they are located within a complex, multimedia world of commercial products aimed at children and parents. Further, Club Penguin is now part of the Disney corporation, a longstanding focus for critical analysis by political economists and cultural theorists who have pointed to its corporate manufacture of imperialist fantasy (Wasko, 2001).…”

Children’s digital playgrounds as data assemblages: Problematics of privacy, personalization, and promotional culture

“…This article expands upon earlier research on digital playgrounds (Chung and Grimes, 2006;Grimes and Shade, 2005), which refer to the commercialized digital spaces where marketers leverage the data that young people share in websites and games. We extend the idea of the digital playground to include convergent digital media consisting of social media platforms, mobile apps, and the connected contexts of the IoToys designed for young people ages 3-12.…”

Untitled

“…The account settings of games raise not only technical issues (for example, will students need an individual email address to start an account?) but ethical concerns regarding the privacy of data (Chung & Grimes, 2006;Southgate, Smith, & Cheers, 2016). Finally, if games include advertising material, teachers will need to ascertain the appropriateness of this content, how much time it might take away from learning, and its potential to distract from the task at hand.…”