Advertisements and Privacy: Comparing For-Profit and Non-Profit Web Sites for Children

This study compared the ads on for-profit and non-profit Web sites for children in light of privacy concerns. A content analysis of 751 advertisements displayed on 196 popular children's Web sites was conducted. The results showed that, compared to for-profit Web sites for children, non-profit Web sites hosted fewer ads, and such ads were less likely to contain prompt words and enticements. Findings also indicated, however, that non-profit Web sites still carried ads that would link children to for-profit Web sites that collected personal information. Results are discussed in terms of the need for non-profit Web sites to make more efforts to fully protect children's privacy online.