Basic principles for marketing directed at children online
The Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM), the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM), the Dutch Data Protection Authority (AP), and the Dutch Media Authority (CvdM) work together in the Digital Regulation Cooperation Platform (SDT).
The four SDT members enforce compliance with the rules and standards regarding advertising and marketing directed at children, each within their own area of expertise. This concerns, for example, rules regarding unfair commercial practices, the AVG, and the Dutch Media Act. These rules are interlinked, and sometimes overlap each other. That is why the four SDT members decided to jointly draw up basic principles for advertising and marketing directed at children. The basic principles are intended for organizations and businesses that offer online services that are used by children. The aim is to help these organizations comply with these standards as a whole.
In June 2022, the network of European consumer protection authorities subscribed to five key principles (not an exhaustive list), which were drawn up in collaboration with representatives of European data protection authorities. The document at hand can be seen as a further continuation of that European initiative in the Netherlands. The basic principles exist next to the guidance that each of the individual regulators have published themselves for example, ACM: guidelines on the protection of the online consumer, AP: Guidelines on automated individual decision-making and profiling (in Dutch), and CvdM: guidelines on transparency about the commercial intent of ads.
By publishing this document, the four SDT members give an overview of the most important statutory standards regarding misleading practices, undue influencing, and profiling of children in the context of marketing and advertising. Also, they call on organizations that design and use marketing and advertising techniques to embed compliance with these rules in their design processes.