Parents in the UK are outraged after an explicit ad for a porn site appeared in the children’s app, Talking Tom, a popular educational game.
The banner ad popped up at the top of the screen over the animated cat character who repeats phrases back to the player. The ad showed an image of a naked woman performing sexual acts and featured a “play” symbol at the top of the app.
One parent, whose five-year-old child was playing the game when the ad appeared, complained that it was “inappropriately” and “irresponsibly” placed. However neither the porn site nor the Talking Tom operators, Outfit7 have been able to find out who was responsible for placing the ad, as they explained to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). According to the pornography website their ads are often placed by third parties which they have no control over.
Both Outfit7 and the website have taken measures to prevent further breaches of ASA code, with increased “in-app” checking in future and a warning to all partners to double check their filters to ensure that only appropriate ads are placed within their apps.
