“America’s young people spend more time using media than they do on any single activity other than sleeping,” according to The Future of Children, a joint project of Princeton University and the Brookings Institution. So we all need to know how our children and students use media – the Web, phones, videogames, instant messaging, music, video, TV, etc. – and how they affect their users. The just-released new issue of the project’s journal Children and Electronic Media, published semi-annually, “looks at the best available evidence on whether and how exposure to different media forms is linked to child well-being.”
Among the key findings in the Executive Summary are….
What should be done, then? Rather than regulate, the project says, government should help parents and educators do the regulating in homes and schools. It should also help the development of positive content that educates and counteracts negative or non-constructive messaging in electronic media – it should “fund the creation and evaluation of positive media initiatives such as public service campaigns to reduce risky behaviors.”
Chapters of particular interest to anyone involved with children’s online safety: “Media and Children’s Aggression, Fear, and Altruism,” “Online Communication and Adolescent Relationships,” and “Media and Risky Behaviors.”
Related links
Leave a Reply