Digital Marketing and Children’s Rights: Trick or Treat?

Abstract

Marketing in the digital age is driven by software and algorithms, and is characterized by sociability, networking and personalization, which make children profitable targets for the advertising industry. Relying on a survey on UNICEF's U-Report platform registering children and youth, we wanted to examine whether young internet users in Serbia are aware that their personal data are revealed for advertising purposes and if they understand the digital marketing techniques that they are exposed to. Given that more than half of the survey respondents opened their accounts on social media before the age limit, that most of them share their personal information online and are largely indifferent to cookies on the websites they visit, it does not come as a surprise that young internet users in Serbia become an active target of advertising, which is often unwanted or inappropriate for their age. Bearing in mind the multidisciplinary nature of the topic, the recommendations for a variety of stakeholders, from publishers to creative industries and parents are given in the concluding remarks. Article received: April 30, 2020; Article accepted: May 30, 2020; Published online: October 15, 2020; Original scholarly paper