program areas Digital Youth
Program Areas
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Press Release
Press Statement regarding todayâs FTC Notice of Proposed Rulemaking Regarding the Commercial Surveillance and Data Security
Press Statement regarding todayâs FTC Notice(link is external) of Proposed Rulemaking Regarding the Commercial Surveillance and Data SecurityKatharina Kopp, Deputy Director, Center for Digital Democracy:Today, the Federal Trade Commission issued its long overdue advanced notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM) regarding a trade regulation rule on commercial surveillance and data security. The ANPRM aims to address the prevalent and increasingly unavoidable harms of commercial surveillance. Civil society groups including civil rights groups, privacy and digital rights and childrenâs advocates had previously called on the commission to initiate this trade regulation rule to address the decades long failings of the commission to reign in predatory corporate practices online. CDD had called on the commission repeatedly over the last two decades to address the out-of-control surveillance advertising apparatus that is the root cause of increasingly unfair, manipulative, and discriminatory practices harming children, teens, and adults and which have a particularly negative impact on equal opportunity and equity.The Center for Digital Democracy welcomes this important initial step by the commission and looks forward to working with the FTC. CDD urges the commission to move forward expeditiously with the rule making and to ensure fair participation of stakeholders, particularly those that are disproportionately harmed by commercial surveillance.press_statement_8-11fin.pdf -
Blog
Protecting Children and Teens from Unfair and Deceptive Marketing, including Stealth Advertising
CDD Comments to FTC for "Stealth" Marketing Inquiry The Center for Digital Democracy (CDD) urges the FTC to develop and implement a set of policies designed to protect minors under 18 from being subjected to a host of pervasive, sophisticated and data-driven digital marketing practices. Children and teens are targeted by an integrated set of online marketing operations that are manipulative, unfair, invasive and can be especially harmful to their mental and physical health. The commission should make abundantly clear at the forthcoming October workshop that it understands that the many problems generated by contemporary digital marketing to youth transcend narrow categories such as âstealth advertisingâ and âblurred content.â Nor should it propose âdisclosuresâ as a serious remedy, given the ways advertising is designed using data science, biometrics, social relationships and other tactics. Much of todayâs commercially supported online system is purposefully developed to operate as âstealthââfrom product development, to deployment, to targeting, tracking and measurement. Age-based cognitive development capacities to deal with advertising, largely based on pre-digital (especially TV) research, simply donât correspond to the methods used today to market to young people. CDD calls on the commission to acknowledge that children and teenagers have been swept into a far reaching commercial surveillance apparatus.The commission should propose a range of safeguards to protect young people from the current âwild westâ of omnichannel directed at them. These safeguards should address, for example, the role market research and testing of child and teen-directed commercial applications and messaging play in the development of advertising; how neuromarketing[pdf] practices designed to leverage a young personâs emotions and subconscious are used to deliver âimplicit persuasionâ; the integration by marketers and platforms of âimmersiveâ applications, including augmented and virtual reality, designed to imprint brand and other commercial messages; the array of influencer-based strategies, including the extensive infrastructure used by platforms and advertisers to deliver, track and measure their impact; the integration of online marketing with Internet of Things objects, including product packaging and the role of QR codes, (experiential marketing) and digital out-of-the-home advertising screens; as well as contemporary data marketing operations that use machine learning and artificial intelligence to open up new ways for advertisers to reach young people online. AI services increasingly deliver personalized content online, further automating the advertising process to respond in real-time.It is also long overdue for the FTC to investigate and address how online marketing targets youth of color, who are subjected to a variety of advertising practices little examined by privacy and other regulators.The FTC should use all its authority and power to stop data-driven surveillance marketing to young people under 18; end the role sponsored influencers play; enact rules designed to protect the online privacy for teens 13-17 who are now subjected to ongoing tracking by marketers; and propose policies to redress the core methods employed by digital advertisers and online platforms to lure both children and teens. For more than 20 years, CDD and its allies have urged the FTC to address the ways digital marketing has undermined consumer protection and privacy, especially for children and adolescents. Since the earliest years of the commercial internet, online marketers have focused on young people, both for the revenues they deliver as well as to secure loyalty from what the commercial marketing industry referred to as ânativeâ users. The threat to their privacy, as well as to their security and well-being, led to the complaint our predecessor organization filed in 1996, which spurred the passage of the Childrenâs Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) in 1998. COPPA has played a modest role protecting some younger children from experiencing the totality of the commercial surveillance marketing system. However, persistent failures of the commission to enforce COPPA; the lack of protections for adolescents (despite decades-long calls by advocates for the agency to act on this issue); and a risk-averse approach to addressing the methods employed by the digital advertising, even when applied to young people, have created ongoing threats to their privacy, consumer protection and public health. In this regard, we urge the commission to closely review the comments submitted in this proceeding by our colleague Fairplay and allies. We are pleased Fairplay supports these comments.If the FTC is to confront how the forces of commercial digital surveillance impact the general public, the building blocks to help do so can be found in this proceeding. Young people are exposed to the same unaccountable forces that are everywhere online: a largely invisible, ubiquitous, and machine-intelligence-driven system that tracks and assesses our every move, using an array of direct and indirect techniques to influence behaviors. If done correctly, this proceeding can help inform a larger policy blueprint for what policy safeguards are neededâfor young people and for everyone else.The commission should start by reviewing how digital marketing and data-gathering advertising applications are âbaked inâ at the earliest stages of online content and device development. These design and testing practices have a direct impact on young people. Interactive advertising standards groups assess and certify a host of approved ad formats, including for gaming, mobile, native advertising, and streaming video. Data practices for digital advertising, including ways that ads are delivered through the behavioral/programmatic surveillance engines, as well as their measurement, are developed through collaborative work involving trade organizations and leading companies. Platforms such as Meta, as well as ad agencies, adtech companies, and brands, also have their own variations of these widely adopted formats and approaches. The industry-operated standards process for identifying new methods for digital advertising, including the real-world deployment of applications such âplayableâ ads or the ways advertisers can change its personalized messaging in real-time, have never been seriously investigated by the commission. A review of the companies involved show that many are engaged in digital marketing to young people.Another critical building block of contemporary digital marketing to address when dealing with youth-directed advertising is the role of âengagement.â As far back as 2006, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) recognized that to effectively secure the involvement of individuals with marketing communications, at both the subconscious and conscious levels, it was necessary to define and measure the concept of engagement. IAB initially defined âEngagement⌠[as] turning on a prospect to a brand idea enhanced by the surrounding context..â By 2012, there were more elaborate definitions identifying âthree major forms of engagement⌠cognitive, physical and emotional.â A set of corresponding metrics, or measurement tools, were used, including those tracking âattentionâ (âawareness, interest, intentionâ); emotional and motor functioning identified through biometrics (âheart palpitations, pupil dilation, eye trackingâ); and through omnipresent tracking of online behaviors (âviewability and dwell time, user initiated interaction, clicks, conversions, video play rate, game playâ). Today, research and corresponding implementation strategies for engagement are an ongoing feature for the surveillance-marketing economy. This includes conducting research and implementing data-driven and other ad strategies targeting childrenâknown as âGeneration Alphaââchildren 11 and youngerâand teensââGeneration Z.âWe will briefly highlight some crucial areas this proceeding should address:Marketing and product research on children and adolescents: An extensive system designed to ensure that commercial online content, including advertising and marketing, effectively solicits the interest and participation of young people, is a core feature of the surveillance economy. A host of companies are engaged in multi-dimensional market research, including panels, labs, platforms, streaming media companies, studios and networks, that have a direct impact on the methods used to advertise and market to youth. CDD believes that such product testing, which can rely on a range of measures designed to promote âimplicit persuasionâ should be considered an unfair practice generally. Since CDD and U.S. PIRG first urged the commission to investigate neuromarketing more than a decade ago, this practice has in ways that enable it to play a greater role influencing how content and advertising is delivered to young people.For example, MediaScience (which began as the Disney Media and Advertising Lab), serves major clients including Disney, Google, Warner Media, TikTok, Paramount, Fox and Mars. It conducts research for platforms and brands using such tools as âneurometrics (skin conductivity and heart rate), eye tracking, facial coding, and EEGs, among others, that assess a personâs responses across devices. Research is also conducted outside of the lab setting, such as directly through a subjectâs âactual Facebook feed.â It has a panel of 80,000 households in the U.S., where it can deliver digital testing applications using a âvariety of experimental designs⌠facilitated in the comfort of peopleâs homes.â The company operates a âKidsâ and âTeensâ media research panel. Emblematic of the far-reaching research conducted by platforms, agencies and brands, in 2021 TikTokâs âMarketing Science teamâ commissioned MediaScience to use neuromarketing research to test âstrong brand recall and positive sentiment across various view durations.â The findings indicated that âads on TikTok see strong brand recall regardless of view durationâŚ. Regardless of how long an ad stays on screen, TikTok draws early attention and physiological engagement in the first few seconds.âNBCUniversal is one of the companies leveraging the growing field of âemotional analyticsâ to help advance advertising for streaming and other video outlets. Comcastâs NBCU is using âfacial coding and eye-tracking AI to learn an audienceâs emotional response to a specific ad.â Candy company Mars just won a âBest Use of Artificial Intelligenceâ award for its âAgile Creative Expertise (ACE) tool that âtracks attentional and emotional response to digital video ads.â Mars is partnering with neuromarketer Realeyes to âmeasure how audienceâs attention levels respond as they view Mars' ads.Knowing what captures and retains attention or even what causes distraction, generated intelligence that enabled Mars to optimize the creative itself or the selection of the best performing ads across platforms including TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.â TikTok, Meta/Facebook, and Google have all used a variety of neuromarketing measures. The Neuromarketing Science and Business Association (NMSBA) includes many of the leading companies in this field as members. There is also an âAttention Councilâ within the digital marketing industry to help advance these practices, involving Microsoft, Mars, Coca-Cola, AB/InBev, and others. A commercial research infrastructure provides a steady drumbeat of insights so that marketers can better target young people on digital devices. Childrenâs streaming video company Wildbrain, for example, partnered with Ipsos for its 2021 research report, âThe Streaming Generation,â which explained that âGeneration Alpha [is] the most influential digital generation yetâŚ. They have never known a world without digital devices at their fingertips, and for Generation Alpha (Gen A), these tech-first habits are now a defining aspect of their daily lives.â More than 2,000 U.S. parents and guardians of children 2-12 were interviewed for the study, which found that âdigital advertising to Gen A influences the purchasing decisions of their parentsâŚ. Their purchasing choices, for everything from toys to the family car, are heavily influenced by the content kids are watching and the ads they see.â The report explains that among the âmost popular requestsâ are toys, digital games, clothing, tech products and âin-game currenciesâ for Roblox and Fortnite.Determining the levels of âbrand loveâ by children and teens, such as the use of âKidfinityâ and âTeenfinityâ scoresââproprietary measures of brand awareness, popularity and loveââare regularly provided to advertisers. Other market researchers, such as Beano Studios, offer a âCOPPA-compliantâ âBeano Brain Omnibusâ website that, through âgames, quizzes, and bespoke questionsâ for children and teens, âallows bands to access answers to their burning questions.â These tools help marketers better identify, for example, the sitesâsuch as TikTokâwhere young people spend time. Among the other services Beano provides, which reflect many other market-research companiesâ capabilities, are âReal-time UX/UI and content testingâin the moment, digital experience exploration and evaluation of brands websites and apps with kids and teens in strawman, beta or live stages,â and âBeano at homeâobserving and speaking to kids in their own homes. Learning how and what content they watch.â Adtech and other data marketing applications: In order to conduct any âstealthâ advertising inquiry, the FTC should review the operations of contemporary âBig Dataâ-driven ad systems that can impact young people. For example, Disney has an extensive and cutting-edge programmatic apparatus called DRAX(Disney Real-Time Ad Exchange) that is delivering thousands of video-based campaigns. DRAX supports âDisney Select,â a "suite of ad tech solutions, providing access to an extensive library of first-party segments that span the Disney portfolio, including streaming, entertainment and sports propertiesâŚ. Continuously refined and enhanced based on the countless ways Disney connects with consumers daily. Millions of data inputs validated through data scienceâŚ. Advertisers can reach their intended audiences by tapping into Disneyâs proprietary Audience Graph, which unifies Disneyâs first party data and audience modeling capabilitiesâŚ.â As of March 2022, Disney Select contained more than 1,800 âaudience segments built from more than 100,000 audience attributes that fuel Disneyâs audience graph.â According to Disney Advertising, its âAudience Graphâ includes 100 million households, 160 million connected TV devices and 190 million device IDs, which enables modeling to target households and families. Children and teens are a core audience for Disney, and millions of their households receive its digital advertising. Many other youth-directed leading brands have developed extensive internal adtech applications designed to deliver ongoing and personalized campaigns. For example, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, McDonaldâs, and Mondelez have in-house capabilities and extensive partnerships that create targeted marketing to youth and others. The ways that âBig Dataâ analytics affect marketing, especially how insights can be used to target youth, should be reviewed. Marketers will say to the FTC that they are only targeting 18-year-olds and over, but an examination of their actual targets, and asking for child-related brand-safety data they collect, should provide the agency with a robust response to such claims.New methods to leverage a personâs informational details and then target them, especially without âcookies,â requires the FTC to address how this is being used to market to children and teens. This review should also be extended to âcontextualâ advertising, since that method has been transformed through the use of machine learning and other advanced tacticsâcalled âContextual 2.0.âTargeting youth of color: Black, Hispanic, Asian-American and other âmulticulturalâ youth, as the ad industry has termed it, are key targets for digital advertising. An array of research, techniques, and services is focused on these young people, whose behaviors online are closely monitored by advertisers. A recent case study to consider is the McDonaldâs U.S. advertising campaign designed to reverse its âdecline with multicultural youth.â The goal of its campaign involving musician Travis Scott was to âdrive penetration by bringing younger, multicultural customers to the brands⌠and drive immediate behavior too.â As a case study explains, âTo attract multicultural youth, a brand⌠must have cultural cachet. Traditional marketing doesnât work with them. They donât watch cable TV; they live online and on social media, and if you are not present there youâre out of sight, out of mind.âItâs extremely valuable to identify some of the elements involved in this case, which are emblematic of the integrated set of marketing and advertising practices that accompany so many campaigns aimed at young people. These included working with a celebrity/influencer who is able to âgalvanize youth and activate pop cultureâ; offering âcoveted contentâkeepsakes and experiences to fuel the starâs fanbase, driving participation and salesâ; employing digital strategies through a proprietary (and data-collecting) âapp to bring fans something extra and drive digital adoptionâ; and focusing on âaffordabilityââto ensure âyouth with smaller walletsâ would participate. To illustrate how expenditures for paid advertising are much less relevant with digital marketing, McDonaldâs explains that âBefore a single dollar had been spent on paid media, purely on the strength of a few social posts by McDonaldâs and Travis Scott, and reporting in the press, youth were turning up at restaurants across the country, asking for the Travis Scott meal.â This campaign was a significant financial success for McDonaldâs. Its partnership with this influencer was effective as well in terms of âcultural response: hundreds of thousands of social media mentions and posts, fan-art and memes, unboxing videos of the mealâŚ, fans selling food and stolen POS posters on eBayâŚ, the multi merch drops that sold out in seconds, the framed receipts.â Online ads targeted to Americaâs diverse communities of young people, who can also be a member of a group at risk (due to finances, health, and the like) have long required an FTC investigation. The commission should examine the data-privacy and marketing practices on these sites, including those that communicate via languages other than English.Video and Video Games: Each of these applications have developed an array of targeted advertising strategies to reach young people. Streaming video is now a part of the integrated surveillance-marketing system, creating a pivotal new place to reach young people, as well as generate data for further targeting. Children and teens are viewing video content on Smart TVs, other streaming devices, mobile phones, tablets as well as computers. Household data where young people reside, which is amplified through the use of a growing number of âidentityâ tools that permit cross-device tracking, enable an array of marketing practices to flourish. The commission should review the data-gathering, ad-formatting, and other business practices that have been identified for these âOTTâ services and how they impact children and teens. There are industry-approved ad-format guidelines for digital video and Connected TV. Digital video ads can use âdynamic overlays,â âshoppable and actionable video,â âvoice-integrated video ads,â âsequential CTV creative,â and âcreative extensions,â for example. Such ad formats and preferred practices are generally not vetted in terms of how they impact the interests of young people.Advertisers have strategically embedded themselves within the video game system, recognizing that itâs a key vantage point to surveil and entice young people. One leading quick-service restaurant chain that used video games to âreach the next generation of fast-food fansâ explained that âgaming has become the primary source of entertainment for the younger generation. Whether playing video games or watching others play games on social platforms, the gaming industry has become bigger than the sports and music industries combined. And lockdowns during the global pandemic accelerated the trend. Gaming is a vital part of youth culture.â Illustrating that marketers understand that traditional paid advertising strategies arenât the most effective to reach young people, the fast-food company decided to âapproach gaming less like an advertising channel and more like an earned social and PR platformâŚ. [V]ideo games are designed as social experiences.â As Insider Intelligence/eMarketer reported in June 2022, âthereâs an ad format for every brandâ in gaming today, including interstitial ads, rewarded ads, offerwalls, programmatic in-game ads, product placement, advergames, and âloot boxes.â There is also an âin-game advertising measurementâ framework, recently released for public comment by the IAB and the Media Ratings Council. This is another example where leading advertisers, including Google, Microsoft, PepsiCo and Publicis, are determining how âads that appear within gameplayâ operate. These guidelines will impact youth, as they will help determine the operations of such ad formats as âDynamic In-Game Advertising (DIGA)âAppear inside a 3D game environment, on virtual objects such as billboards, posters, etc. and combine the customization of web banners where ads rotate throughout the play sessionâ; and âHardcoded In-Game Ad Objects: Ads that have not been served by an ad server and can include custom 3D objects or static banners. These ads are planned and integrated into a video game during its design and development stage.â Leading advertising platforms such as Amazon sell as a package video ads reaching both streaming TV and gaming audiences. The role of gaming and streaming should be a major focus in October, as well as in any commission follow-up report.Influencers: What was once largely celebrity-based or word-of mouth style endorsements has evolved into a complex system including ânano-influencers (between 1,000 and 10,000 followers); micro-influencers (between 10,000 and 100,000); macro-influencers (between 100,000 and a million); and mega or celebrity influencers (1 million-plus followers). According to a recent report in the Journal of Advertising Research, â75 percent of marketers are now including social-media influencers in their marketing plans, with a worldwide market size of $2.3 billion in 2020.â Influencer marketing is also connected to social media marketing generally, where advertisers and others have long relied on a host of surveillance-related systems to âlisten,â analyze and respond to peopleâs social online communications.Today, a generation of âcontent creatorsâ (aka influencers) is lured into becoming part of the integrated digital sales force that sells to young people and others. From âunboxing videosâ and âvirtual product placementâ in popular content, to âkidfluencersâ like Ryanâs World and âbrand ambassadorsâ lurking in video games, to favorite TikTok creators pushing fast-food, this form of digital âpayolaâ is endemic online.Take Ryanâs World. Leveraging âmore than one billion viewsâ on YouTube, as well as a Nickelodeon show, has âcatapulted him... to a global multi-category force,â notes his production and licensing firm. The deals include a âpreschool product line in multiple categories, âbest in class partnerships, and a âTag with Ryanâ app that garnered 16 million downloads. Brands seeking help selling products, says Ryanâs media agency, âcan connect with its kid fanbase of millions that leverages our world-class portfolio of kid-star partners to authentically and seamlessly connect your brand with Generation Alpha across YouTube, social media, mobile games, and OTT channelsâeverywhere kids tune in!... a Generation Alpha focused agency that delivers more than 8 BILLION views and 100 MILLION unique viewers every month!â (its emphasis). Also available is a âcustom content and integrationsâ feature that can âcreate unique brand experiences with top-tier kid stars.â Ryanâs success is not unique, as more and more marketers create platforms and content, as well as merge companies, to deliver ads and marketing to children and teens. An array of influencer marketing platforms that offer âone-stopâ shopping for brands to employ influencers, including through the use of programmatic marketing-like data practices (to hire people to place endorsements, for example) is a core feature of the influencer economy. There are also software programs so brands and marketers can automate their social influencer operations, as well as social media âdashboardsâ that help track and analyze social online conversations, brand mentions and other communications. The impact of influencers is being measured through a variety of services, including neuromarketing. Influencers are playing a key role in âsocial commerce,â where they promote the real-time sales of products and services on âshoppable media.â U.S. social commerce sales are predicted to grow to almost $80 billion in 2025 from its 2022 estimated total of $45.74 billion. Google, Meta, TikTok, Amazon/Twitch and Snapchat all have significant influencer marketing operations. As Meta/Facebook recently documented, there is also a growing role for âvirtualâ influencers that are unleashed to promote products and services. While there may be claims that many promotions and endorsements should be classified as âuser generated contentâ (UGC), we believe the commission will find that the myriad influencer marketing techniques often play a role spurring such product promotion.The âMetaverseâ: The same forces of digital marketing that have shaped todayâs online experience for young people are already at work organizing the structure of the âmetaverse.â There are virtual brand placements, advertisements, and industry initiatives on ad formats and marketing experiences. Building on work done for gaming and esports, this rapidly emerging marketing environment poses additional threats to young people and requires timely commission intervention.Global Standards: Young people in the U.S. have fewer protections than they do in other countries and regions, including the European Union and the United Kingdom. In the EU, for example, protections are required for young people until they are 18 years of age. The impact of the GDPR, the UKâs Design Code, the forthcoming Digital Services Act (and even some self-regulatory EU initiatives by companies such as Google) should be assessed. In what ways do U.S.-based platforms and companies provider higher or more thorough safeguards for children when they are required to do so outside of this country? The FTC has a unique role to ensure that U.S. companies operating online are in the forefrontânot in the rearâof protecting the privacy and interests of children.The October Workshop: Our review of the youth marketing landscape is just a partial snapshot of the marketplace. We have not discussed âappsâ and mobile devices, which pose many concerns, including those related to location, for example. But CDD hopes this comment will help inform the commission about the operations of contemporary marketing and its relationship to young people. We call on the FTC to ensure that this October, we are presented with an informed and candid discussion of the nature and impact of todayâs marketing system on Americaâs youth.ftcyouthmarketing071822.pdfJeff Chester -
Groups say FIFA: Ultimate Team preys on childrenâs vulnerability with loot boxes, âfunny money" Contact:David Monahan, Fairplay david@fairplayforkids.orgJeff Chester, CDD jeff@democraticmedia.org; 202-494-7100Advocates call on FTC to investigate manipulative design abuses in popular FIFA gameGroups say FIFA: Ultimate Team preys on childrenâs vulnerability with loot boxes, âfunny moneyâBOSTON and WASHINGTON, DC â Thursday, June 2, 2022 â Today, advocacy groups Fairplay and Center for Digital Democracy (CDD) led a coalition of 15 advocacy groups in calling on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate video game company Electronic Arts (EA) for unfairly exploiting young users in EAâs massively popular game, FIFA: Ultimate Team. In a letter sent to the FTC, the advocates described how the use of loot boxes and virtual currency in FIFA: Ultimate Team exploits the many children who play the game, especially given their undeveloped financial literacy skills and poor understanding of the odds of receiving the most desirable loot box items.Citing the Norwegian Consumer Councilâs recent report, Insert Coin: How the Gaming Industry Exploits Consumers Using Lootboxes, the advocatesâ letter details how FIFA: Ultimate Team encourages gamers to engage in a constant stream of microtransactions as they play the game. Users are able to buy FIFA points, a virtual in-game currency, which can then be used to purchase loot boxes called FIFA packs containing mystery team kits; badges; and player cards for soccer players who can be added to a gamerâs team. In their letter, the advocates noted the gameâs use of manipulative design abuses such as âlightning roundâ sales of premium packs to promote the purchase of FIFA packs, which children are particularly vulnerable to. The advocates also cite the use of virtual currency in the game, which obscures the actual cost of FIFA packs to adult users, let alone children. Additionally, the actual probability of unlocking the best loot box prizes in FIFA: Ultimate Team is practically inscrutable to anyone who is not an expert in statistics, according to the advocates and the NCC report. In order to unlock a specific desirable player in the game, users would have to pay around $14,000 or spend three years continuously playing the game. âBy relentlessly marketing pay-to-win loot boxes, EA is exploiting childrenâs desire to compete with their friends, despite the fact that most adults, let alone kids, could not determine their odds of receiving a highly coveted card or what cards cost in real money. The FTC must use its power to investigate these design abuses and determine just how many kids and teens are being fleeced by EA.â Josh Golin, Executive Director, FairplayâLootboxes, virtual currencies, and other gaming features are often designed deceptively, aiming to exploit playersâ known vulnerabilities. Due to their unique developmental needs, children and teens are particularly harmed. Their time and attention is stolen from them, they're financially exploited, and are purposely socialized to adopt gambling-like behaviors. Online gaming is a key online space where children and teens gather in millions, and regulators must act to protect them from these harmful practices.â Katharina Kopp, Deputy Director, Center for Digital DemocracyâAs illustrated in our report, FIFA: Ultimate Team uses aggressive in-game marketing and exploits gamersâ cognitive biases - adults and children alike - to manipulate them into spending large sums of money. Children especially are vulnerable to EAâs distortion of real-world value of its loot boxes and the complex, misleading probabilities given to describe the odds of receiving top prizes. We join our US partners in urging the Federal Trade Commission to investigate these troubling practices.â Finn LĂźtzow-Holm Myrstad, Digital Policy Director, Norwegian Consumer Council"The greed of these video game companies is a key reason why we're seeing a new epidemic of child gambling in our families. Thanks to this report, the FTC has more than enough facts to take decisive action to protect our kids from these predatory business practices." Les Bernal, National Director of Stop Predatory Gambling and the Campaign for Gambling-Free KidsâExploiting consumers, especially children, by manipulating them into buying loot boxes that, in reality, rarely contain the coveted items they are seeking, is a deceptive marketing practice that causes real harm and needs to stop. TINA.org strongly urges the FTC to take action.â Laura Smith, Legal Director at TINA.orgAdvocacy groups signing today's FTC complaint include Fairplay; the Center for Digital Democracy; Campaign for Accountability; Children and Screens: Institute of Digital Media and Child Development; Common Sense Media; Consumer Federation of America; Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC); Florida Council on Compulsive Gambling, Inc.; Massachusetts Council on Gaming and Health; National Council on Problem Gambling; Parent Coalition for Student Privacy; Public Citizen; Stop Predatory Gambling and the Campaign for Gambling-Free Kids; TINA.org (Truth in Advertising, Inc.); U.S. PIRG### lootboxletter_pr.pdf, lootboxletterfull.pdf
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Press Release
Press Statement regarding FTC Policy Statement on Education Technology and the Childrenâs Online Privacy Protection Act
Press Statement regarding todayâs FTC Policy Statement on Education Technology and the Childrenâs Online Privacy Protection ActJeff Chester, Executive Director, Center for Digital Democracy:Today, the Federal Trade Commission adopts a long overdue policy designed to protect childrenâs privacy. By shielding school children from the pervasive forces of commercial surveillance, which gathers their data for ads and marketing, the FTC is expressly using a critical safeguard from the bipartisan Childrenâs Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). Fairplay, Center for Digital Democracy, and a coalition of privacy, childrenâs health, civil and consumer rights groups had previously called on the commission to enact policies that make this very Edtech safeguard possible.  We look forward to working with the FTC to ensure that parents can be confident that their childâs online privacy and security is protected inâor out of-the classroom. However, the Commission must also ensure that adolescents receive protections from what is now an omniscient and manipulative data-driven complex that profoundly threatens their privacy and well-being. -
Press Release
Diverse Coalition of Advocates Urges Congress to Pass Legislation to Protect Kids and Teens Online
60 leading advocacy organizations say unregulated Big Tech business model is âfundamentally at odds with childrenâs wellbeingâContact:David Monahan, Fairplay david@fairplayforkids.org(link sends e-mail)Jeff Chester, Center for Digital Democracy, jeff@democraticmedia.org(link sends e-mail), 202-494-7100Diverse coalition of advocates urges Congress to pass legislation to protect kids and teens online60 leading advocacy organizations say unregulated Big Tech business model is âfundamentally at odds with childrenâs wellbeingâBOSTON, MA and WASHINGTON, DC - March 22, 2022 â Congressional leaders in the House and Senate were urged today to enact much needed protections for children and teens online. In a letter to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a broad coalition of health, safety, privacy and education groups said it was time to ensure that Big Tech can no longer undermine the wellbeing of Americaâs youth. The letter reiterated President Bidenâs State of the Union address call for increased online protections for young people.In their letter, the advocates outlined how the prevailing business model of Big Tech creates a number of serious risks facing young people on the internet today, including mental health struggles, loss of privacy, manipulation, predation, and cyberbullying. The advocates underscored the dangers posed by rampant data collection on popular platforms, including algorithmic discrimination and targeting children at particularly vulnerable moments.  The reforms called for by the advocates include:Protections for children and teens wherever they are online, not just on âchild-directedâ sites;Privacy protections to all minors;A ban on targeted advertising to young people;Prohibition of algorithmic discrimination of children and teens;Establishment of a duty of care that requires digital service providers to make the best interests of children a primary design consideration and prevent and mitigate harms to minors;Requiring platforms to turn on the most protective settings for minors by default;Greater resources for enforcement by the Federal Trade Commission.United by the desire to see Big Techâs harmful business model regulated, the advocatesâ letter represents a landmark moment for the movement to increase privacy protections for children and teenagers online, especially due to the wide-ranging fields and focus areas represented by signatories. Among the 60 signatories to the advocatesâ letter are: Fairplay, Center for Digital Democracy, Accountable Tech, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Association of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, American Psychological Association, Center for Humane Technology, Common Sense, Darkness to Light, ECPAT-USA, Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), National Alliance to Advance Adolescent Health, National Center on Sexual Exploitation, National Eating Disorders Association, Network for Public Education, ParentsTogether, Public Citizen, Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine, and Exposure Labs, creators of The Social Dilemma.Signatories on the need for legislation to protect young people online:âCongress last passed legislation to protect children online 24 years ago â nearly a decade before the most popular social media platforms even existed. Big Tech's unregulated business model has led to a race to the bottom to collect data and maximize profits, no matter the harm to young people. We agree with the president that the time is now to update COPPA, expand privacy protections to teens, and put an end to the design abuses that manipulate young people into spending too much time online and expose them to harmful content.â â Josh Golin, Executive Director, Fairplay.âItâs long past time for Congress to put a check on Big Techâs pervasive manipulation of young peopleâs attention and exploitation of their personal data. We applaud President Bidenâs call to ban surveillance advertising targeting young people and are heartened by the momentum to rein in Big Tech and establish critical safeguards for minors engaging with their products.â â Nicole Gill, Co-Founder and Executive Director, Accountable Tech.âDigital technology plays an outsized role in the lives of todayâs children and adolescents, exacerbated by the dramatic changes to daily life experienced during the pandemic. Pediatricians see the impact of these platforms on our patients and recognize the growing alarm about the role of digital platforms, in particular social media, in contributing to the youth mental health crisis. It has become clear that, from infancy through the teen years, childrenâs well-being is an afterthought in developing digital technologies. Strengthening privacy, design, and safety protections for children and adolescents online is one of many needed steps to create healthier environments that are more supportive of their mental health and well-being.ââ Moira Szilagyi, MD, PhD, FAAP, President, American Academy of Pediatrics.âChildren and teens are at the epicenter of a pervasive data-driven marketing system that takes advantage of their inherent developmental vulnerabilities. We agree with President Biden: now is the time for Congress to act and enact safeguards that protect children and teens. Itâs also long overdue for Congress to enact comprehensive legislation that protects parents and other adults from unfair, manipulative, discriminatory and privacy invasive commercial surveillance practices.â â Katharina Kopp, Ph.D. Policy Director, Center for Digital Democracy."President Biden's powerful State of the Union plea to Congress to hold social media platforms accountable for the ânational experimentâ they're conducting on our kids and teens could not be more important. It is clear that young people are being harmed by these platforms that continue to prioritize profits over the wellbeing of its youngest users. Children and teens' mental health is at stake. Congress and the Administration must act now to pass legislation to protect childrenâs and teens' privacy and well-being online." â Jim Steyer, Founder and CEO, Common Sense.âOnline protections for children are woefully outdated and it's clear tech companies are more interested in profiting off of vulnerable children than taking steps to prevent them from getting hurt on their platforms. American kids are facing a mental health crisis partly fueled by social media and parents are unable to go it alone against these billion dollar companies. We need Congress to update COPPA, end predatory data collection on children, and regulate design practices that are contributing to social media addiction, mental health disorders, and even death.ââ Justin Ruben, Co-Founder and Co-Director, ParentsTogether."A business model built on extracting our attention at the cost of our well being is bad for everyone, but especially bad for children. No one knows this better than young people themselves, many of whom write to us daily about the ways in which Big Social is degrading their mental health. Left unregulated, Big Social will put profits over people every time. It's time to put our kids first. We urge Congress to act swiftly and enact reforms like strengthening privacy, banning surveillance advertising, and ending algorithmic discrimination for kids so we can begin to build a digital world that supports, rather than demotes child wellbeing." â Julia Hoppock, Partnerships Director, The Social Dilemma, Exposure Labs.# # #press_release_letter_to_congress_updated_embargo_to_3_22.pdf, letter_to_congress_re_children_online_3_22_22.pdf -
CDD and Advocates Call on the FTC to Begin Rulemaking to Prohibit Surveillance AdvertisingJanuary 26, 2022Federal Trade CommissionOffice of the Secretary600 Pennsylvania Avenue NWWashington, DC 20580Re: Comment on Petition for Rulemaking by Accountable Tech, FTC-2021-0070 INTRODUCTIONCenter for Digital Democracy, Common Sense, Fairplay, Parent Coalition for Student Privacy and ParentsTogether strongly support the Petition for Rulemaking to Prohibit Surveillance Advertising filed by Accountable Tech1. We agree that this action is necessary to stop the exploitation of children and teens2.Surveillance advertising, also known as behavioral or targeted advertising, has become the standard business model for a wide array of online platforms with companies utilizing this practice to micro-target all consumers, including children and teens. Surveillance advertising involves the collection of vast amounts of personal data of online users, their demographics, behaviors, preferences, characteristics, and the production of inferences. To create detailed advertising profiles from this data, users are tracked across websites and devices; they are classified, sorted, and even discriminated against via targeting and exclusion; and ultimately are left vulnerable to manipulation and exploitation.Young people are especially susceptible to the risks posed by surveillance advertising, which is why leading public health advocates like the American Academy of Pediatrics have called for a ban on surveillance advertising to children under 18 years old3. Childrenâs and teensâ online experiences are shaped by the affordances of surveillance marketing, which entrap them in a complex system purposefully designed to manipulate their behaviors and emotions, while leveraging their data in the process. Young people are a significant audience for the real-time ad profiling and targeting apparatus operated through programmatic platforms and technologies, which poses fundamental risks to their privacy, safety and well-being.  Surveillance advertising is harmful to young people in several ways. First, young people are already more susceptible to advertisingâs negative effects and surveillance advertising allows marketers to manipulate children and teens even more effectively. Second, surveillance advertising allows advertisers to target childrenâs individual vulnerabilities. Third, surveillance advertising can exacerbate inequities by allowing advertisers to target (or abstain from targeting) marginalized communities. Fourth, behavioral advertising is the driving force behind a complex system of data collection and surveillance that tracks all of childrenâs online activity, undermining young peopleâs privacy and wellbeing. Finally, the Childrenâs Online Privacy Protection Act has failed to effectively protect children under thirteen from surveillance advertising and a more expansive prohibition is needed to protect the youngest and most vulnerable users online.For these reasons, we urge the Commission to protect children and teens by prohibiting surveillance advertising.......Please read the full petition, see PDF below......____________________________________________186 Fed. Reg. 73206 (Dec. 27, 2021).2Petân for Rulemaking at 32-33.3Jenny Radesky, Yolanda (Linda) Reid Chassiakos, Nusheen Ameenuddin, Dipesh Navsaria, Council on Communications and Media; Digital Advertising to Children. Pediatrics July 2020; 146 (1): e20201681. 10.1542/peds.2020-1681.childrens_coalition_survadv_1-26-22.pdf
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Groups urge Congress to stop Big Techâs manipulation of young people BOSTON â Thursday, December 2, 2021 â Today a coalition of leading advocacy groups launched Designed With Kids in Mind, a campaign demanding a design code in the US to protect young people from online manipulation and harm. The campaign seeks to secure protections for US children and teens similar to the UKâs groundbreaking Age-Appropriate Design Code (AADC), which went into effect earlier this year. The campaign brings together leading advocates for child development, privacy, and a healthier digital media environment, including Fairplay, Accountable Tech, American Academy of Pediatrics, Center for Digital Democracy, Center for Humane Technology, Common Sense, ParentsTogether, RAINN, and Exposure Labs, creators of The Social Dilemma. The coalition will advocate for legislation and new Federal Trade Commission rules that protect children and teens from a business model that puts young people at risk by prioritizing data collection and engagement.The coalition has launched a website that explains how many of the most pressing problems faced by young people online are directly linked to platformâs design choices. They cite features that benefit platforms at the expense of young peopleâs wellbeing, such as: Autoplay: increases time on platforms, and excessive time on screens is linked to mental health challenges, physical risks like less sleep, and promotes family conflict.Algorithmic recommendations: risks exposure to self-harm, racist content, pornography, and mis/disinformation.Location tracking: makes it easier for strangers to track and contact children.Nudges to share: leads to loss of privacy, risks of sexual predation and identity theft.The coalition is promoting three bills which would represent a big step forward in protecting US children and teens online: the Children and Teensâ Online Privacy Protection Act S.1628; the Kids Internet Design and Safety (KIDS) Act S. 2918; and the Protecting the Information of our Vulnerable Children and Youth (PRIVCY) Act H.R. 4801. Taken together, these bills would expand privacy protections to teens for the first time and incorporate key elements of the UKâs AADC, such as requiring the best interest of children to be a primary design consideration for services likely to be accessed by young people. The legislation backed by the coalition would also protect children and teens from manipulative design features and harmful data processing. Members of the coalition on the urgent need for a US Design Code to protect children and teens:Josh Golin, Executive Director, Fairplay:We need an internet that helps children learn, connect, and play without exploiting their developmental vulnerabilities; respects their need for privacy and safety; helps young children disconnect at the appropriate time rather than manipulating them into spending even more time online; and prioritizes surfacing high-quality content instead of maximizing engagement. The UKâs Age-Appropriate Design Code took an important step towards creating that internet, and children and teens in the US deserve the same protections and opportunities. Itâs time for Congress and regulators to insist that children come before Big Techâs profits.Nicole Gill, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Accountable Tech:You would never put your child in a car seat that wasn't designed for them and met all safety standards, but that's what we do every day when our children go online using a network of apps and websites that were never designed with them in mind. Our children should be free to learn, play, and connect online without manipulative platforms like Facebook and Google's YouTube influencing their every choice. We need an age appropriate design code that puts kids and families first and protects young people from the exploitative practices and the perverse incentives of social media.Lee Savio Beers, MD, FAAP, President of the American Academy of Pediatrics:The American Academy of Pediatrics is proud to join this effort to ensure digital spaces are safe for children and supportive of their healthy development. It is in our power to create a digital ecosystem that works better for children and families; legislative change to protect children is long overdue. We must be bold in our thinking and ensure that government action on technology addresses the most concerning industry practices while preserving the positive aspects of technology for young people.Jeff Chester, Executive Director, Center for Digital Democracy:The âBig Techâ companies have long treated young people as just a means to generate vast profits â creating apps, videos and games designed to hook them to an online world designed to surveil and manipulate them. Itâs time to stop children and teens from being victimized by the digital media industry. Congress and the Federal Trade Commission should adopt commonsense safeguards that ensure Americaâs youth reap all the benefits of the online world without having to constantly expose themselves to the risks.Randima Fernando, Executive Director, Center for Humane Technology:We need technology that respects the incredible potential â and the incredible vulnerability â of our kids' minds. And that should guide technology for adults, who can benefit from those same improvements.Irene Ly, Policy Counsel, Common Sense:This campaign acknowledges harmful features of online platforms and apps like autoplay, algorithms amplifying harmful content, and location tracking for what they are: intentional design choices. For too long, online platforms and apps have chosen to exploit childrenâs vulnerabilities through these manipulative design features. Common Sense has long supported designing online spaces with kids in mind, and strongly supports US rules that would finally require companies to put kidsâ well-being first.Julia Hoppock, The Social Dilemma Partnerships Director, Exposure Labs:For too long, Big Social has put profits over people. It's time to put our kids first and build an online world that works for them.Dalia Hashad, Online Safety Director, ParentsTogether: From depression to bullying to sexual exploitation, tech companies knowingly expose children to unacceptable harms because it makes the platforms billions in profit. It's time to put kids first.Scott Berkowitz, President of RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network):Child exploitation has reached crisis levels, and our reliance on technology has left children increasingly vulnerable. On our hotline, we hear from children every day who have been victimized through technology. An age-appropriate design code will provide overdue safeguards for children across the U.S.launch_-_design_code_to_protect_kids_online.pdf
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Contact: Jeff Chester, CDD (jeff@democraticmedia.org (link sends e-mail); 202-494-7100) David Monahan, CCFC (david@commercialfreechildhood.org (link sends e-mail);) Advocates Ask FTC to Protect Youth From Manipulative âDark Patternsâ Online BOSTON, MA and WASHINGTON, DC â May 28, 2021âTwo leading advocacy groups protecting children from predatory practices online filed comments today asking the FTC to create strong safeguards to ensure that internet âdark patternsâ donât undermine childrenâs well-being and privacy. Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC) and the Center for Digital Democracy (CDD) cited leading authorities on the impacts of internet use on child development in their comments prepared by the Communications & Technology Law Clinic at Georgetown University Law Center. These comments follow testimony given by representatives of both groups last month at a FTC workshop spearheaded by FTC Acting Chair Rebecca Slaughter. CCFC and CDD say tech companies are preying upon vulnerable kids, capitalizing on their fear of missing out, desire to be popular, and inability to understand the value of misleading e-currencies, as well as putting them on an endless treadmill on their digital devices. They urged the FTC to take swift and strong action to protect children from the harms of dark patterns. Key takeaways include: - A range of practices, often called âdark patternsâ are pervasive in the digital marketplace, manipulate children, are deceptive and unfair and violate Section 5 of the FTC Act. They take advantage of a young personâs psycho-social development, such as the need to engage with peers. - The groups explained the ways children are vulnerable to manipulation and other harms from âdark patterns,â including that they have âimmature and developing executive functioning,â which leads to impulse behaviors. - The FTC should prohibit the use of dark pattern practices in the childrenâs marketplace; issue guidance to companies to ensure they do not develop or deploy such applications, and include new protections under their Childrenâs Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) rulemaking authority to better regulate them. The commission must bring enforcement actions against the developers using child-directed dark patterns. - The FTC should prohibit the use of micro-transactions in apps serving children, including the buying of virtual currency to participate in game playing. - The FTC should adopt a definition of dark patterns to include all ânudgesâ designed to use a range of behavioral techniques to foster desired responses from users. The groupsâ filing was in response to the FTCâs call for comments (link is external) on the use of digital âdark patternsâ â deceptive and unfair user interface designs â on websites and mobile apps. Comment of Jeff Chester, executive Director of the Center for Digital Democracy: âDark Patternsâ are being used in the design of child-directed services to manipulate them to spend more time and money on games and other applications, as well as give up more of their data. Itâs time the FTC acted to protect young people from being unfairly treated by online companies. The commission should issue rules that prohibit the use of these stealth tactics that target kids and bring legal action against the companies promoting their use. Comment of Josh Golin, executive Director of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood: In their rush to monetize children, app and game developers are using dark patterns that take advantage of childrenâs developmental vulnerabilities. The FTC has all the tools it needs to stop unethical, harmful, and illegal conduct. Doing so would be a huge step forward towards creating a healthy media environment for children. Comment of Michael Rosenbloom, Staff Attorney & Clinical Teaching Fellow, Communications and Technology Law Clinic, Georgetown University Law Center: Software and game companies are using dark patterns to pressure children into playing more and paying more. Today, many apps and games that children play use dark patterns like arbitrary virtual currencies, encouragement from in-game characters, and ticking countdown timers, to get children to spend more time and money on microtransactions. These dark patterns harm children and violate Section 5 of the FTC Act, and we urge the FTC to act to stop these practices. ###
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Reports
âBig Foodâ and âBig Dataâ Online Platforms Fueling Youth Obesity Crisis as Coronavirus Pandemic Rages
New Report Calls for Action to Address Saturation of Social Media, Gaming Platforms, and Streaming Video with Unhealthy Food and Beverage Products
The coronavirus pandemic triggered a dramatic increase in online use. Children and teens whose schools have closed relied on YouTube for educational videos, attending virtual classes on Zoom and Google Classroom, and flocking to TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram for entertainment and social interaction. This constant immersion in digital culture has exposed them to a steady flow of marketing for fast foods, soft drinks, and other unhealthy products, much of it under the radar of parents and teachers. Food and beverage companies have made digital media ground zero for their youth promotion efforts, employing a growing spectrum of new strategies and high-tech tools to penetrate every aspect of young peoplesâ lives.Our latest report, Big Food, Big Tech, and the Global Childhood Obesity Pandemic, takes an in-depth look at this issue. Below we outline just three of the many tactics the food industry is using to market unhealthy products to children and teens in digital settings.1. Influencer marketing - Travis Scott & McDonald'sMcDonaldâs enlisted rapper Travis Scott, to promote the âTravis Scott Mealâ to young people, featuring âa medium Sprite, a quarter pounder with bacon, and fries with barbecue sauce.â The campaign was so successful that some restaurants in the chain sold out of supplies within days of its launch. This and other celebrity endorsements have helped boost McDonaldâs stock price, generated a trove of valuable consumer data, and triggered enormous publicity across social media.2. Gaming Platforms - MTN DEW Amp Game Fuel - TwitchPepsiCoâs energy drink, MTN DEW Amp Game Fuel, is specifically âdesigned with gamers in mind.â Each 16 oz can of MTN DEW Amp Game Fuel delivers a powerful âvitamin-charged and caffeine-boostedâ formula, whose ingredients of high fructose corn syrup, grape juice concentrate, caffeine, and assorted herbs âhave been shown to improve accuracy and alertness.â The can itself features a âno-slip grip that mirrors the sensory design of accessories and hardware in gaming.â It is also âeasier to open and allows for more uninterrupted game play.âTo attract influencers, the product was featured on Twitchâs âBounty Board,â a one-stop-shopping tool for âstreamers,â enabling them to accept paid sponsorship (or âbountiesâ) from brands that want to reach the millions of gamers and their followers.3. Streaming and Digital Video - "It's a Thing" Campaign - FantaConcerned that teens were âdrinking less soda,â Coca-Colaâs Fanta brand developed a comprehensive media campaign to trigger âan ongoing conversation with teen consumers through digital platformsâ by creating four videos based on the brandâs most popular flavors, and targeting youth on YouTube, Hulu, Roku, Crackle, and other online video platforms. âFrom a convenience store dripping with orange flavor and its own DJ cat, to an 8-bit videogame-ified pizza parlor, the digital films transport fans to parallel universes of their favorite hangout spots, made more extraordinary and fantastic once a Fanta is opened.â The campaign, which was aimed at Black and Brown teens, also included use of Snapchatâs augmented-reality technology to creative immersive experiences, as well as promotional efforts on Facebook-owned Instagram, which generated more than a half a million followers.