Children reading commercial messages on the internet: web sites that merge education, information, entertainment, and advertising

This study explored the understanding of authorship and intent on Web sites for children. It investigated whether children identified Web site sponsors, if they saw branded Web sites as advertising, and what they considered the primary purpose of the messages on the Web sites. Previous research on children and advertising, mostly focused on television, found that by the age of 8 children differentiated commercials from programs and understood the selling intent of commercials. The participants in this study were 48 fourth- and fifth-grade students in a public school with no Internet access. In individual interviews, participants were seated at a computer and asked questions as they explored six commercial Web sites. The Web sites included three branded sites and three sites with advertising. Content on the sites included product promotion, entertainment, information, and education. Participants were asked to describe the contents of the sites, to identify the sites' authors, to explain the intent of the' online messages, and to identify any advertising. Responses were coded using a coding scheme previously used by W. Ward, D. B. Wackman, and E. Wartella in a 1977 study of children and television, and by M. C. Curran in a 2000 study of children's understanding of advertising both on television and on the Internet. Results showed that participants did not have a sophisticated understanding of the persuasive intent of advertising and they did not identify the same online messages as ads. Participants primarily saw the sites' purposes as informative rather than commercial. Additionally, many who identified advertisements misunderstood what was being promoted. The results of this study have implications for policy makers, Web site designers, and educators. Current guidelines for advertising to children online are voluntary. Web designers are self-monitoring as they communicate intended or unintended messages to children. Educators, increasingly using the Internet as a resource, can incorporate media literacy skills, helping children understand, interpret, analyze and evaluate online messages.