When is a kids’ online game actually an ad?

There’s an increasingly thorny debate on how to monitor advertising aimed at children when they are confronted with so many new forms of marketing online. If even the ad industry can’t agree on the definition of an online ad, who can?

Kids spend more time than ever in front of screens beyond the living room television. Advertisers have responded with sophisticated ad campaigns that can start on the TV and then move to apps, social media sites and online games. And federal regulators are struggling to keep up. So far, the Federal Trade Commission doesn’t regulate advertising to kids on these new platforms, except to ensure that marketing messages aren’t false or misleading. The Federal Communications Commission limits ads on television but doesn’t police the Web either. That worries children’s advocates, who say that the FTC and FCC may make distinctions but that to kids, a screen is a screen is a screen — and everything on it looks like entertainment to them.