• by Joe Mandese , July 15, 2026

The Advertising Research Foundation's Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM) this morning unveiled an industry task force that is examining what it describes as a "growing disconnect" between how children consumer media and how the ad industry actually measures it.

"Children’s media consumption has shifted decisively into fragmented, platform-driven digital environments — but the measurement infrastructure has not kept pace," consultant and former Disney executive Emily Horgan writes in a primer released with today's announcement, adding that the result is "a growing gap between where children spend time and where the industry has visibility. This measurement gap is now constraining investment, distorting incentives, and weakening the long-term sustainability of the children’s media ecosystem. It represents a structural market misalignment with material economic consequences."

Measurement challenges aside, the report highlights social, economic and legal liabilities associated with the fact that the ad industry's audience measurement has not kept up with children's media-consumption habits, including implications for billions of dollars in ad spending, as well as COPA compliance.

The report can be read here, but it identifies the need for the task force, including a role for media platforms, ad technology, supply chain and measurement suppliers, as well as ad-industry representatives to collaborate on measurement initiatives that are reflective of and better represent the way children consume media today.

The primer identifies these key measurement challenges for the task force to address explicitly:

• Panels provide high-quality, consent-based data but lose statistical robustness under fragmentation. Sample sizes shrink to statistical irrelevance once divided by age cohort, platform, and content type, and co-viewing is poorly captured.

• Big data sets — Smart TV ACR, set-top box data, and server logs — offer scale but rarely identify child viewers. Children are frequently absent from identity graphs due to limited device ownership, email usage, or individual account registration. If they are accounted for, indicators are reduced to binary presence/no presence by broad age bands.

• Most video platforms provide limited visibility of children’s viewing and media consumption, especially for children under the age of 13, resulting in data gaps across the ecosystem. Some industry stakeholders question whether current platform policies are more restrictive than strictly required by statutory mandate. While platforms understandably prioritize risk mitigation, there may be scope for clarification that distinguishes prohibited behavioral tracking from permissible household-level or co-viewing measurement.

• A significant portion of children’s media consumption now happens on gaming platforms, but these remain virtually unmeasured, especially for publishers looking for a joined-up view of consumption. No standardized program equivalence exists in the gaming market.

• Economic incentives in ad tech often reward scale and reach rather than accuracy, compounding distortions across the supply chain. The accuracy of identity datasets on parental status is relatively low, with studies showing only 42% accuracy for identifying households with children.