Children already constitute one-third of Internet users worldwide. In Brazil, 82% of children have internet access. For many of them, interaction mainly occurs through the entertainment worlds created by gaming, drawing, and music apps, which they have been exposed to from a very young age through smartphones and tablets.

In October 2017, in celebration of Children’s Day, we explored these virtual worlds that make up a significant part of today’s childhood. Our goal was to shed light on the practices of companies responsible for the most popular children’s apps in Brazil, both in terms of their use of interactive features (advertising, in-app purchases, social media integration) and the treatment of personal data.

The research was launched on October 16th, 17th, and 18th through blog posts on the InternetLab website, which separately analyzed each of these topics: the interactive features found in the apps, the process of obtaining consent for data processing, and the transparency regarding adopted privacy practices and policies. Read more about our methodology here.

For the launch of the SPECIAL on Apps for Children, we also conducted a live conversation on Facebook between InternetLab’s director, Francisco Brito Cruz, and Beatriz Cardoso, director of the Education Laboratory and advisor to InternetLab.