New Report Says Mass Media Is Really, Really Evil For Kids

from the get-rid-of-it! dept

Well, here we go again. USA Today has a report on a "review" of "173 of the strongest papers" from the past 28 years, which found that 80% show some sort of link between mass media and something evil happening to kids, whether it involves obesity, smoking, sex, drug and alcohol use, attention problems or poor grades. And, of course, the folks behind the review are claiming this is all very damning and "something must be done" to "protect the children!" Of course, we've seen this all before. In almost every case, when you look at the actual details of the study, the link is never quite as strong as it's made out to be. In many cases, the link may be a correlation, rather than a causal link (i.e., kids who get bad grades may watch more TV, but that doesn't mean that TV necessarily caused them to get bad grades). Other times, the study's findings are greatly extrapolated in the writeup -- such as the studies that showed that kids get "excited" when they play video games, and extrapolated that to claim kids are more violent because they play games. This isn't to say that mass media for kids is healthy, but we've seen so few studies that actually support a causal link, that it's difficult to take this sort of fear mongering seriously.

Filed Under: kids, media, think of the children

Study Says Lots Of Kids Are Making Sneaky Purchases Online With Parents' Cookied Credit Card Info

from the cookies-are-for-kids dept

Plenty of online shopping sites let customers store their credit card info to make it easier to purchase stuff in the future. And, for most home users, that is a convenient feature -- as it seems unlikely that a third party would access your computer and use your credit cards to order stuff. Except, apparently, a lot of parents forget about their kids being able to do that. A study in the UK found that plenty of kids were buying stuff online without their parents' knowledge or approval, using the stored credit card info on certain web shopping sites. Of course, if parents checked over their credit card statements regularly (or received the packages when delivered), you would think they would notice such activity.

Filed Under: credit cards, kids, purchases

The Family That Texts Together...

from the chats-together dept

There's been a perception among some, that the introduction of certain technologies into the household has made it more difficult for families to communicate. For example, some have complained that kids with mobile phones use them to spend all their time talking to and texting with friends, rather than with their family. However, some new research notes that this is mostly a myth, and families that have mobile phones tend to use them to communicate with each other quite a bit. Of course, now we'll hear people complaining about how this constant contact makes it impossible for kids to make decisions on their own. There's always something to complain about. And, to be fair, not all of the study suggests that all this communicating is a good thing. While people do communicate more with their family members, they're not as satisfied with family leisure time as those who aren't as technology-enabled.

Filed Under: communications, family, kids, texting

Parents Are Never Going To Be Able To Monitor All Kids Online Activities

from the but-think-of-the-children! dept

Over the past few years, the "but think of the children!" crowd constantly talks up the importance of having parents monitor their kids' online activities, and often puts out studies like the following one, bemoaning the fact that not enough parents are monitoring their kids enough. Of course, the simple fact is that parents are never going to be able to fully monitor what their kids do online (at least without seriously pissing off their kids). If kids want to chat online, they're going to find a way to be able to do so. Perhaps rather than focusing so much on spying on everything that kids do, the focus should be more on educating them to the dangers that are out there, the laws that they should be aware of and the risks of not obeying them. We have this tendency in our society to overprotect kids, which often has the opposite effect: not preparing them properly to face the real world. Kids who understand the risks tend to make better choices online. As for those who are constantly spied on and overly protective? We'll again quote Richard Posner in one of his legal rulings:

"Violence has always been and remains a central interest of humankind and a recurrent, even obsessive theme of culture both high and low ... It engages the interest of children from an early age, as anyone familiar with the classic fairy tales collected by Grimm, Andersen, and Perrault are aware. To shield children right up to the age of 18 from exposure to violent descriptions and images would not only be quixotic, but deforming; it would leave them unequipped to cope with the world as we know it."

Parents should be aware of what their kids are doing online by talking to them about it, and helping to educate their kids on the risks they face, but that doesn't mean spying on their every move. That will only backfire.

Filed Under: education, internet usage, kids, monitoring, parents

Would You Believe Most Kids Actually Like Face To Face Communications?

from the who-woulda-thunk-it? dept

There seems to be this common theme among adults who freak out about kids playing video games or surfing the internet that it's somehow a "replacement" for going outside or hanging out with friends in person. Instead, it's actually an enhancement to those things, providing another way to communicate, rather than a total replacement. Thus, those adults should be happy to hear of a new study that shows nearly 80% of kids still think face to face communication is the best. That shouldn't be surprising, but given the fear mongering stories we hear on a regular basis, it's a nice reminder that despite claims to the contrary, kids aren't as dumb as some adults make them out to be.

Filed Under: communications, face to face, kids

Everyone Panic: Teens Are Sending Each Other Naked Photos On Camera Phones

from the really? dept

When I first read this article from the Associated Press about this new teen fad of teenagers using camera phones to send each other naked photos of themselves, I'll admit that I reacted exactly as the article's authors probably intended -- wondering what the hell kids are up to these days. However, is this really that surprising or shocking? At that age, kids do all sorts of stupid things, and if you hand them tools like camera phones that make it so easy, it's no surprise that some kids, somewhere will do things like pass around naked photos of each other (which, by the way, opens them up to charges of child pornography). Hell, kids have been "playing doctor" for ages, and it didn't necessarily warrant a writeup in the Associated Press.

And, while the article does list out multiple such cases, there's no indication how widespread this really is. Yes, there are some kids out there who do stupid, impulsive things (especially when it involves members of the opposite sex that they're interested in), and hopefully people realize these are just isolated incidents. But, somehow, I get the feeling we'll soon be hearing people suggesting that this is a "common occurrence" rather than just a few isolated incidents. So, really, the story here is that there are some kids out there that don't have the best judgment, and sometimes a small number of those kids do stupid things. It just so happens that, these days, those stupid things can involve being naked on the internet.

Filed Under: kids, mobile phones, naked pictures, photos

Is Internet Distraction A Good Thing Or A Bad Thing For Kids?

from the talk-to-some-kids dept

It's pretty obvious by now that there are tons of distractions that can be found on the internet, and if you're not careful, you can certainly get dragged away from something more important. However, InternetNews.com has an article suggesting that because kids these days are growing up with so many internet distractions, they won't be able to accomplish nearly as much as older generations who had no such distractions and could concentrate on just doing stuff. In fact, the author writes: "We're not preparing kids for the future."

Now that strikes me as odd, because my thought was exactly the opposite. These distractions are there -- and since kids these days are growing up with such distractions, they're used to them and take it as a natural state of affairs. In other words, by getting them to think of continuous partial attention as the norm from a very young age, we absolutely are preparing them for the future. Of course, the real answer may lie somewhere in-between -- in that it may depend on just what people are trying to accomplish.

Filed Under: continuous partial attention, internet distraction, kids, multitasking

Fewer And Fewer Parents Freaking Out About Kids Chatting Online

from the good-things dept

If you look at the history of pop culture, there's a pretty clear pattern that emerges: parents fear whatever "new" thing their kids are into, whether it's "rock n roll" or video games or social networking. The fear boils up, even to the point of politicians pushing for laws to stop this horrible thing. But then, after a little while, parents realize the "new thing" they feared really isn't so bad. So while we're still seeing fear mongering reports about social networking, it appears that parents are increasingly comfortable with their kids chatting online using social networks or chat applications. That's good, too, because studies have shown these things really are not particularly dangerous, and most kids are perfectly able to handle whatever minor dangers they might face. Have no fear, though, I'm sure parents will soon find some other new terrible thing that needs to be regulated... and politicians will happily oblige. And, in the meantime, since politicians are a bit slow on these things, don't expect the laws against social networks to die down just yet either. There's still plenty of grandstanding to be squeezed out of that lemon.

Filed Under: kids, parents, social networks

Kids More Interested In Cyberspace And MySpace Than Outspace?

from the cybernauts,-not-astronauts? dept

Apparently, NASA is getting worried that the kids these days aren't interested in outer space, preferring to do their "travels" through cyberspace. That seems like a somewhat odd conclusion, as there doesn't seem to be anything mutually exclusive about the two. Also, it's not like you need every kid to be interested in going into space. The number of people who actually get to travel in space is quite small, and I'd imagine that there are still plenty of kids interested in the possibility of either becoming an astronaut or working for NASA. Of course, it might help (as the article notes) if there actually were sexy space missions again. These days, everything having to do with sending people into outer space has been rather mundane and boring.

Filed Under: generation y, kids, nasa, space

What's Wrong With Parents Teaching Their Kids That Not All Internet Content Is Good?

from the instead-of-spying-on-them? dept

It's no secret that not all content online is good for kids to see -- though, the "threats" have been greatly exaggerated. However, it doesn't stop self-declared online child safety "experts" from giving terrible advice. For example, here's an entire article based on the claims of one such expert claiming that, rather than teaching kids how to deal with stuff they might see online, the real answer is for parents to hover over their kids when they use the internet. This would be from the same expert who once suggested that the answer to cyberbullying was to have someone dress up as Spiderman and tell kids that cyberbullying was "bad" (very bad!). She also goes on (like others) to blame YouTube for making kids want to do bad stuff. The simple fact of the matter, however, is that it is not reasonable nor practical to monitor your kids' every action online. Obviously, for very young children, it could make sense, but once they reach a certain age, it's not going to happen. Yet, instead of hovering over them at all times, why not teach them some online street smarts -- just as you would teach them to be safe when they walk outside alone? Teach kids that not everything online is good, and teach them how to be careful when they surf. In other words, don't act like bad stuff will automatically kill them -- but teach them how to deal with it so that when it inevitably does come up, they know can handle it.

Filed Under: kids, online safety