Do you remember adopting your first Neopet when you were in elementary school? I did. This weekend. I had a moment of nostalgia while studying on Saturday, and decided to check out Neopets again. Amazingly, my fingers knew what to type in the account name and password field. (FYI: I have not been on this site in YEARS, so it goes to show how much I used to play it when I was younger)

When I finally logged onto the site, things looked slightly different. The design of the website was somewhat changed, but the colour scheme/overall look remained the same. However, one thing immediately stuck out that was different. The ads on the side of the page. From what I remember, there used to be advertisements (if not at all) for cereal, or a toy, or something else pertaining to children. To my surprise, I saw an ad for match.com! It had pictures of men with their ages and interests. Now, what is a dating website’s ad doing on a children’s website?!

Now, back in my marketing class, we talked about the ethics of marketing, and I immediately thought about that when I saw this advertisement. I understand that at the end of the day, the owners of Neopets want money. BUT strongly feel that there has to be some sort of filter as to what kind of ads they place on the site!   As a parent, you would not want your child to accidentally click on the link and be sent to a strange dating website. Who knows. Your child may create a profile and start talking to different men/women on it. TOTALLY UNSAFE.

So my hope for Neopets and other websites for children is that they have some sort of filter as to what kind of advertisements they agree to place on their websites. I’m sure they can find other companies that would pay them the same money to advertise their child-friendly product. Why not choose them instead?

Image Source:

http://stuffpoint.com/neopets/image/11073/neopets-picture/