Brave New World? By Kate Brennan

As we venture into the world of constant contact and 24/7 technology, I am filled with questions:

Are we working harder as parents? How is our ability to parent being impacted? Are we competing with brand loyalty for our children’s attention and respect? What are the consequences of constant stimulation? What do we get cheated out of with less time for self reflection?

Companies spend about 17 billion annually marketing to children. Up from 100 million in 1983. What happened? This is not a result of inflation but the direct dismantling of laws designed to protect our children.

The 1970’s
In the late 1970’s television was coming of age. Children’s programming was readily available and advertisers were poised to sell their wares to children. Around this time the dental profession was becoming concerned about sugary cereals being hawked to children. Parents and professionals took their concerns to the Federal Trade Commission who’s job it is to protect consumers. But they were not alone. Large food manufactures sent their lawyers and under the guise of free speech made sure that their ability to sell to children would remain intact. In fact, the lawyers went one step further to congress and with their power, created what became known as the FTC Improvement Act. The FTC’s ability to protect children from marketers was now completely dismantled. Children were left totally unprotected.

Open Season
What happened in the late 1970’s laid the ground work for the swell of marketing to children that now floods our homes and communities.
By the 1980’s television programs were being created as a means to sell merchandise directly to children. (Anyone recall Care Bares? Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? Transformers?)

Fast Forward
We now have this tremendous advancement in technology. At our finger tips is a world of information, entertainment and learning. As we enter this new age advertisers and marketers have made their presence known. Without any constraints they are everywhere vying for our children’s attention and loyalties. They sell life style, values, stereotypes that are not necessarily shared by us. Their goal is to get the child to consume. They do not care about imparting ethics and values. On the contrary they sell increasingly explicit material. Look below to see what Nickelodeon is up to:

Nickelodeon, the children’s media empire, is promoting sexualized and violent video games to children as young as preschoolers. Its popular gaming website, Addictinggames.com, features games such as Sorority Panty Raid, Bloody Day (“Back alley butchering has never been so much fun. . . . How many kills can you rack?”) and the Perry the Sneak series, where gamers take the role of a peeping Tom trying to catch revealing glimpses of scantily clad and naked women. Nickelodeon promotes, and links directly to, Addictinggames.com on Neopets, Nick.com and even on its Nick Jr. websites. You can email the link below to make your concerns known to Nickelodeon. (http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/621/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=1903)

Same Place Different Time
And here we are in the same place we were 30 years ago. Why aren’t children shielded? Where are our rights as parents to protect our children? I can only hope we are at a tipping point of saturation and that like many of the grass roots movements that have gone before us, the time has now come for parents and children alike to take back their rights to live a childhood of their creating not one of brand specialists and profit driven CEOs.