Posted: September 11th, 2024

Public Policy Implications

Research indicates clearly that advertising exerts substantial influence on children's attitudes
and behaviors, and these effects go well beyond moving product desire from one brand to another.
More specifically, the evidence points directly to one fundamental concern: that advertising targeting
children below the ages of 7–8 years is inherently unfair because it capitalizes on younger children's
inability to attribute persuasive intent to advertising. As a result of this limitation, children below this
age comprehend the information contained in television commercials uncritically, accepting most
advertising claims and appeals as truthful, accurate, and unbiased. Until fairly recently, advertisers
tended to view children in this age range as off limits as advertising targets, but industry practices
have changed as new developments in media technology have facilitated greater degrees of ageniche
programming and related advertising.
Concern over the fairness of targeting such young children is not a new development.
Research on the issue dates back to the late 1960s. In the early 1970s, the Federal Communications
Commission considered a proposal to ban advertising to audiences of young children but settled on a
more modest approach: limiting the amount of advertising time within children's programming and
restricting certain advertising practices likely to make it more difficult for children to make attributions
of persuasive intent. Later in the 1970s, the Federal Trade Commission also considered banning all
television advertising to young children, citing exactly the type of developmental research the task
force reviewed. Congress, responding to television and advertising industry pressure, forced the FTC
to abandon this proposal by threatening the agency's funding. While the FTC did drop its effort to
restrict advertising to children, it stated in its final order that the issue of advertising to young children
is one that should remain a public concern, given the compelling body of scientific evidence
documenting young children’s unique vulnerability to commercial persuasion. Since that time, the
advertising industry has recognized the sensitivity of these issues in its own self-regulatory
advertising guidelines, but this code is exceedingly vague, compliance is completely voluntary, and
enforcement is not actively pursued.
In our view, the psychological evidence we have reviewed holds critical implications for public
policy. The strength of the research documenting young children’s limited ability to recognize and

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