General Etiquette > Techno-quette

Inappropriate ads - how to handle?

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SuperMartianRobotGirl:
My 3-year-old child was playing a game on my husband's iPad. I don't want to pinpoint the game, but something like decorating cupcakes. Very much for young children. She clicked on an ad within the game and wanted that game too. My husband looked at the game that was advertised on the cupcake game, and it was something along the lines of playing a mafia hitman and killing people. Very violent images.

Does this cupcake game company likely have control over what ads are shown in the game? I want to complain to someone but maybe it's pointless.

Rivaini:
If both games are made by Zynga, they are intentionally cross-promoting.

Virg:
Find out the company that makes the cupcake game, and send them an email telling them what you told us.  Most companies will want to know about this sort of thing, because they can easily sculpt the ads so that kid's games get ads that just show a guy in a pinstripe suit and fedora while "Zombie Killer 5" will show the blood-splattered Mafia hit ads.  It won't help the "Mommy I want..." stuff but it'll cut down on the imagery at least.

Virg

Reason:
Take the ipad away from the 3 year old, they don't need an $800 toy?

I am joking actually. It's your kid and you can do what you want. But that would be my solution.

Onyx_TKD:

--- Quote from: SuperMartianRobotGirl on June 27, 2012, 07:33:00 PM ---My 3-year-old child was playing a game on my husband's iPad. I don't want to pinpoint the game, but something like decorating cupcakes. Very much for young children. She clicked on an ad within the game and wanted that game too. My husband looked at the game that was advertised on the cupcake game, and it was something along the lines of playing a mafia hitman and killing people. Very violent images.

Does this cupcake game company likely have control over what ads are shown in the game? I want to complain to someone but maybe it's pointless.

--- End quote ---

When you say "Very much for young children," do you mean it's very appropriate for young children or that it's explicitly marketed as a children's game? If it's not explicitly marketed as a children's game, I would carefully look over any game or website terms of use you may have agreed to before contacting the company and mentioning that your child plays. They may very well have stated a minimum age limit for using the website/game. If it's a facebook game, for instance, no one under 13 years old is allowed to have an account, so complaining that the ads are inappropriate for a 3-year-old player is unlikely to make much impact.

Either way, you can contact the company with your concerns. However, unless the game is explicitly marketed for young children, I wouldn't get my hopes up too much about their response. If there is anything in the terms of service about an age limit, then I would also avoid stating that your 3-year-old uses the game, and limit your complaint to the fact that you don't want to see violent imagery when playing a cupcake game, especially when your children are around.

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