Television has long been a successful vehicle for marketing goods and services to children, even when the goods being purchased (such as cars) are being purchased by adults.
E-commerce has been embraced by industry as a whole as a way to market both to business and consumers.
Children are one of the most rapidly growing groups of users of the Internet.
The Internet offers new ways to market to children through the use of ads on the sites that children visit most often.
Navigating the Internet is not an easy process and most users rely on search engines to assist in that effort.
Search engines rely on the English language and target adults rather than children.
For many years, television advertising has been a primary marketing avenue for reaching children. Although children have limited disposable income compared to adults, they directly and indirectly control a considerable amount of sales and watch a significant amount of television.
Young (aged four to 12) consumers directly controlled $25 billion in purchases in 1998 with money given to or earned by them (Geary, 1999, p. 36).
Children aged four to 12 also directly influenced purchases amounting to another $188 billion made by families in 1998, and indirectly influenced an additional $300 billion in purchases during the same year (Geary, 1996, p. 36).
It is estimated that the typical American child was exposed to approximately 20,000 television advertisements in 1998 (Geary, 1999, p. 36).
According to a recent study, 90 percent of children aged seven to fourteen years watch some television every day (Marsh, 1999, p. 27).
On average, children aged seven to fourteen watch 23 hours of television per week (Marsh, 1999, p. 27).
Electronic commerce brings together buyers and sellers through the Internet, eliminating (in some cases), or minimizing (in other cases), the need for significant physical presence (so-called brick-and-mortar commerc...