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RSS Feed Around the World02. 03. 12. - 14:00
Scientology Targets Kids
Marija Andric
A British-owned iPhone App that plays nursery rhymes to kids is being used to advertise Scientology to children.
The campaign was exposed by dad David Millar, 46, who lives in the
Austrian capital Vienna and who sent a letter to local media to complain
when he was asked by his six-year-old son Michael "Daddy, What is
Scientology?"
Unsure where the question originated Millar had asked his son why he was
asking - and discovered the US-based cult advertising on Nursery TV, an
iPhone App from Rotherham-based company Music Factory Entertainment
Group Ltd.
Peter Parkin, chief executive of the Yorkshire-based company, said he
was shocked and disappointed and would be demanding an explanation from
Google but said it was out of his control. He said: "The mechanism's
that control advertising content are controlled by Google on Google
AdMob, they look at browsing history and the type of App and in theory
as I understand it this sort of thing should not happen.
"I will be raising it with Google immediately and asking how we can
avoid it. At the end of the day it is our App and just by association
people may think we are in some way endorsing this - which of course we
are not. But much of what we do is for children and we are expanding our
product range, we will be seeing what we can do to stop it happening
again."
Dad David, who lives in the capital Vienna where he is an architect,
fired off a letter to the Austrian daily newspaper Heute, saying: "My
son started school this year, and enjoys reading, he saw the words pop
up on the advert when he was watching Twinkle Twinkle Little Star on the
'Nursery TV' App with his younger sister - and a click later he was on
the Scientology site."
Nursery TV runs three I phone Nursery rhyme TV Apps that are massively
popular and its You Tube channel has notched up an incredible 127
million views. The Scientology advert was on all three Nursery Rhyme
Apps for a week before David complained.
He said he was careful not to allow his kids internet access except to
approved search engine sites for kids and only selected approved Apps,
and was furious that the cult had managed to bypass that.
He said: "I don't care about Scientology although until recently I note
they were banned here in Austria, but to have them advertising on
children's TV is pretty outrageous.
"It was on Twinkle Twinkle Little Star but when you tried the other
songs on the other channels it was on those as well, and stayed there
all week. In the end I deleted the App.
David added: "I am British, I live in Austria and have a mobile phone
with an Austrian T-mobile contract. Whatever song you chose, the
Scientologists were there."
Computer expert Seth Weintraub from computerworld.com complained as long
ago as 2009 about being unable to stop Scientology ads on his Google Ad
Sense account but the move to target children is a new development.
In an article asking "Why is Google's AdSense doing the bidding of
Scientology?" he wrote: "It appears that Scientology is in the midst of a
big advertising campaign. They appear to want to advertise to my
readers very much.
"But this is outrageous. Scientology is every ad block 24 hours/day for
over a week now. My readers have rightfully started complaining and I'd
really like Google to stop. If they are paying Google an exorbitant
amount to advertise, I am not seeing any difference in my CPM rates. So,
I've tried just about everything in my power to get them removed."
He said however that at the time of writing it was without success.
After further research he added that Google had removed the AdSense
account of a group exposing some internal Scientology stuff and added:
"Google also killed a Youtube account of an anti-Scientology crusader
who was about to publish an expose on Scientology. They also removed
Xenu.net, another anti-Scientology website's links.
"I don't think Google is doing the work of Scientologists. I just think
they are getting a lot of cash from them and don't want to deal with
their litigation tactics."
Tag cloud nursery advertise advert Austrian Scientology Apps children songs Scientologists Google kids cult mobile iPhone readers advertising Star Twinkle based British
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V_Mathison wrote on 02. 03. 2012 from USA
Scientology is losing members, money and credibility faster than ever before, so its leaders are desperate to lure in the unsuspecting to keep the scam going. They are willing to sink to any level to bring in new members to brainwash, and this includes recruiting at charter schools and drug rehab centers.
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