AD AGE reports that Ralph Nader is leading some 30 health, education and privacy advocates in demanding that Congress regulate mobile phones marketed to kids – calling it “one of the worst ideas to appear in the American economy in a long time.” Their beef: The phones will enable marketers to pitch products and content directly to kids.
"Despite the [wireless] industry’s rhetoric, [Walt] Disney and the telecommunications companies really want to use children as conduits to their parents’ wallets. And marketers want another way to bypass parents and speak directly to the nation’s children," the group said in a letter to Congress.
Hmm. They do have a point. Sort of. True, mobile phones are the most direct link to consumers every created, grownup or otherwise.
But what Nader and his group say about the nature of kids’ marketing is true of just about any medium – especially television, which uses flashy multimedia in commercials and, increasingly, within programs, to whet kids’ appetites for everything from Fruit Loops to Furby dolls.
Also, though it’s only a minor point, Disney’s proposed cell phone service presumably uses a “Walled Garden” approach that only enables Disney content and services to be accessed from the main interface. The whole reason parents would select the phones is to ensure kids a.) have a way to connect with parents, and b.) are pointed toward Disney’s brand of kid-friendly content.
And in general, mobile campaigns and content services aimed at kids already do a decent job of vetting users.
In BRANDING UNBOUND, I talk about the extensive steps kids have to go through to sign up to receive content based on Harry Potter. Kids have to fill out a form at a Web site, which states in no uncertain terms that recipients may be charged their cell phone company’s regular airtime charges for messages sent to their handsets. Once the forms are sent, recipients receive a confirmation number on their phones that they then have to register on the Web site before they begin receiving mobile content.
That said, parents are still bypassed in that model. But there are easy, and interesting, solutions. If you think about it, Disney could add to its mobile service's appeal by requiring (and enabling) content carried on their network to ping parents’ numbers or email addresses so parents can grant permission for kids to receive content or promotional information that kids have requested, or that marketers want to send.
I’m not sure if Disney, let alone Nader and company, would approve. But it would make mobile phones just about the most kids-safe medium available to consumers. And it'd make brands that play along big time hits with parents as much as kids.
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