By: Publimark
Roberta Sirota, country manager of Kidscorp Brazil
The model that underpinned much of digital advertising in recent years has just become obsolete for those addressing minors. Since March 17th, with the enactment of the Digital ECA (Statute of Children and Adolescents), Brazil has made it clear that protecting children and adolescents online is no longer a matter of discussion, but a requirement. And, in practice, this means the end of a shortcut widely used by the market.
Let’s be frank: for a long time, part of the industry took a “shortcut” to communicate with children and teenagers. Programmatic tools designed for an adult audience were used according to a simple logic: track, profile, and pursue the user. A model built for adults, but applied indiscriminately to young people. Now, this logic no longer holds up.
The new legislation explicitly prohibits the use of profiling techniques to target campaigns to minors. The message is simple and direct: strategies can no longer be based on children’s personal data. The initial reaction from part of the market, while predictable, is worrying. Faced with the impossibility of tracking, some have chosen to back down. But ignoring Generation Alpha and Generation Z is not a strategic alternative. Quite the contrary. Market data shows that children and adolescents influence up to 95% of purchasing decisions within the home. This is not just about direct consumption, but about real influence over categories ranging from essential goods to more complex family choices. In other words: this audience is not peripheral, it is central.
The question, therefore, is not whether brands should communicate with this audience, but how. And this is where the most relevant change occurs. We move from a logic centered on “who is the user” to a logic based on “where and in what context are they.” The era of individual data gives way to the era of contextual appropriateness.
This is not a technological limitation, it’s an evolution. Today it is already fully possible to understand the behaviors and interests of a generation based on their interests: universes such as games, creators, entertainment content, and digital communities. Environments where connection happens organically, without the need to collect personal data.
In practice, this means operating under true privacy-by-design principles – concern for data privacy from the conception of any new project or service: delivering relevance without invading privacy, building presence without relying on tracking, and ensuring brand safety in a structural, not reactive, way. But there’s a point that the market still underestimates and that needs to be at the center of this conversation. Advertising doesn’t just finance sales. It finances the internet itself.
If ethical brands back down in the face of regulation and stop investing in safe environments aimed at young audiences, the effect is not neutrality, but imbalance. The revenue of responsible creators and media outlets decreases, while less regulated environments with no commitment to quality gain ground. The result is a more unequal internet. On one side, safe and educational content is restricted to those who can afford it. On the other, a mass of young people are exposed to ecosystems without curation, protection, or accountability.
Therefore, it’s important for everyone to understand that the Digital ECA (Brazilian Consumer Protection Code) is not intended to limit the market, but to reposition it, definitively distinguishing those who are willing to evolve from those who will continue operating in gray areas. For brands, the challenge and the opportunity are clear: abandon dependence on personal data and raise the level of intelligence, creativity, and responsibility in building connections with this audience. Because it’s not about data, but about relevance. And relevance, now, must unconditionally be accompanied by responsibility.
