Tiffany Young writes:
It's well known that children younger than eight have difficulty distinguishing advertising from educational programming, and there have long been protections in place to distinguish the two on television.
Let's look at the current media landscape for kids:
- Kids spend an average of 6.5 hours each day using media, and they multitask while doing it. (That's the equivalent of a full-time job!)
- In any given day, 68 percent of children under TWO will use a screen media for just over two hours. (Toddler bloggers?)
- 72 percent of parents think using a computer "mostly helps" children's learning. (They can't all be bad parents, can they?)
- 30 percent of children under three years old have a TV in their bedroom. (Okay their parents are bad).
- 100 percent of people would be horrified to know what their pre-teenager's MySpace.com profile says. (Horrified. Trust me on this one.)
The results of a study by the Children's Digital Media Center titled Download control_as_an_engagement_feature.pdf implies that putting kids in control of the content they view has the greatest effect in improving their engagement in the material, and improving their interest level and attention to computer-presented content.
According to Nic Jones,
In reality, kids do not give a hoot as to whether or not they are playing with, wearing or even eating a brand. They are playing with a product they like, have maybe asked for and in most cases wanted because of the fun attached. Of course they are comfortable with, and have an affinity for, the property associated with said item, because otherwise mum wouldn’t have bought it.
Read more