Games on the smartphone - brutal advertising: At some point the fun stops

This is not for them.She feels that immediately.Something is wrong.Lena holds her hand over the iPad and waits for the picture to disappear, it is an instinct.

Lena sat on the sofa and played "Idle Miner Tycoon", one of the most popular game apps for smartphones and tablets.Sweet, as the little min workers tirelessly pushing and scouring, cute guys with googly eyes and huge heads.The game is released from the age of four.Lena is nine.But then suddenly animated breasts slide on the screen, format -filling.The crosshairs of a sniper appear, it aims and shoots, blood splashes.It is advertising for other video games.They are scenes that should not see a four -year -old and no nine -year -old child.

There were hundreds of thousands of cell phones under German Christmas trees this year.Freshly recipient children and adolescents will take up their daddel supplies these days.They download millions of apps from the Internet, digital helpers, music, films - and games.Especially games.The genre is booming.

Stix and make it addicted

The video games market overtook the Hollywood film factory this year and tore the 100 billion dollar turnover mark.It has grown by 26 times in the past 20 years.In 2016, the manufacturers implemented $ 36.9 billion with mobile games, 31.9 billion with PC games and 29 billion with console games.In 2019, total sales are expected to be 119 billion euros.The world is a playground.Young German cell phone users spend an average of 1000 hours a year with their electronic toy.

These young consumers are a coveted, but for advertisers on the classic media such as television, newspapers, magazines only difficult to achieve target group - young, affectable, enthusiastic.

Rarely, parents know exactly what their children are doing on the smartphone.Because keeping an overview of expenses and content is almost impossible.Apple, Google and other manufacturers advertise with sophisticated age and budget controls for the safety of their offers.But it is not the price of the many - often free - online games itself that flushes the billions in the coffers.With a whole bundle of tricks, the industry -addicted customers pull the money out of their pocket.

It doesn't go any further?Then buy virtual coins like once for the massage bed in the motel!The next level is unreachable?Tools that cost (real) money!The digital mini footballer is a rivet?Buy him professional shoes and more energy, then he whizzes like Lionel Messi!

Play against money

The motto of countless supposedly free farm browser games, medieval simulations or soccer games: "Pay to play".The entire market works according to the drug dealer principle: fix, make addicted, cash in.

However, advertising within the games is the largest gold pit for digital PR pioneers-the so-called in-game advertising.The industry explodes almost.Because over are the times when daddling was considered an anti -social pastime for pale nerds with fear of attachment.The lonely puberty that sits with headphones and tunnel views between empty pizza boxes in the basement?The cliché has long been dead.The question of who plays digital games today is quickly answered: everyone.Man, woman, young, old, in the morning, in the evening, always.

Accordingly, advertising in video games is no longer just a dripping side source for a few more dollars.It is the core of the business itself.Because advertisers are happy to reach their customers where they are emotionally committed and in good spirits: when they were tangled.At the marketer Game Ad Network Ströer one speaks of the "emotional prime time"."Gaming is a premium environment for mobile advertising," says Jean-Baptiste Godinot, Managing Director at the German branch of the French game group Gameloft-"Because our players are completely in their gaming universe."In other words: they focus on everything that moves.

The world's largest manufacturer of games for mobile devices rented advertising spaces directly in its games and records more than 2.8 million app downloads a day.Gameloft advertises with hundreds of millions of users from the highly competitive target group of the millennials.The 14- to 25-year-olds see less and less classically away, read fewer and fewer magazines.Your leisure activity: play on your cell phone.And so, for example, the cosmetic company L’Oréal Paris buys for an in-game campaign for men's cosmetics known to youtube stars like the "Lochis".

Video games in numbers

• 2.6 billion people worldwide regularly play video games.

• $ 100 billion are implemented with video games worldwide around a year.

• 63 percent of German players accept advertising in the game if the download remains free of charge.

• For 2.8 hours, young Germans spend daily with their smartphone.

• Americans spend 50 million hours a day with playing video games as a whole.

• $ 8 billion does the industry alone with advertising in video games every year.

At around $ 8 billion, sales with in-game advertising is now a year, the trend: rising quickly.In 2004 there were still $ 28 million.Three models determine the market:

The static in-game advertising works like product placements in James Bond films or "Sex and the City": In the game there are fixed programmed real cars, beverage brands, sports shoes and product logos-for example as a lettering on racing cars or as "real"McDonald's branch in the virtual worlds of the "Sims".

The dynamic in-game advertising is much more attractive for companies: Here, changing advertising messages are sprinkled directly into the game via the Internet-as in the case of nine-year-old Lena on the sofa.Film clips run during breaks, marketed by specialized agencies or the game manufacturers themselves.And if you watch a video voluntarily in the game, you can often continue playing a little to reward.The deal is: fun against attention.One of the pioneers: Barack Obama.In the US election campaign in 2008 he campaigned for themselves in several Xbox games in ten countries, in which a particularly large number of voters were still undecided.

Finally, so -called ad games are free games that are supposed to promote bonds to a single brand.The best known example is the moorhuhn hunt, the free advertising games of the Scottish whiskey brand Johnnie Walker, which in 1999 triggered a global mass murder of digital poultry.

But the larger the market becomes, the more clearly the gaps in the control system show.Because in the clips it is not just about fruit juice and racing cars: In the supposedly harmless games that are released in the app store for kindergarten children such as "Splashy Fish" (released from four years), advertising appears that optically resembles a sex chat.In advertising breaks of the game "Idle Miner Tycoon" - developed in just eight weeks by five resourceful students at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology - Erotic Amazons appear, it is shot and murdered, certainly without knowledge of the manufacturer Fluffy Fairy Games.The company could not be achieved for a statement.

And nobody is responsible

More than 6.5 million times the loved one has been downloaded so far.However, not only "Idle Miner Tycoon" and "Splashy Fish" are affected, but practically all games with in-game advertising.The problem: no independent institution determines how many players of which age play which game - and see which advertising.

It is not even clear who is responsible."The question of whether dynamic advertising as part of the game of the examination for games or is to be regarded as so-called telemedia is unclear so far," write the IT specialist lawyers Peter Huppertz and Benjamin Fritzsche.In fact, despite the size of the market, there is no law that explicitly regulates the business with video games.

The EU Commission has just launched a new version of the European Directive on Audiovisual Media Services.However, she continues to keep your focus on traditional radio.In -game advertising is not mentioned.

The legal situation remains confused: In the German Broadcasting State Treaty, which regulates the handling of radio and telemedia (online offers), the words "computer game" or "video game" do not occur.The youth media protection state contract, in turn, only contains legal regulations on radio broadcasts and online offers.It is then forbidden to interrupt television programs for children with commercials or to place products and brands against money.However, the question of whether computer games are radio, television -like telemedia, simple telemedia or mere carrier media is legally complex - especially with games stored locally on the cell phone, but they have an internet connection.In addition, there is the entertainment software self -control (USK), a voluntary establishment of the computer game industry.But she only judges the game itself.And there is "idle miner tycoon” without a question completely harmless.

A youth protection from yesterday

The bottom line is that the jewelry of imprecise regulations of the complex problem and the high speed of change does not meet my experts."The supervision is shattered," criticizes media expert Dieter Dörr in an analysis."The youth protection regulations do not contain any regulations that aim to protect children and adolescents from advertising in general."The legislature is asked here.Dörr speaks of a "data mixture that is difficult to limit with the current regulations".In fact, the applicable youth protection law of 2003 comes.

The current video game boom is part of a cultural change in global dimensions: Since the first generation of C64 computer fans, which has grown up with video games such as "Super Mario" or "Space Invaders", which has reached power levers, the playfulRight -wing and low -thresholds in many areas of life..One speaks of "gamification".

Companies are trying to motivate employees with "sporty” rankings, competitions, group campaigns and direct feedback - all principles of modern computer game designs.Study-colored language apps promise stress-free vocabulary learning, some start-up companies work with ball baths and slide like a kindergarten for adults.And even the Bundeswehr advertises with entertainment series such as "The Rekroden" or "Mali" for the service in a facility in which it is still-one should not forget-about life and death.

The irritating advertising in childlike daddel games such as "Idle Miner", the nine -year -old girls like Lena, symbolically serves as a warning: the attempt to take life with a colorful veil out of marriage..The fun stops somewhere.

Information for parents

It is only at the age of around ten to eleven that children are really able to distinguish between media representation and reality.Before that, most children take advertising statements for bare coin.That makes them vulnerable to seduction.The EU initiative Klicksafe has put together tips for parents to deal with video games:

Show interest

Don't leave your child alone.Find out more about content, age ratios, opportunities and risks of the common games.In the case of initiatives such as Klicksafe or the player of the NRW youth media culture, important information about genres, technology, dangers and special features can be called up.The addresses:www.clicksafe.de;www.Player attraction NRW.de

Check the budget

Apple and Google offer systems that can be used to manage family accounts for app downloads.How to keep an overview of what your child downloads at what price.Discuss the selection, keep the risk of hidden in-app purchases at a glance.

Create joint rules

Develop a binding and understandable regulations on media consumption with your child: for computers, television, smartphones, tablets and game consoles.A playful media usage contract is conceivable.Clicksafe and the Internet ABC initiative offer two variants: for six to twelve year olds and for over-twelve year olds.www.media usage contract.de

Give specific tips on dealing with private data

Explain the principles of advertising and data trading and the importance of anonymity to your child specifically and precisely.Rate the following:

• "Create a second email address that you only use for registration for unknown providers."

• "Use a nickname (nickname) and an email address that does not allow any conclusions to be drawn about you, your name, age, gender or place of residence."

• "Give your nickname and personal data only to acquaintances that you know from real life."

• „Nutze als Avatar (virtuelle Spielfigur) kein Foto von dir!"

Do you act if you are worried

Ask whether the child has met disturbing content.Offer help and comfort.On the subject of internet, cell phone and computer game dependency, Klicksafe has published an information sheet.In ten chapters, it provides information for parents whose children show abnormalities: neglect daily duties such as homework, persistent depressiveness, no contact with peers, no interest in other activities.Do not demonize the interest in video games.Stay in conversation.

By Imre Grimm / Rnd