The American Psychological Association discussed the trend of media bombarding or children with inappropriate and harmful images, at their Annual Convention. Tomi-Ann Roberts, PhD, a member of the APA Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls defines sexualization as a process that encourages girls and young women in an imposed way to be valued by themselves, and others, only for their sexual appeal, above any other characteristic. Ultimately, the emphasis on an unattainable body image damages the health and self-image of girls and young women, and can lead to eating disorders, anxiety and depression.

The stereotyping of girls is at the heart of this problem. From the beginning, girls are coached by advertisers and the media to be sweet, feminine and nurturing, and—as they get slightly older—sexy, said Sharon Lamb, EdD, co-author of “Packaging Girlhood: Rescuing Our Daughters from Marketers’ Schemes” (St. Martin’s Press, 2006) Lamb emphasized that psychologists can help combat these messages by teaching parents and their children to understand media manipulation. Parents have the power to teach kids values that they—not advertising or the culture—define, said Lamb. They can show their children how to examine why they like the things they like, and to realize when they’re being duped. And everyone needs to learn to ask questions such as: “Why must female volleyball players always wear bikinis?” and “Why would a 6-year-old need a push-up bra?” said Lamb.

According to Brian Wilcox, PhD, selling sex is not the only problem. Marketers are also selling unhealthy eating habits and behaviors. In the past few decades, children have become increasingly targeted by marketers, such that an estimated $15 billion was spent by various companies pitching fast food, sugary cereals and junk food to kids, said Wilcox, with much of the advertising appearing on cable channels aimed at children, such as Nickelodeon.

All that advertising has an effect, both on families’ purchasing patterns and children’s health, with studies showing that children’s product preferences drive almost $500 million in annual household purchases. Meanwhile, 16 percent of U.S. children are obese, and government surveys show that the percentage of children classified as overweight rose from 5 percent to almost 14 percent from 1976 to 2000, Wilcox said.

Link to article US children.html

In 1966 Joan Ganz Cooney and her colleagues proposed the idea of using television to educate underserved preschoolers. They would later found the Children’s Television Workshop and of course the legendary program Sesame Street. Their Workshop model paved the way for all of the educational children’s program that we have today. Forty years later they have established the Joan Ganz Cooney Center, a great website with a positive and timely focus. Here is their mission:

The mission of The Joan Ganz Cooney Center is to catalyze and support research, innovation and investment in digital media technologies to advance children’s learning. Nurturing foundational and “21st century” literacies. The inaugural focus of the Center—given the national need—will be on determining how technology can help elementary-aged children develop the fundamental building blocks of literacy. These include the vital reading, writing, speaking and listening capabilities that all children must develop during the primary grades. A special emphasis of the Center will be on struggling readers who risk educational failure if they do not catch up to their peers by grade four.
Another important focus of the Center is to leverage the potential of interactive media to promote “21st century” literacies that students will need to compete and cooperate in our connected world—competencies such as critical thinking and problem solving, second language competency, inter-cultural understanding and media literacy. www.joanganzcooneycenter.org

Link to Sesame Workshop: www.sesameworkshop.org

PBS is known for their great programs for kids and this website is no different. It is an easy to use, well laid out site for parents and kids. They break down media categories into groups like; TV & Movies, Video Games, Computers and Advertising. These categories contain sub-headings for Preschoolers, Grade schoolers, Pre-teens and Teens. They also have Milestones, which gives age by age tips on what parents can do to make kids more media savvy. There are also articles and information for parents which cover various topics like; Creating with Media, TV Viewers guide, Sorting out Scientific Studies and more. They even have an IM, TXT lexicon and Media glossary. All in all a fun and informative site that is great for parents just learning abouthttp://www.pbs.org/parents/childrenandmedia/images/art-videogames-sml.jpg media and it’s influence on our kids. Here is the site link. PBS Media