Childhood consumerism: where do you stand?

[Thefringedninja]

Watched this extremely interesting documentary today:

http://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/consuming_kids_the_commercialization_of_childhood_ 2008/

For people who don't want to watch it, it basically addresses these ideas:

How heavily do parents influence children?
Do corporations have responsibility regarding how they approach children in their advertising?
Has our society become too obsessed with material things?

Should we have more regulation on commercials aimed at children?


I would just be interested in seeing how you guys stand on this issue.

In my opinion, I think that it is inevitable with the fairly recent invention of the internet that children are going to be subjected to advertisements at a younger age; however I think the responsibilities at ages below 11 years old should really lie with the parents. Children shouldn't be allowed to access the internet as freely during these early years...I didn't even have my own computer at this age and it didn't do me any harm!
Everywhere I go I seem to see young people (sometimes below 11 years old) with their own iPhones and iPads (lol, I sound like an old fogie) and it really worries me. They can be accessing anything from those devices. I think it is fair enough to allow them freedom on the web when they are over 11 years old; they probably know about sex and their personalities have had time to grow, so they are less vulnerable. However I think more should be doing done to allow children alternatives to electronic devices...(I am not including game consoles in this, as I am guilty of being a Playstation girl XD and I think that the rating system on games helps to prevent over exposure to young children, as long as their parents keep an eye on it)

It's just a REALLY tricky situation to be honest, as I want children to have freedom to watch and play what they like, however there are a lot of damaging things out there...what do you guys think?

[Slyy]

Kids are an easy target for companies because when you're young every thing seems awesome.

[Ranshiin]

I didn't know what the Internet was until I was 16. I didn't own a phone until I was at college, and didn't own a smartphone until about two years ago.

But, to directly answer as simply as possible:



How heavily do parents influence children

A lot. My parents were very influential when I was younger, in both positive and negative ways. In ways I wanted to be like my dad, and he's the reason I have a huge interest in things like cars and computers. But conversely I hate how they treated me when I was younger, whether hindsight proves it was for the best or not.





Do corporations have responsibility regarding how they approach children in their advertising?

Yes, basically. Look at all the advertisements on TV that are aimed specifically at kids; throwing adverts about MUST EAT CANDY, MUST BUY EXPENSIVE TOYS in their faces, product placement in cartoons, etc. Now, you may say 'well, the parents have the responsibility letting the children watch TV in the first place', but the purpose of the TV is to distract the children whilst the parents do something else, such as cook food or do laundry or such. They can't just turn the TV off when ads come on ... not easily, anyway.





Has our society become too obsessed with material things?

Yes. Like I said above, when I was a kid I had little material things. I had toys, yes, but nothing spectacular like what kids these days get. I had a Sega Genesis but only because my parents bought it and eventually gave me it when they got a SNES. Contrast this to my youngest sister, who has had a laptop computer since she was seven, now has an xbox and a smartphone, and uses all that 'cool hip lingo' that kids these days use. She's eleven. I didn't have a laptop until I was eighteen. I bought one against my parents' permission, out of my own money, and was grounded for a month because of it. My sister got hers for her birthday, broke it, and got a replacement a week later.


My family aren't exactly the most wealthy. They can't afford satelite TV or decent Internet, yet they gave in to the material desires of my younger sibling. What do I get for my birthday? Beer. What do I want for my birthday? Beer. lol. OK, so I do want a new laptop, but I know I won't get one because 'you're old enough to buy one yourself'. Funny how when I was eleven, if I'd asked for a laptop, my parents would have laughed themselves drunk.


/senselessrant





Should we have more regulation on commercials aimed at children?

I think we should. Over here, they already sort of do; certain adverts such as adverts for chocolate or fast food or cigarettes are now banned during daylight hours ... think they have been for a while. But yet there are still too many adverts aimed at the naivety of children and the fact that parents will give in to their demands to either shut them up or so they don't appear like they're bad parents. Maybe it was different in my childhood for a reason - it was the '90's, a lot of this stuff didn't exist and there was a huge-ass recession for most of it - but all I cared about back then was skateboards, Sonic the Hedgehog and coca cola. Not like today where you see eleven-year-old girls walking around dressed and behaving like 20-year-olds demanding the NEWEST MOST EXPENSIVE MOST BESTEST EVER smartphone that they're going to not want in six months when a model that's pink shows up. Jeesh, kids these days ... take away their smartphones and Internet access and they don't know what to do. Didn't have any of those when I was a kid ... had to use something called IMAGINATION.

Oh jeez, Old Man Mode is coming onto me. I apologise, but it does frustrate me to see society the way it's become sometimes, whether it's the fault of the parents or the companies that only care for wringing us of our last penny. -_-

[ParaParaJMo]

I'm a child of the 80s and 90s. That should answer the question lol