YouTube and advertising literacy among children in Portugal

Children generally find it easier to identify pre-roll ads on YouTube as advertising but some more covert marketing tricks like unboxing, YouTubers’ recommendations and gaming videos are too complex for children to spot. For www.parenting.digital, Mariana Nascimento and Ana Jorge discuss the findings from their study with 10 Portuguese families conducted during the period of homeschooling and Covid-19 lockdown. Their findings show that children are quite susceptible to covert advertising on social media and need active support from parents to develop sufficient media literacy skills.