Italy Watchdog Refers Apple Toddler iPhone Ad to 3 Regulators

2 articles · Updated · 9to5Mac · Aug 12

Italy’s children’s rights watchdog has asked three regulators to review an Apple billboard in Milan showing a toddler holding an iPhone under the slogan “Tutto ok, è iPhone.”
AGIA said the image risks normalizing “electronic babysitting” at a time when countries are debating minimum ages for access to digital technology, warning of possible addiction and harm to children’s psychological and cognitive development.
The case was triggered by a Milan resident’s complaint calling the ad “disturbing” for linking a very young child with a smartphone and questioning whether marketers had set ethical limits.
AGIA referred the matter to communications regulator AGCOM, competition authority AGCM and advertising self-regulator IAP for possible action; Apple had not publicly commented.