Children Paid For Online Promotions

Kids

oi-Staff

By Super Admin

Tuesday, May 31, 2011, 17:34

Young kids are being paid to promote junk food items like Fanta, Sprite etc to the Face book acquaintances. Children as young as seven are being rewarded around 25 pounds a weeks for the online promotions of the different products.

The children have been provided the opportunity to become 'mini-marketeers' to promote the brands like Nintendo, Dr Pepper, Cheestrings and a Barbie-themed MP3 player. The performers like facebook are also being promoted in the same way by the record labels.

The multinational companies are recruiting children as these companies were prevented from making fake websites and blogs to the targeted young customers. The companies try and focus on different types of online customers and train them to have a 'natural and unrehearsed' appeal.

“It"s a tragedy. What should be an area where kids just hang out with each other and message each other now becomes an extension of the shopping mall," says Frank Furedi, professor of sociology at Kent University.