Wireless Marketing Services

On August 17, Channel One added this language to their channelone.com website:

WIRELESS MARKETING SERVICES AND PROMOTIONAL OPPORTUNITIES

A user understands, acknowledges and agrees that Channel One may, at its sole
discretion and without liability to any user, terminate its offer of any specific
wireless marketing service or all wireless marketing services at any time without
advance notice. Channel One may provide notice of terminations or changes in
services on this Site.

### End of Channel One’s content. ###

Did you read every word? No, you just skimmed it.
Most people just race over "fine print." Young people probably would never
even find this newly added language deep in a "terms and conditions"
link at the bottom of the channelone.com home page.

It wasn’t meant to be read. It was meant to cover the backsides of Channel
One and PRIMEDIA fat cat executives.

Some attorney in Channel One’s parent company
PRIMEDIA must have decided this would be good language to add to the site,
especially if Channel One is going to do what they say they may do.

It appears that Channel One News in yet
another moment of tone deafness to the concerns of parents and educators
has decided they will participate in the delivery of advertising to young people
via their cell phones.

Channel One’s marketing geniuses believe the company should be on the cutting
edge of technology when it comes to delivering advertising to young people.

Will these folks ever learn?

Let’s go through the wording and see what Ms. Judy Harris, Channel One’s CEO,
is trying to do here.

ChannelOne.com may provide [That means they also "may
NOT" do so, if they get enough negative feedback.]

its users and viewers with
the opportunity [Oh, thanks for the "opportunity"
to make Channel One money.]

to register for special promotions, services, news,
programming and information delivered via text messaging and other wireless
devices
such as mobile phones. [Whoa. Channel One is saying
that in addition to bringing advertising into classrooms, they will be sending
advertising and various
promotion material to young people through their cell phones. That is big
news. Why isn’t Channel One News shouting this out through their public relations
firm, Sloane & Company? The reason is simple: this is news that Channel
One does NOT want parents and educators to know.]

Users are required to provide their consent to receive
such information from Channel One, either by registering on this Site
or via their wireless device. [Channel One is not
asking for parental consent. They couldn’t care less about what parents
think. This is about money. Kids
have it; Channel One wants their advertisers to have some of it. And of course,
a little cut for the marketing geniuses at Channel One.]

The information requested as part of the
online registration process is a user’s telephone number [Hold on, Judy,
not so fast. You are not going to ask schoolchildren for their phone number.
You are not going to hide behind some
small print on your web site or fast scrolling disclaimer on your classroom
TV
show.
If
you think the public dislikes your company now, wait until this idea hits
the papers.]

or a wireless
e-mail address,
[ ditto ]

but only if specifically requested, and the carrier’s
name. Optional information
may be requested for specific promotions, such as a user’s preferences,
or other similar survey information. [This
could be a lot of personal information that will help advertisers
zero on the desires and insecurities
of young people. This will help them market their products much more effectively.]

Depending on the promotion,
we may also collect an Internet e-mail address or other information ["Other
information"? Why don’t they just list the information they might want
to have kids divulge? Obviously, Ms. Harris’s company wants to keep their
options
open.]

and,
depending
on
the information collected, the user may also be required
to confirm his
or her agreement to the Site’s Privacy Policy and Terms of
Use.

Users that register for Channel One’s wireless marketing services acknowledge,
understand and agree that they will be charged by the user’s wireless carrier
for all messages sent to the user from Channel One. [This
takes a lot of gall. Channel One is saying that any young person who signs up
for their "wireless
marketing services" agrees to give Channel One total access to their wallets
and purses. When a text message is sent it costs the sender and the RECEIVER.
If Channel One runs ads for its wireless marketing services on their in-school
TV show and kids sign up for it without talking to their parents (remember from
above, Channel One doesn’t need consent from parents) then they can send kids
a hundred text message ads a day. Or they might not all be advertisements. There
could be sports scores or the latest news on Paris Hilton. Of course, they wouldn’t
send a hundred a day, but they could send five a day.]

Standard messaging rates
will apply, unless noted otherwise. [No break on the
rates!?]

Under no circumstances will Channel
One or its parent or corporate affiliates be responsible for any wireless
e-mail or text messaging charges incurred by a user or by a person that
has access to a user’s wireless device, telephone number, or e-mail address.
[Notice the bold lettering. That is Channel
One’s emphasis not ours. This language won’t work. Their attorneys wrote
it and at the time it sounds like it will
protect
Channel One, but it won’t.

Parents will be demanding reimbursement
not from Channel One in New York, but from the school principal or superintendent.
This new wireless marketing effort
will be promoted on the classroom TV set. The school, by allowing Channel
One
to
be broadcast in classrooms, is partial responsible for any students that
sign up for the text messaging marketing scheme. Parents will be storming
the central office of the school asking for a check to reimburse outrageous
cell phone bills. Principals in turn will be calling Channel
One.
Channel One will pay up too, because if they don’t, they will lose even
more schools and they can’t afford that.]

A user understands, acknowledges and agrees that Channel
One may, at its sole discretion and without liability to any user, terminate
its offer of any specific wireless marketing service or all wireless marketing
services at any time without advance notice. Channel One may provide notice
of terminations or changes in
services on this Site. [Makes you wonder what they really
mean by "wireless marketing
service." If only Ms. Harris and the rest of the remaining staff at
Channel One News cared as much about improving their news show as they do
about finding new revenue streams from their young, captive audience,
they might be doing a whole lot better as a company.]