Your views on children as peer-to-peer marketers

Im with all the chorus of nay sayers. Peer to peer marketing by children is vile.

I'm totally against it, I feel it should be illegal for under 16's at the very least.

Not good, not good at all. Totally against. Bad ethics.

Yes, it should be part of the self regulatory code ban,
Yes, it should be illegal. You shouldn't be able to pimp out your kids as advertisers. And kids should be allowed to get on with playing, not given a role as the voice of a product. It's horrible.
No there shouldn't be a voluntary code.

Under 16s are already too heavily involved in consumerism. We need to give our kids good values, not teach them that pushing any old crap in front of their friends is a good way to get on in the world. Rewarding kids for consuming is bonkers. And anyone under 16 is still a child and should be treated that way, despite being in a society where you are pushed into adulthood at an ever decreasing age. Let's start rewarding kids for being public spirited, kind to each other and industrious, rather than teaching the vacuousness of publicity and self promotion.

(can you tell this makes me a little beet angry?)

Makes me cringe. I avoid letting the boys watch too many ads and especially ads by kids. Would be very happy for it to be banned.

It is a vile practice and should be banned.

I think it is utterly immoral and should be illegal. Whoever started the whole thing should be ashamed of themselves. It exploits the emotional world of the child and the importance they place on peer approval, and is a materialistic exploitation of a vulnerable time in life for profit. Despicable practice.

I think properly regulated there is nothing wrong with children advertising brands. I don't approve myself so would never put my children forward for this type of work. To some it may seem unethical but nobody has to let their dcs see the images if they don't like them. What about say a brand of dancing shoe, musical instrument endorsed by a musical or dancing child, should we stop this then. If I see a product that my child likes from an advert promoted by a child I ask why she thinks that product is a good idea. If it is food/sweets I ask/ tell her the ingredient and provide explanation as to why I don't agree. The exact same as I would for any advert.

Ooh you book-pusher you Nickel!

Is peer-to-peer what I do?

When I take a picture of Eleanor "reading" a book and put it on the website?
is that counted?
I don't like what Mattel did with the Barbie thing.
I see nothing wrong with using children to promote things (ie, see children using them or give them freebies to show their friends etc), but giving them rewards based on how well they "sell" stuff to their friends is just wrong.
and of course children should be used in adverts for children's stuff -it would look weird otherwise.

It should be illegal. It's hard enough to fight the tide of marketing influences as it is; children seem to be increasingly growing up to measure themselves, in terms of their success and their happiness, by their material possessions. I think this sort of stuff only adds to that problem.

illegal imo. it's surely easy to make it illegal under 13 giving labour laws. i'd personally like it illegal for the whole of childhood. but then i'd also like to make advertising to children illegal full stop so i'm obviously going to want having them doing the advertising to be illegal.

It should most definitely be illegal. Children are increasingly brought up and educated to be nothing but producers and consumers of ephemeral goods. We urgently need to rethink what children are learning about being human and to refocus on timeless skills and the greater contributions of mankind to civilisation.

It should be illegal until age 18.

It looks to me, bar a couple, that the concencus is overwhelmingly saying it should not be allowed.
I wouldn't like my DD used in this way, but each to their own. She has sufficient nous to make her own choices.

I would feel about my 8 year old doing it, but ok about my 13 year old (also old enough to get a job).

Kids do a lot of peer to peer marketing informally of the products and brands they like. My 8 year old has made you-tube product review videos and is an avid watcher of other kids' Lego reviews and "how to" videos. If a child made a great video and Lego sent them some kit for example I think that would be fine.

Other brands they are passionate ambassadors for (unpaid) are Marvel Comics, Warhammer and skateboard stuff - where they do a lot of swapping and talking about kit and brands they like. I would feel
warmer about these kinds of sub-culture brands reaching out to kids than consumer goods companies, I would be really careful with food marketing, given that most food marketed to kids is crap.

There should definitely be a minimum age 0f 15,16

Should this ban be part of the advertising self-regulatory code (which means industry, including the Advertising Standards Authority) imposes sanctions on companies who break the ban)? Yes

· Should it be completely illegal? Yes

· Should there just be a voluntary code which promotes a ban but does not enforce it? No

· Or should there be no ban at all? No

· What do you think about under 16s promoting products in this way? It's unethical for a number of reasons and I would think very badly of any company that wanted to promote their product in this way.

It should be illegal. Crazy stuff.

It should be illegal for under 16yo and limited for under 18yo, as Lastofthepodpeople said.

Children are too vulnerable to peer-pressure and to abuse this to sell products is seriously wrong. I would boycott any company who used peer-to-peer advertising with children.

It should be completely illegal for under sixteens, and limited up.to eighteen.

Personally I think that unless someone understands what underpins a brand they shouldn't be advertising it and so children can never be used to promote such activities to other children - the blind leading the blind!

How bizarre that there seems to be nothing about this review on the CAP website, nor is the subject listed as an open consultation. How can we have our say directly?

Mind you, the CAP does seem to be funded by the advertising industry... I wonder why the Government isn't formally consulting and responding to the Bailey Review itself rather than allowing an industry-funded body to decide whether self regulation should continue?

· Should it be completely illegal?

YES, absolutely no doubt about it.

· What do you think about under 16s promoting products in this way?

It is totally unacceptable. Vile practice.