Dealers flood social media as UAE makes child seats mandatory

Child car seat dealers are raking it in social media placing ads of their products following the new traffic law.
Ads about child car seats have increased on various social media platforms after the new traffic law, which fines drivers with kids not in their car seats, came in place early this week.
According to the amendments made to the Federal Traffic Law -which came into effect on July 1 - the fine for passengers not wearing seat belts or a child not in car seat is Dh400 per passenger. Additionally, four black points will be slapped on the driver's licence.
And many dealers in child car seats have now taken to social media pages including Instagram, Facebook, Whatsapp, Snapchat to reach the big numbers of users who now want to put child car seats in their vehicles to avoid being fined.
Mohammed Alaa, 30, a regular user of social media said that traders have recently established an exceptional platform to market children's car seats through the internet and at competitive and attractive prices to attract customers.
"I have seen several ads this week about child car seats on various social media sites as dealers market their products," said the Sudanese expert.
"Many people use social media and child car dealers are using the opportunity to try reach them buy their products since child car seats have now become compulsory under the new traffic law."
Another social media user, Ayman Khatr, an Emirati said: "Dealers have increasingly advertised child car seats on their social media pages since the start of the week," he said.
"I have seen many ads about child car seats on Facebook. Firms and individuals are looking for customers in the UAE since it's an offence now moving a small child in car without him or her in a car seat."
Mariam Khalid, an Egyptian expat in Abu Dhabi said she often buys products through adverts on social media.
"I have on several occasions bought products being advertised through social media because they are cheap," she said.
"I bought one car seat for my boy early this week after seeing an ad on Instagram. I don't want to be fined by authorities."
A social media expert, Yousuf Hassan, explained that social networking sites are highly used in the promotion of products especially for women and children and also services because they can spread widely and quickly among the pages of various segments of the society.
"The internet is a very strong tool now and social media has become an effective mean of advertising and promoting products and services because firms don't spend a lot on the products compared to the traditional media such as newspapers, television, and radio."

- ismail@khaleejtimes.com

• Dubai