Protecting Children from Online Advertising: What Parents Need to Know

The Advertising Environment Children Navigate

Children today are exposed to a volume and sophistication of advertising that has no historical precedent. Online advertising is not like the television adverts of previous generations, which were at least clearly identifiable as adverts and not personalised. Digital advertising targets children based on their browsing behaviour, their social media activity, their location, and the inferred preferences of their demographic. It is embedded in games, social media feeds, and YouTube videos in ways that are deliberately designed to blur the line between content and commercial message. And it is relentless.

This is not a reason to keep children away from digital devices; it is a reason to ensure they develop the literacy to navigate this environment critically, and for parents to understand what protections exist and what does not work as well as the platforms sometimes claim.

How Online Advertising Actually Works

When a child uses a free app, watches YouTube, or plays an online game, they are typically being shown advertisements selected based on data collected about them. This data includes what they have searched for, what apps they have used, what they have watched, where they have been (location data), and what demographic profile they appear to match. The more data collected, the more precisely targeted the advertising can be.

The UK's Age Appropriate Design Code (Children's Code), implemented by the Information Commissioner's Office, requires online services likely to be accessed by under-18s to provide strong privacy protections by default and to limit data collection and profiling. This code applies to many major platforms and has resulted in some improvements in default privacy settings for children. However, implementation is inconsistent and the sophistication of the advertising industry continues to evolve faster than regulatory frameworks.

Children under 13 are given additional legal protections in both UK and EU law regarding data collection. However, age verification on most platforms is minimal and many children under 13 have accounts on platforms that require age 13 or over. Being aware of what data is being collected on your child's behalf is important even if the platforms claim not to collect data from under-13s.

Influencer Marketing and Undisclosed Advertising

One of the most significant advertising challenges for children specifically is influencer marketing: content creators who are paid to promote products in their videos, posts, or streams, sometimes without making the commercial relationship clearly visible. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) requires all paid promotions to be clearly disclosed, but enforcement is imperfect and many children, and adults, do not recognise or understand what a disclosure means when it appears.

Teaching children to look for and understand disclosure language ("Ad", "Sponsored", "Paid Partnership") is a form of media literacy that significantly reduces the persuasive impact of undisclosed or poorly disclosed advertising. Ask children what they think when their favourite YouTuber says they love a product. Do they know that person might be being paid to say it? Understanding the commercial relationships behind content changes how it is received.

Unboxing videos, haul videos, and product review content, which is among the most popular content for children on YouTube, is often fully or partly commercially motivated. This does not make all such content dishonest, but it does mean the endorsements it contains should be understood as potentially influenced by commercial relationships rather than purely independent opinion.

Gambling Advertising and Children

Gambling advertising is ubiquitous in British sports culture, appearing on shirt sponsorships, stadium hoardings, television breaks during sporting events, and prominently in online sports content. Research consistently shows that children who watch sport are exposed to significant quantities of gambling advertising, and that this normalises gambling as a feature of sports fandom. The UK government has moved towards restricting gambling advertising in some contexts, but as of 2026 the exposure remains significant.

Discussing gambling advertising explicitly with children and teenagers, including explaining how betting odds work, why bookmakers consistently profit, and what problem gambling looks like, is a form of protective education rather than promotion. Children who understand that gambling is a commercial product designed to extract money, rather than a straightforward way to make money, are significantly more likely to approach it critically if they encounter it in early adulthood.

Building Ad Literacy in Children

Media literacy education around advertising is one of the most directly protective investments in children's digital resilience. Children who understand what advertising is trying to do and how it works are significantly less susceptible to its persuasive effects. This understanding can be developed from a young age and built upon as children grow.

For young children, point out adverts in real life and explain simply: "That is an advert. It is trying to make us want to buy something." For primary school children, discuss how adverts use techniques to make things look appealing (lighting, music, happy people) that are not how the product actually looks in real life. For teenagers, discuss data collection, targeted advertising, influencer marketing, and the commercial relationships behind the content they consume.

The questions worth teaching children to ask when they see any content that promotes a product or service: Who made this? Are they being paid to say this? What do they want me to do? What would I lose by not doing it? This critical framework can be applied to advertising across all contexts and is a genuine life skill that extends far beyond screen-based media.