
CARU’s Director, Dona Fraser was quoted this morning in a Bloomberg News article discussing
Kid Influencers, or child influencers, who are blurring the
lines of editorial and advertising for children audiences. Influencers promote
sponsored content, but that content is often difficult to distinguish as
advertising, especially for impressionable children. Dona Fraser, director of
the Children’s Advertising Review Unit (CARU), told Bloomberg News that “[t]he uptick in
sponsored content and child influencers is very overwhelming.” The topic is in
the news due to a surge in child influencing on Google-owned YouTube, which
created a children’s platform (YouTube Kids) in 2015 meant to keep out
sponsored content. Despite this
initiative, sponsored content posted by kid influencers remains a recurring theme
on the platform.
Click here
to read the full article, featuring other quotes from CARU about kid influencers by
Mark Bergen on Bloomberg News.