Children’s exposure to advertising on games sites in Brazil and Spain

Abstract

The online space is rich in playful experiences and can provide many pleasures and lessons to their younger users. However, it is true that children cannot always handle the advertising noise and other adverse effects resulting from excessive or inappropriate use of technology and particularly the game pages. This article aims to confirm the advertising pressure that affects children in Brazil and Spain when playing on Internet game pages. Measuring advertising pressure in online games by the theoretical and methodological framework for content analysis applied to the game pages visited by a group of Brazilian and Spanish children 9 to 11 years. This research showed that online games are occupied by a considerable amount of publicity, which repeatedly blocks access and disrupts key moments of young players with unwanted or not interesting messages. Like in television programming we must put more attention on quality and the amount of ads in online playing. So if there is a concern with the commercial content of children's programming on television similar reasons demand prompt and adequate attention to those games pages. Abusive ads damage advertiser’s reputation, affects gaming experiences and disturb the playtime. Game managers, advertisers, educators and families may use children opinions that are actually successful. El espacio online es rico en experiencias lúdicas y puede proporcionar muchos placeres y aprendizajes a sus usuarios más jóvenes. Sin embargo es cierto que los niños no siempre pueden manejar el ruido publicitario y otros efectos nocivos derivados del uso excesivo o inapropiado de la tecnología, y en particular de las webs de juegos. Este artículo tiene como objetivo confirmar la presión publicitaria que afecta a niños de Brasil y España cuando se entretienen en portales de Internet con juegos. Para medir la presión publicitaria en los juegos actuales se recurre al marco teórico y metodológico del análisis de contenido sobre una muestra de webs visitadas por un grupo de niños brasileños y españoles de 9 a 11 años. Esta investigación evidencia que los juegos on-line son obstruidos por una cantidad considerable de anuncios que repetidamente bloquean el acceso e interrumpen momentos claves con mensajes no deseados o sin interés para los pequeños jugadores. De la misma forma que hay una preocupación con el contenido comercial de las programaciones infantiles en la televisión, se espera una pronta y suficiente atención a aquellas webs de juegos que lesionan la imagen de los anunciantes, entorpecen la experiencia del juego y sobre todo afectan a quienes están formándose como ciudadanos antes que consumidores. Se comprueba que las opiniones de este grupo de usuarios son acertadas y relevantes para comunicadores, profesores y familiares.

The struggles of everyday life: How children view and engage with advertising in mobile games

“…This article gives new insights into children’s engagement with advertising in digital games. Previous research has shown how 9- and 11-year-old children primarily view advertising as interfering with their gaming activities and that children try to avoid advertising in various ways (Martínez et al, 2013: 112–113; Marti-Pellón and Saunders-Uchoa-Craveiro, 2015; see also Saunders-Uchoa-Craveiro and Araújo Cysne Rios, 2013), something which is found also in the present study. However, previous studies do not reveal how children struggle with advertisements, and previous research has not found that children stop playing, or delete games, as a result of advertising, as highlighted in the present study.…”

“…Children’s engagement with in-game advertising – here defined as ‘explicit advertisements, such as banners, pop-ups, and streaming video-clip advertisements’ (Tran and Strutton, 2013: 457) – has received substantially less attention. Existing studies deal with computer-based digital games and have found that 9- and 11-year-old children have negative views of advertising as it interrupts their gaming activities (Martínez et al, 2013: 112–113; Marti-Pellón and Saunders-Uchoa-Craveiro, 2015; see also Saunders-Uchoa-Craveiro and Araújo Cysne Rios, 2013). Children describe how they avoid watching advertisements that appear in online games by, for instance, looking at another part of the computer screen or going away from the computer for a moment (Martínez et al, 2013: 113).…”

Specificities Introduced by Mobile Phones in the Relationship Between Children and Commercial Content

“…However, their attitude may be more positive if users perceive advertising as incorporating entertainment or as being useful in some way (Martí-Parreño et al, 2013). In any case, the most common behavior is to avoid ads, especially in online gaming (Martínez et al, 2013;Martí-Pellón & Saunders, 2015). Martínez (2019) states that avoiding advertising requires from minors investing a certain amount of effort and this is done with an emotional cost which leads them to manifest their dislike and discomfort toward advertising (Livingstone et al, 2014), particularly with push formats.…”

“…Martí-Pellón & Saunders, 2015). Hence, closeness to the service in which exposure occurs reduces the level of distrust in children, as they feel are more "in control" of their browsing.…”

When mobile advertising is interesting: interaction of minors with ads and influencers’ sponsored content on social media

“…Their project surveyed more than 23,000 consumers in 40 countries and revealed that younger audiences consider digital advertising annoying, unpleasant and irritating (Livingstone et al, 2014). This perception leads minors to tend to avoid advertisements (Martí-Pellón & Saunders, 2015;Martínez, Jarlbro & Sandberg, 2013), and in doing so minors pay a toll in terms of effort and emotional distress (Martínez, 2019) a situation which does not benefit brands (Valvi & West, 2015). This negative attitude can be softened when minors feel that they have some possibility to control the content, either skipping it or closing it, which explains why children are especially annoyed by invasive advertising formats such as non-skippable pre-rolls or popup ads.…”