Children as consumers

Children are continually subjected to marketing that they are not yet mature enough to take in.

Television advertisements, magazines, tabloid headlines, outdoor advertisements, window displays and websites may feature messages that do not belong in a child's world due to frightening or erotic content or inappropriate models of behaviour.

A child has a right to grow up in a safe and peaceful environment, however. A parent can hold advertisers accountable for the kind of advertising a child is surrounded by.

Advertisements must reflect socially acceptable values so as not to have a detrimental impact on a child's development or on a parent's role in raising the child. Advertising that does not reflect socially acceptable values is inappropriate.

Insist on the right to raise your child

An advertisement that is aimed at or reaches children infringes on a parent's right to raise a child, and is inappropriate if it

• features sexual discrimination in the form of offensive or demeaning content
• depicts frightening subjects or violence
• depicts inappropriate models of behaviour
• gives children the impression that human worth, quality of life or good social relationships can be bought
• makes parents feel guilty by presenting a purchase as a way to succeed as a parent

Take action

When you think an advertisement is unsuitable for children, express your opinion to

• the advertiser
• the shop (to the manager, for example)
• the advertising medium (to the broadcaster, newspaper or magazine, for example)

You can always

submit a report to the Consumer Agency, which monitors marketing directed at children
Form

There are ways in which all of these entities can affect the type of marketing that children encounter.

Guidelines for consumer protection:
 
 Minors, marketing and purchases
 Children and foodstuffs marketing