Children's watchdog CARU (the Children's Advertising Review Unit of the Council of Better Business Bureaus) got two companies to fix some kid-confusing marketing practices this week. The Wrigley Company agreed to make its contest rules (and the part about "no purchase necessary") much more prominent on the Web site for its Hubba Bubba Bubble Tape sweepstakes. And the Upper Deck Company agreed … [Read more...] about Keeping marketers honest
Search Results for: privacy
Xanga and other teen ‘hangouts’
About 13% of the students at San Jose's Evergreen High School have blogs on Xanga.com, and that's just one online journal site. One student told the San Jose Mercury News that he visits Xanga "like 50 times a day," either to post to his own blog or visit someone else's. Most of the blogs are innocuous, some cruel. "Evergreen's Xanga crowd operated largely under the radar of school officials until … [Read more...] about Xanga and other teen ‘hangouts’
‘Camera phone backlash’ already
To teens who snap and email on-the-fly photos of themselves and friends, they're just fun. But concerns about everything from children's privacy to industrial espionage are now being raised wherever "phone snappers" flock, and they're certainly not just kids. "Worldwide, more camera phones were sold last year than digital cameras - a first," the BBC reports, adding that "sales went up almost … [Read more...] about ‘Camera phone backlash’ already
Dublin on protecting young 3G phone users
Dublin is taking unparalleled care to protect young users of next-generation cell phones. Because the Irish government sees 3G phones as potential "tools of pedophiles," Wired News reports, it's establishing a national register that "will require the name and address of anyone who buys a 3G phone to ensure that people who use it abusively, either to target children or to access or distribute child … [Read more...] about Dublin on protecting young 3G phone users
‘Friends with benefits’
It's unsettling but important reading, this week's look inside "the [US's] under-age sexual revolution, where causal sex is common, online ratings are scrutinized, everybody wants to be so detached, and boys still get what they want on Saturday night" in the New York Times Magazine. Here are some observations writer Benoit Denizet-Lewis makes just about the role the Internet plays in this … [Read more...] about ‘Friends with benefits’