Children are beginning to use and explore the Internet at younger and younger ages. As their surfing range and their online activities expand, they automatically come into contact with online advertising and other commercial contents. In this situation, it is not yet clear to what extent and from what age they are in a position to recognise advertising as what it is and to differentiate it from non-advertising contents, or respectively, to identify persuasive messages. From a legal and media pedagogic perspective, there has not been, by and large, much research on the questions as to how far the reception of commercial communication, in a situation where any capacity to deal with advertising only develops gradually, can affect the development of children’s personalities, and what is demanded of primary school children in order for them to interpret and assess commercial online contents. In the context of the project, these and other questions were comprehensively investigated from an interdisciplinary perspective. On the basis of the empirical findings, media pedagogical recommendations for action, suggestions for legal regulation, as well as practice-oriented recommendations for providers were formulated for the topic area of children and online advertising.
Duration: 2013-2014
Research programme:
RP3 - Knowledge for the Media Society
Leibniz-Institut für Medienforschung | Hans-Bredow-Institut (HBI)
Rothenbaumchaussee 36
20148 Hamburg
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