When I was seven, I entered a competition at a local toy shop. The new James Bond movie, Licence to Kill, had just hit the theatres (eek, that dates me) and the competition was to promote the movie. The challenge was to build a vehicle out of LEGO to help James Bond escape from a desert island. (Did Licence to Kill even feature a desert island?) Read More
Chasing millions of installs is not the sole measure of success - how long users spend in your app and how often they come back is equally important. Push notifications are one of the most effective ways of increasing an app’s user engagement and retention rates. Read More
In 2018, kids were 40% of all new internet users globally. Across the world, new laws for kids privacy, screen-time and online identity are being passed in reaction to this trend. This has significant impacts for the world's biggest technology companies. Read More
Click here to listen! Hosted in the Radio Waves building in New York – the original home of Nikola Tesla – Dylan sits down with Dona Fraser, Director of CARU, the children’s arm of the advertising industry’s self-regulatory group. An experienced data privacy and entertainment lawyer, Dona… Read More
I posted earlier about my functional CTO story, detailing how my role of CTO evolved over time which can be found here. It’s one challenge to be CTO in a ‘normal’ startup and quite a separate challenge to also be at the forefront of a new category. Read More
Under GDPR-K and COPPA you are responsible for any data collection that happens on your site, or by your brand, even if by a third party. These are the questions you should be asking all of your agency partners (e.g. any party that plans your kid-focused campaigns or implements your… Read More
YouTube is a challenge for brands. On one hand, despite the fact that YouTube is an over-13 platform, it is one of the best places to reach under-13 audiences at scale. The vast subscriber bases of channels such as Sis VS Bro and Ryan ToysReview have sparked an increase in the number of kid-focused channels on the platform, and sponsored collaborations are beneficial to both the influencers and the brands. Read More
The recent enforcement action against Oath’s ad exchange (formerly known as AOL) for breaching COPPA has put a spotlight on programmatic advertising to children. The case highlighted some important issues including the fact that using the ‘COPPA flag’ does not work. In fact, the only guaranteed way for… Read More
The FTC dramatically upped the ante on COPPA enforcement this week with a record-setting fine of $5.7m against the app formerly known as Musical.ly (now TikTok). The settlement says TikTok breached COPPA by knowingly collecting personal information from children without first obtaining parental consent, as required by the law. Read More
