, Columnist
More Kids With Smartphones Spells Advertising Bonanza
The tools exist to protect smartphone-toting children from targeted ads. Parents better start enforcing their use.
Safer, but is it where the cool kids hang?
Photographer: Thomas Trutschel/Photothek via Getty Images
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The revelation that, by the age of seven, 53% of British kids will own a mobile phone, will come as good news to one group in particular: advertisers.
By the time U.K. youngsters are 11, the ownership ratio reaches a whopping 90%, according to a report published on Tuesday by the research consultancy Childwise. And as the penetration of smartphone usage rises, it creates more opportunity for advertisers to get in front of young eyeballs. Parents need to get clued up if they want to stop that from happening.