Hot Topic - Kids & Media

New opportunities for children’s media - February 23, 2009
Children’s television attracts the attention of everybody, it seems, except those young people. Advocates would allocate more public money, alleviating shrinking advertising revenues. Major broadcasters and program producers fight over schedules. The whole of children’s media only survives with clear direction.

Sorting the vast, unruly Web space for children - February 16, 2009
The Web gives and it demands. Its very lack of discipline is its greatest attraction. Making the Web safer for children is a worthy undertaking. Borrowing language from age-old criticism of television’s affect on children, making the Web a healthy place means forging into the convergence of privacy, social networks and curiosity.

Baby TV Bad for Babies - August 19, 2008
Acting on warnings from French Ministers of Health and Culture regulator Conseil Supérieur de l'Audiovisuel (CSA) is issuing rules for TV channels and programs targeting children under three years of age. The directive was announced after a consultation with experts (August 14). In June Culture Minister Christine Albanel told ”...parents not to use these channels. They bombard children with images and sounds. We do not know what effects this may have on such young people."

Disney’s ultimate product placement test - July 6, 2008
Nobody – ever – said the folks at the Walt Disney Company aren’t smart. When broadcasters are ditching children’s programming because of ad restrictions, the Disney Channel is moving from pay-TV to free-to-air. Why not? The money is in the Disney products.

Breaking the rules for children’s TV is a good idea - March 24, 2008
Children learn by breaking rules, testing what’s possible, finding their own choices. They see a lot of TV, some really good, some really stupid. Main channel broadcasters cutting back on children’s programming are acting in loco parentis; not to kids but their parents.

Here’s A Tip For Commercial Broadcasters On How To Improve TV Ratings And Probably Save Some Money At The Same Time – Cut The Kids Programming, Or At Least Send It Over To Digital Platforms - July 5, 2007
ITV, the UK’s largest commercial network presented what it called good news this week – ratings at its prime network were down only 5.6% for the first half of the year. The reason the network is so happy is because for the same period last year the ratings were down 9.1%, so the situation is at least stabilizing and given the massacres in the UK television advertising economy one has to look for silver linings, no matter how meager.

also see in ftm Knowledge...

Children, Television and Advertising - Many rules, more debates, few results

Television for children is threatened. Advertising to children discouraged. And young people move to new media. As broadcasters retreat, advertisers move to the internet. Will Web rules follow? This ftm Knowledge file details the debate and consequences. 69 pages PDF (March 2008)
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