Ken Hayes Father of 1 st and 4 th graders “Driving kids crazy? … or just us parents?” Surviving Internet Advertising

Trends in Internet Advertising  Newest media, growing fastest - now mainstream - graphical, text/search, embedded  Value is in User-generated content u Blogs, joke sites, photos, videos, etc.  Behavior-based ads u Ads displayed based on prior actions  Performance advertising u Ads value depends on user’s actions

The Good  New web models = choice: subscription vs. ad-supported F e.g. Runescape  Access to free content  Enables swift adoption & innovation  More relevant ads = presumably more value to user

The Bad  Ad networks and portals (e.g. Yahoo, AOL) track users constantly u Privacy consequences u Behavioral statistician  Ads become embedded in content and impossible to ignore  Inability to control messages or exposure on behalf of your kids

The Ugly: MySpace  $580 million for 20m users - in 3 years!  Advertising model + Lack of accountability = Explosion of users  Time, distance, community are not barriers to contact - risky  MySpace is tip of iceberg, and just one of hundreds of similar sites

Suggestions – Part I  The New Sex-Ed u Admit it will occur u “Internet Herpes” = Information Persistence  Teach kids to ignore ads; desensitize  Teach kids to be critical and give appropriate weight to different info  Manage personal information: “fake it”  Don’t rely on monitoring programs

Suggestions - Part II  Set good example: Your own blog  LinkedIn (MySpace for professionals)  Google yourself (and your kids and their friends)  Treat everything online like your Grandmother will be reading it!

Useful sites  Wayback Machine Internet Archive  Facebook for college students  Google cache and site searches  reveals contact info you thought was private