Chapter 6: Targeting Children Using Social Media and Gaming Platforms: Viral Marketing and Children’s Online Privacy

Children are increasingly exposed to advertising online, raising concerns about ad volume and blurred boundaries between ads and video content. YouTube and TikTok are the main platforms for children. Energy-dense, low-nutrient food ads predominate in videos uploaded on YouTube and TikTok. In addition to these platforms, children are regularly exposed to advergames, which marketers develop to promote food and beverages to children, and product placement in video games. Advergames and social media platforms thus allow marketers to blur the boundaries between advertising and entertainment and get children to participate actively in brand content. This chapter will begin by providing readers with an overview of the current research into the extent and nature of online food marketing targeting children on YouTube, TikTok, and popular gaming platforms. It contributes to the literature on food advertising regulations for children in Australia by showing how food advertisers promote unhealthy food products on YouTube, TikTok, and popular gaming platforms using stealth marketing practices, such as viral marketing, influencer marketing, and advergaming. Finally, the chapter outlines the issues with the advertising techniques marketers use (such as privacy data tracking and viral marketing) to gain the attention of child consumers on various social networking platforms popular among young children. This discussion creates the backdrop for Chapter 8, which offers a comprehensive academic discussion on how the food and beverage industry and the self-regulatory system are addressing the concerns around children’s online privacy by implementing new legislations that align with different marketing practices.