Children's exposure to mobile in-app advertising: An analysis of content appropriateness

Ying Chen; Sencun Zhu; Heng Xu; Yilu Zhou

doi:10.1109/SocialCom.2013.36

Children's exposure to mobile in-app advertising: An analysis of content appropriateness

Ying Chen
, Sencun Zhu
, Heng Xu
, Yilu Zhou

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

29 Scopus citations

Abstract

There is a rising concern among parents that mobile advertisements may contain violent and sexual content even when the app itself is safe for children. Because mobile advertisements are not controlled by the content rating of apps, unexpected objectionable contents may occur and be harmful to children's mental health. This study is the first to explore the content appropriateness of the in-app advertisements on mobile devices from children's online safety perspective. We find in-app advertisements are common in the free apps designed for children on smart platforms. Experimental results show that a large percent of the in-app advertisements carry inappropriate contents for children. Unfortunately, neither mobile platforms nor advertising networks provide maturity policies to restrict the content appropriateness of the in-app advertisements. This research suggests that these challenges cannot easily be tackled by one entity. Instead, advertisement providers, advertising networks, app developers, and mobile platforms should collaborate in developing policies and mechanisms to monitor the content appropriateness of the in-app advertisements.

Original language	English (US)
Title of host publication	Proceedings - SocialCom/PASSAT/BigData/EconCom/BioMedCom 2013
Pages	196-203
Number of pages	8
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/SocialCom.2013.36
State	Published - 2013
Event	2013 ASE/IEEE Int. Conf. on Social Computing, SocialCom 2013, the 2013 ASE/IEEE Int. Conf. on Big Data, BigData 2013, the 2013 Int. Conf. on Economic Computing, EconCom 2013, the 2013 PASSAT 2013, and the 2013 ASE/IEEE Int. Conf. on BioMedCom 2013 - Washington, DC, United States Duration: Sep 8 2013 → Sep 14 2013

Publication series

Name	Proceedings - SocialCom/PASSAT/BigData/EconCom/BioMedCom 2013

Other

Other	2013 ASE/IEEE Int. Conf. on Social Computing, SocialCom 2013, the 2013 ASE/IEEE Int. Conf. on Big Data, BigData 2013, the 2013 Int. Conf. on Economic Computing, EconCom 2013, the 2013 PASSAT 2013, and the 2013 ASE/IEEE Int. Conf. on BioMedCom 2013
Country/Territory	United States
City	Washington, DC
Period	9/8/13 → 9/14/13

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

Software

Access to Document

10.1109/SocialCom.2013.36

Cite this

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title = "Children's exposure to mobile in-app advertising: An analysis of content appropriateness",

abstract = "There is a rising concern among parents that mobile advertisements may contain violent and sexual content even when the app itself is safe for children. Because mobile advertisements are not controlled by the content rating of apps, unexpected objectionable contents may occur and be harmful to children's mental health. This study is the first to explore the content appropriateness of the in-app advertisements on mobile devices from children's online safety perspective. We find in-app advertisements are common in the free apps designed for children on smart platforms. Experimental results show that a large percent of the in-app advertisements carry inappropriate contents for children. Unfortunately, neither mobile platforms nor advertising networks provide maturity policies to restrict the content appropriateness of the in-app advertisements. This research suggests that these challenges cannot easily be tackled by one entity. Instead, advertisement providers, advertising networks, app developers, and mobile platforms should collaborate in developing policies and mechanisms to monitor the content appropriateness of the in-app advertisements.",

author = "Ying Chen and Sencun Zhu and Heng Xu and Yilu Zhou",

year = "2013",

doi = "10.1109/SocialCom.2013.36",

language = "English (US)",

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series = "Proceedings - SocialCom/PASSAT/BigData/EconCom/BioMedCom 2013",

pages = "196--203",

booktitle = "Proceedings - SocialCom/PASSAT/BigData/EconCom/BioMedCom 2013",

note = "2013 ASE/IEEE Int. Conf. on Social Computing, SocialCom 2013, the 2013 ASE/IEEE Int. Conf. on Big Data, BigData 2013, the 2013 Int. Conf. on Economic Computing, EconCom 2013, the 2013 PASSAT 2013, and the 2013 ASE/IEEE Int. Conf. on BioMedCom 2013 ; Conference date: 08-09-2013 Through 14-09-2013",

}

Chen, Y, Zhu, S, Xu, H & Zhou, Y 2013, Children's exposure to mobile in-app advertising: An analysis of content appropriateness. in Proceedings - SocialCom/PASSAT/BigData/EconCom/BioMedCom 2013., 6693333, Proceedings - SocialCom/PASSAT/BigData/EconCom/BioMedCom 2013, pp. 196-203, 2013 ASE/IEEE Int. Conf. on Social Computing, SocialCom 2013, the 2013 ASE/IEEE Int. Conf. on Big Data, BigData 2013, the 2013 Int. Conf. on Economic Computing, EconCom 2013, the 2013 PASSAT 2013, and the 2013 ASE/IEEE Int. Conf. on BioMedCom 2013, Washington, DC, United States, 9/8/13. https://doi.org/10.1109/SocialCom.2013.36

Children's exposure to mobile in-app advertising: An analysis of content appropriateness. / Chen, Ying; Zhu, Sencun; Xu, Heng et al.
Proceedings - SocialCom/PASSAT/BigData/EconCom/BioMedCom 2013. 2013. p. 196-203 6693333 (Proceedings - SocialCom/PASSAT/BigData/EconCom/BioMedCom 2013).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

TY - GEN

T1 - Children's exposure to mobile in-app advertising

T2 - 2013 ASE/IEEE Int. Conf. on Social Computing, SocialCom 2013, the 2013 ASE/IEEE Int. Conf. on Big Data, BigData 2013, the 2013 Int. Conf. on Economic Computing, EconCom 2013, the 2013 PASSAT 2013, and the 2013 ASE/IEEE Int. Conf. on BioMedCom 2013

AU - Chen, Ying

AU - Zhu, Sencun

AU - Xu, Heng

AU - Zhou, Yilu

PY - 2013

Y1 - 2013

N2 - There is a rising concern among parents that mobile advertisements may contain violent and sexual content even when the app itself is safe for children. Because mobile advertisements are not controlled by the content rating of apps, unexpected objectionable contents may occur and be harmful to children's mental health. This study is the first to explore the content appropriateness of the in-app advertisements on mobile devices from children's online safety perspective. We find in-app advertisements are common in the free apps designed for children on smart platforms. Experimental results show that a large percent of the in-app advertisements carry inappropriate contents for children. Unfortunately, neither mobile platforms nor advertising networks provide maturity policies to restrict the content appropriateness of the in-app advertisements. This research suggests that these challenges cannot easily be tackled by one entity. Instead, advertisement providers, advertising networks, app developers, and mobile platforms should collaborate in developing policies and mechanisms to monitor the content appropriateness of the in-app advertisements.

AB - There is a rising concern among parents that mobile advertisements may contain violent and sexual content even when the app itself is safe for children. Because mobile advertisements are not controlled by the content rating of apps, unexpected objectionable contents may occur and be harmful to children's mental health. This study is the first to explore the content appropriateness of the in-app advertisements on mobile devices from children's online safety perspective. We find in-app advertisements are common in the free apps designed for children on smart platforms. Experimental results show that a large percent of the in-app advertisements carry inappropriate contents for children. Unfortunately, neither mobile platforms nor advertising networks provide maturity policies to restrict the content appropriateness of the in-app advertisements. This research suggests that these challenges cannot easily be tackled by one entity. Instead, advertisement providers, advertising networks, app developers, and mobile platforms should collaborate in developing policies and mechanisms to monitor the content appropriateness of the in-app advertisements.

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BT - Proceedings - SocialCom/PASSAT/BigData/EconCom/BioMedCom 2013

Y2 - 8 September 2013 through 14 September 2013

ER -

Children's exposure to mobile in-app advertising: An analysis of content appropriateness

Abstract

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UN SDGs

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