Correspondence- Non-Agenda - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

friendships known as parasocial relationships.109 As a result of these relationships, kids and teens have difficulty responding to content from a beloved character or creator as an advertisement,110 and can therefore be unduly influenced by marketers. As Fairplay outlined in its comments to the Federal Trade Commission last year, the existing system of disclosures — even when it is followed —does very little to alert kids and teens to the massive amounts of advertising content they encounter online every day.111 This form of stealth marketing negatively impacts kids and teens. Children who watch unboxing videos are more likely to nag their parents for products and throw a tantrum if the answer is "no" than when they watch regular commercials."' In internal Meta research leaked by Frances Haugen, teens specified that influencers and their materialistic, over-the-top "money for nothing" —or effortlessly rich — lifestyles triggered social comparisons and contributed to young people feeling bad about themselves. The research emphasized the cumulative effect of influencer marketing: "However, users report seeing multiple pieces of content from celebrities and influencers in each app session, multiplying their effect. In addition, their friends mimic celebrities' beauty and fashion standards, further compounding the effects of one piece of content.""' VI. Congress must take action to protect young people online. When kids are in digital spaces for learning, socializing, and relaxing, they deserve the opportunity for the most positive experience, designed in a way that understands and supports their unique ways of seeing the world. They should be able to explore in developmentally- appropriate ways without being manipulated into spending more time or targeted by algorithms that amplify harmful content. We cannot continue to hope that tech platforms will unilaterally disarm in the race for young people's valuable attention. Nor can we expect young people to extract themselves from the "I Amanda N.Tolbert& Kristin L. Drogos, Tweens'Wishful Identification and Parasocial Relationships With YouTubers, 10 Frontiers In Psychology 1, (2019), I�� s. ududvd.i oi��i�:rsii�.or amides 'I.0.]�S0 ��s �0'�.0.0�75'�. �u.�ll Frans Folkvord K.E. Bevelander& Esther .................I............../. ........................................................................................................Lg.�......................................... .............................................. .....a...........X.g....................................................................../..................., Rozendaal,et al.,Children's bonding with popular YouTube vloggers and their attitudes toward brand and product endorsements in vlogs:an explorative study, 20 Young Consumers Insight And Ideas For Responsible Marketers (2019),!].tI.ps.//doi.ors/.. .:. . . ..::.�.?:..:.:2.0.�.8.::.c�.8. .6. ...Emmelyn Croes&Jos Bartels, Young adults'motivations for following social influencers and their relationship to identification and buying behavior, 125 Computers In Human Behavior at 7, (2021), II.a.:././.... ci 0l,g („„f) f„ 9 (j1I 299 „9;4 Brigitte Naderer,J6rg Matthes&Stephanie Schafer, Effects of disclosing ads on Instagram:the moderating impact of similarity to the influencer, 40 International Journal of Advertising 686,687-88(2021). 111 See generally Comments of Fairplay,Alexander Neville Foundation,et al. in the Matter of Protecting Kids from Stealth Advertising in Digital Media (filed July 18,2022), 17„G,..t s.//fair DIl iyforl<iids.or w 221pr,01/.2.p oads/2.022/07/ii7flu.sei7cer.corrirrieo7Gs.yadf. 112 Harsha Gangadharbatla &Deepti Khedekar,The Role of Parental Mediation and Persuasion Knowledge in Children's Consumption of Unboxing Videos,22 Advertising&Society Quarterly(2021), .:I:I..p....:././.isl!.?.:!.... ..:..I.� GicI /f3 1 y . 113 The Wall Street Journal, Teen Girls Body Image and Social Comparison on Instagram—An Exploratory Study in theU.S. (Sep.29 .................................. ....... u........ .e....... ..p............... ...... ....................................................... ............................................................... ............................... iris-load irna.e-acid-social-. . ...........1.7 . .. ali y.c,l r!,narison-oil-i nsta;r:..I:rl.:. df. Testimony of Josh Galin, Fairplay, February 14, 2023 18