Cereal Offenders

NAME? The website wants to know. It also wants to know how old you are. Children surfing the internet should take care.

Perhaps they should go and get mum. She will oversee things. And here she comes. She looks at the website and shakes her head. She will not help. If Jakey want to access more mature sections of the Kellogg’s website, he will just have to wait until he’s old enough.

As the Times says, Kellogg’s, makers of breakfast cereals, Pop-Tarts and more, are asking all visitors logging onto their websites to provide personal details. Anyone younger than 16 needs to get parental approval to play some of the interactive games, receive messages and enter competitions.

The fear is that anyone less than 16 will at the click of a mouse button become obese, or even more obese than they already are.

A spokeswoman for Kellogg’s explains: “We are trying hard to ensure we have age restrictions on our sites, but we cannot regulate for what is happening in every household. That is a matter for parents.”

The scheme is difficult to police. There is little or nothing to prevent under-age eyes and tummies becoming corrupted with a game based around Scream’ Fruit Winders and such like.

But the campaign is gathering force and the Times says Nestle is asking visitors to sections of its websites to enter their personal details.

We believe this is a noble thing. And to help the makers of quick-make foodstuffs we have encoded this article to make it invisible to the under-16s.

Posted: 21st, July 2006 | In: Uncategorized Comment | TrackBack | Permalink