4 ms·

There are certainly things that may be worth trying to protect children from online, like extremely targeted advertising that gets presented like legitimate con

There are certainly things that may be worth trying to protect children from online, like extremely targeted advertising that gets presented like legitimate content. Kids won't necessarily be able to differentiate between the two, and it's definitely not okay for companies to be tracking and profiling them like they do (but pretend to not be doing). A great example is reddit or instagram using the same algorithms that recommend content in their main feeds to also inject advertising. They'll claim all of that data collection is just to provide a "better experience", but advertising companies love it. I'm really not sure what else you're on about though.

ipaddr 3y ago
Kids already see tons of ads at movies, billboards, clothes people wear. Those superhero movies are made to sell toys and games. Stores are setup for kids to pressure parents. Why are targeted ads the thing we should fear for our kids? Are we inventing problems? Kid watches superman movie and is shown an ad for batman vs here is an ad for a random movie. Adults and tracking is bigger issue, kids don't have positions in society to lose or secrets to keep or money to lose. What are we fooling ourselves into believing we are protecting again?
- mcpackieh 3y ago
  Ad targeting identifies a lonely person with self esteem issues. Tells them that they'll be more popular and attractive if they consume product. They consume product and of course it doesn't actually help, but more advertisements are already lined up to explain that they're still feeling bad because they need to consume even more product. The ads show unrealistically happy and attractive people, to reinforce the self esteem issues and encourage the consumption of even more product. This is a standard business practice for the advertising and marketing industry. It's evil.
- mattstir 3y ago
  This sort of willful ignorance is disparaging to see. Surely you must see a difference between an ad block that's clearly differentiated from the main program (ads before a movie plays, ad breaks during TV) and an endless feed of content that has no clear delineation between 'content' and 'product sponsership'. You might well be fine believing that billboards are the pinnacle of advertising, but there's been about 160 years worth of progress in the ad space since those were the big thing. > Why are targeted ads the thing we should fear for our kids? Again, you seem to be either defensive or intentionally misconstruing the point. These types of problems shouldn't invoke fear in people. I think you're getting yourself too mixed up in the idea that [X modern issue] is fearmongering and that nothing bad ever happens. Kids are dumb and impressionable. If they spend 8 hours a day scrolling through an endless feed of cool posts featuring cool products being worn / used by cool people, they will absolutely get attached to the idea that it's normal and expected to have that thing. That's manipulative and disgusting marketing, and it's genuinely worrying that you don't seem to care at all. > Kid watches superman movie and is shown an ad for batman vs here is an ad for a random movie Again, intentionally misconstruing the idea... it's more like "kid spends 2/3 of their time awake being mined for data and having every interaction across every platform cross-correlated to ensure that *a company* can profit off of them". I suppose that's perfectly healthy and normal to you, that a company can know more about a child and exactly what they do and what they like than any human does.
falcolas 3y ago
> There are certainly things that may be worth trying to protect children from online, like extremely targeted advertising that gets presented like legitimate content. I'm reminded strongly of cartoons which were created to sell toys. Still happens today.
autoexec 3y ago
> There are certainly things that may be worth trying to protect children from online, like extremely targeted advertising that gets presented like legitimate content. It's better to block targeted advertising from adults too. Blocking ads for everyone in the household is only going to benefit everyone.

ipaddr 3y ago

Kids already see tons of ads at movies, billboards, clothes people wear. Those superhero movies are made to sell toys and games. Stores are setup for kids to pressure parents. Why are targeted ads the thing we should fear for our kids? Are we inventing problems? Kid watches superman movie and is shown an ad for batman vs here is an ad for a random movie. Adults and tracking is bigger issue, kids don't have positions in society to lose or secrets to keep or money to lose. What are we fooling ourselves into believing we are protecting again?

mcpackieh 3y ago
Ad targeting identifies a lonely person with self esteem issues. Tells them that they'll be more popular and attractive if they consume product. They consume product and of course it doesn't actually help, but more advertisements are already lined up to explain that they're still feeling bad because they need to consume even more product. The ads show unrealistically happy and attractive people, to reinforce the self esteem issues and encourage the consumption of even more product. This is a standard business practice for the advertising and marketing industry. It's evil.
mattstir 3y ago
This sort of willful ignorance is disparaging to see. Surely you must see a difference between an ad block that's clearly differentiated from the main program (ads before a movie plays, ad breaks during TV) and an endless feed of content that has no clear delineation between 'content' and 'product sponsership'. You might well be fine believing that billboards are the pinnacle of advertising, but there's been about 160 years worth of progress in the ad space since those were the big thing. > Why are targeted ads the thing we should fear for our kids? Again, you seem to be either defensive or intentionally misconstruing the point. These types of problems shouldn't invoke fear in people. I think you're getting yourself too mixed up in the idea that [X modern issue] is fearmongering and that nothing bad ever happens. Kids are dumb and impressionable. If they spend 8 hours a day scrolling through an endless feed of cool posts featuring cool products being worn / used by cool people, they will absolutely get attached to the idea that it's normal and expected to have that thing. That's manipulative and disgusting marketing, and it's genuinely worrying that you don't seem to care at all. > Kid watches superman movie and is shown an ad for batman vs here is an ad for a random movie Again, intentionally misconstruing the idea... it's more like "kid spends 2/3 of their time awake being mined for data and having every interaction across every platform cross-correlated to ensure that *a company* can profit off of them". I suppose that's perfectly healthy and normal to you, that a company can know more about a child and exactly what they do and what they like than any human does.

falcolas 3y ago

> There are certainly things that may be worth trying to protect children from online, like extremely targeted advertising that gets presented like legitimate content. I'm reminded strongly of cartoons which were created to sell toys. Still happens today.

autoexec 3y ago

> There are certainly things that may be worth trying to protect children from online, like extremely targeted advertising that gets presented like legitimate content. It's better to block targeted advertising from adults too. Blocking ads for everyone in the household is only going to benefit everyone.