Modern parents, dangers of advertising and children: A qualitative study on the dangers of advertising targeted at children

With the advancement of technology it is important to consider the societal changes that come with it. One of those changes is the way marketeers advertise their content. These changes primarily affect the newer generations, as they are the most susceptible to them. Children are who needs the most protection from these changes as the findings of Van Schaik, Chatterton and Croxon (2016) indicated there is no proper legislation for advertising to children through mobile phones. The study was a qualitative analysis that interviewed 10 parents who talked about the effects of advertising on children aged 7 to 12. The research investigated the advertising content targeted at children in Montenegro, a small country that recently joined NATO and is currently aiming to join the EU. This country is undergoing a lot of different changes, so this research aimed to provide support for advertising regulation targeted at children. The results of the research indicated an unexpected finding, which was the effects of the social norm. The social norm factor appeared to affect the parents’ thoughts on advertising as some of their ideas and adjustments to raising a child were based on it. They all agreed about the effects of advertising and were not pleased about the negative outcomes, however, they did not expect regulation to solve the issue, but instead adapted to the changes themselves. This was interesting to see as the social norm factor here was that they wanted the children to be exposed to a certain amount of advertising content as, as they explained, they would eventually be exposed to it. They thought that restriction in itself is a potential danger to the child and they felt that active discussion with the child combined with minor restrictions was the best way to raise a child. The research found that the “social norm” factor had a big effect on the parents decision making and usage of the two types of mediation, namely, active and restrictive mediation (Valkenburg et al., 2013).