• 59% of children and adolescents ages 5 to 17 use the Internet. (National Center for Education Statistics, October 2003)
• 78% of children and adolescents who use the Internet, do so at home. (National Center for Education Statistics, October 2003)
• In contrast to the 1990s, when boys were more likely to use the Internet, there is now no difference between the sexes in this area. (National Center for Education Statistics, October 2003)
• Children ages 5 to 12 are the fastest growing segment of online users. (B. Sullivan, "Kids and teens take to Internet Shopping," Daily News [June 8, 1999])
• Children between the ages of 5 and 18 will spend an estimated $1.3 billion online by 2002. (U.S. News and World Report, 1999)
• Teens' online and offline spending totaled $175 billion in 2003. (Teenage Research Unlimited, 2004)
• 67% of online teens ages 13 to 18, and 37% of online children ages 5 to 12, have researched product items or bought products online. (eShop Weekly, 1999)
• The more children are exposed to the consumer world, the more likely it is they will suffer from depression, anxiety and poor self-esteem. (Juliet Schor, Ph.D. Born to Buy [Scribner, 2004])
• A recent study by the London School of Economics found that of the 9 to 19 year olds in the United Kingdom who went online, 46% give out personal information and 33% have received unwanted sexual messages.
• The same study found that 40% of kids who go online at least once a week have pretended or lied about themselves. (July 2004)
• Minimum age requirements are difficult to verify online, which makes it easy for children under the age of 13 to access information, products and services designed for and marketed to teenagers and adults.

Intent on tapping into the lucrative teen consumer market, some "word-of-mouth" marketing firms are exposing young people to adult-oriented concepts and products, exploiting minors as an inexpensive and unsuspecting distribution force, and creating forums that are easy targets for child predators.

By recruiting minors for online viral advertising campaigns, marketers sometimes expose them and their friends to sexually explicit information, age inappropriate language, and sexual images. When these recruitment efforts involve a centralized website, on which young recruits can communicate with each other, marketers open the virtual door to predatory adults who use the Internet to stalk children, especially young girls.

This advertising trend among young people has been referred to as "word-of-mouth advocacy." But sometimes these marketers end up advocating more than goods and services. More often than not, they ascribe a level of maturity to minors that is well beyond their years with potentially disastrous results. In fact, young people can be exposed to dangerous psychological and health threats.

For example, by suggesting to minors that they should use "discretion" and decide "carefully" whether to reveal to friends and family what they are doing, tactics employed by these firms inherently teach young people lessons of deception and dishonesty.

In addition to promoting the exploitation of their friends as criteria for participation in these programs, many experts believe exposing children to consumer culture increases the likelihood they will suffer from depression, anxiety and poor self-esteem. It is likely these negative outcomes are increased when minors encounter and actively convey the exploitative tendencies of these word of mouth marketing campaigns.

Why is this trend growing? Children and teens are a rapidly increasing consumer market, both online and off, and as continuing mass media fragmentation makes it harder to reach consumers, marketers are looking for ways to zero in on demographic niches more effectively.

But there are important differences among consumers, which is why the Children's Advertising Review Unit of the National Advertising Review Council developed special guidelines for advertising that involves kids. Specifically, CARU states certain "techniques which may be appropriate for adult-directed advertising may mislead children if used in child-directed advertising." Unlike adults, minors don't have the cognitive skills to differentiate among marketing messages, nor do they have the self-esteem to resist the lure of being given free samples and the opportunity to promote "cool" products and services among their friends.

Generally, the marketing firms' websites do not require parental consent or proof of age. In fact, on at least one of the sites, simply changing the year of one's birth date allows an individual who first registers as a 10-year-old to re-register as an older child.

Even when parental consent is solicited, it is likely parents agree to their children participating in general campaigns, but are not given an opportunity to approve specific promotions. And the parents of children approached by friends acting on behalf of marketers are never given a chance to provide or withhold their consent.

As these word-of-mouth techniques continue to grow on the Internet, parents should talk to their children about how marketing campaigns work and provide them with the tools to recognize when they are being targeted as a consumer.

• Monitor children's Internet use and the web sites they visit;
• Instruct children never to give out personal information or to sign up for promotions and programs without your supervision;
• Warn them about the dangers of some chat rooms and message boards;
• If children inform you that they are being recruited for an online program or promotion, immediately review the materials sent, including privacy language, and make certain that the parameters of children's participation are clearly articulated, that the promotion in question is not sexual in either content or tone, and does not involve exploiting friends and peers;
• In the event parental consent is given for children to participate in an online program or promotion, make certain you will have the opportunity to review all information transmitted before children have access to it and that you can opt-out on behalf of children at any point during the program.