Kids can be savvier than we think. But they still need guidance when it comes to viewing online content. Josh Ochs sat down with Suzanne Tomlinson, Digital Copywriter/Homeschool Mom to talk about how to teach kids about online advertising.
These 3 tips can help your child see ads through a critical lens:
1. Explain advertising, in general, using examples your child encounters the most, whether that’s TV commercials or pop-up ads in their favorite app. Advertisers want us to buy their stuff, so they try different methods to make us want what they’re selling. Advertisers track the digital places we visit online to show us things they know we’re interested in.
2. Teach your child how to look for words in posts and images like “ad”, “sponsored content”, “hide”, or even a small X in a corner. Demonstrate how to properly close a pop-up or video ad by clicking or tapping close or on the X. These types of ads can be distracting, at the very least, to both kids and adults.
3. Sometimes ads can take a viewer to an unsafe website. Use an analogy like “stranger danger” to help your kids understand they don’t have to click on or follow something just because it’s there, even if it looks nice.
Read more on our blog, Teaching Kids About Online Advertising: 12 Experts Share Advice.
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