Health and commercialism: a content analysis of popular Chinese children's websites

This paper analyzed 113 popular children's websites and the children's sections of general websites in China. It also examined 511 ads that appeared on the homepages of these websites. Commercialism and health concerns were the primary focus of the analysis. The results showed that these websites did not adequately protect children's health and privacy online. Less than 20% of the websites surveyed contained any type of health warning. Nearly half of the websites collected personal information from children, but only a handful of them asked for parental permission. Each website hosted more than four ads on its homepage, most of which were graphical and unlabeled. The implications of this negligence for mitigation actions are discussed.