I am not gonna blame parents while businesses are allowed to target children with ads about the newest mobile game. Children are very easy to influence, and this is exploited heavily by the tech industry, who shower children with advertising. This is predatory behavior, which the legislator and the regulator of western governments (including Europe) has allowed to proliferate.

We cannot expect every parent to be able to protect their children when they are being predated on by dozens of multi-million dollar companies, and the state is on the side of the companies.

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bigstrat2003 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> I am not gonna blame parents while businesses are allowed to target children with ads about the newest mobile game.

Those kids shouldn't even have a mobile device to play said game. That's where the parents can, and should, make a difference: don't let your kid even have a smartphone in the first place.

	▲	runarberg 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Kids also tend to disobey, and whine about it. Sure you can say parents should be strict and thorough, but you can’t expect 100% of parents (who are often tired from a hard day at work) to be 100% diligent 100% of the time. And the reason we have these ads is that corporations are hoping that the kids will indeed disobey, and whine constantly at their parents, until they have their way (as directed to by the targeted ad). There was a good reason why targeting kids in ads used to be illegal in Europe.

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logicchains 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

>Children are very easy to influence, and this is exploited heavily by the tech industry, who shower children with advertising

The parents' job is to say no. If they're letting themselves be influenced too, that's bad parenting.

	▲	runarberg 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		And it is the job of the legislator to tell conflicting interests no. If they are influenced by lobby groups, that’s a bad government.