Kids' Media Literacy
5.04.2006
Warc posted the following in their website:
UK media regulator Ofcom has published the results of detailed research to assess the extent of children's media literacy in Britain.
The watchdog defines media literacy as the ability to access, understand and create communications in a variety of contexts.
The audit focuses on the four main digital media platforms - digital television, digital radio, the internet and mobile phones. More than 1,500 children aged eight to 15 and their parents were interviewed for the research.
The key findings of the survey were...
Of children aged 8-11, 35% watch television mostly on their own.
I would bet a similar or higher percentage for Filipino kids.
Over seven in ten parents in cable or satellite television households have not set controls to restrict their children's access to television channels. Some 15% of parents of 8-11s and 39% of parents of 12-15s said there are no house rules about watching television.
Would it not be higher in the Philippines? Or are parents here less responsible in what their kids watch? Consider that in recent times even elders encourage their kids to gyrate like the Sex Bomb Dancers or their counterparts. Noon time shows or not, Filipino kids are exposed to R-18 material: Uncensored images of blood and gore (kudos to ANC for blurring the images), no-excuse announcements for rape news, and showbiz gossip about sex scandals, affairs, fights and similar news, among others.
Some 40% of 8-11s and 71% of 12-15s say they mostly use the internet on their own at home.
I think the Philippine rate here will be 60-40, in favor of outside the home. I think this part is mostly done with "online gaming", which to date is 'unrated'. I wont push for censorship since I'm a gamer myself, but providers should be pro-active in advising their games to be for a particular age group. Fault here possibly lies in Internet Café owners who don't ban kids paying with their allowance; parents not keen enough to set parental control in their home PCs, and content providers themselves who entice crowd but provide little restriction.
Around half of internet households have no software installed to limit children's access to certain types of websites.
How True.
Two in three (67%) children aged 12-15 who use the internet at home said they trust most of what they find on the internet.
How Sad.
Some 78% of children aged 12-15 feel that news programmes are either always true or true most of the time whereas 54% say this about current affairs programmes and 33% say this of reality TV programmes.
Tsk. Tsk. Tsk.
Girls aged 12-15 are more likely than boys to have a mobile phone (87% compared to 77%), use the internet (63%, 54%), listen to the radio (54%, 40%), and read newspapers or magazines (49%, 36%). Boys in this age group only exceed girls for playing console or computer games (66% compared to 51%).
Possibly the same range here in the Philippines at least for the A-B crowd. In the lower economic classes I would suspect the data to be mostly aspirational, rather than actual. That is, if you'll replace the questionnaires asking "Do you play..." with "Would you, given the chance..." the same numbers should be seen. Just a guess.
Ofcom partner Tim Suter comments: "The report provides important insights into a generation whose media experiences, attitudes and preferences are markedly different from those of their parents. There are challenges and opportunities for all involved."
Undoubtably, this data can be used positively. Consider how you can create learning modules in schools that take advantage of these psychographics? We can expect children to respond better and learn better. On the extreme end however, these data can be an indicator of the risk that the kids face as far as growing up is concerned. Do they learn the right values? How does this affect parent-child relationships? Interesting times we live in.
Data sourced from Ofcom; additional content by WARC staff
Italics, mine.
Labels: Internet, Local, Philippines
posted by Jdavies @ 5/04/2006,
0 Comments:
The Author
J.Davies
Jdavies lives in Quezon City, Philippines and has been blogging since 2002. A brand manager in a leading technology company and a freelance new media/web strategy consultant, he has refocused his blogging from personal, political & sociological observations, to marketing-related efforts and Internet trends that are relevant to his career and branding advocacies.
About This Blog
This blog is a depot of thoughts and observations on marketing trends which remain personally relevant to the Author as far as his marketing career is concerned. Having evolved from the personal blog of Jdavies, much of the earlier work contained herein are laced with personal speculation, political views, and similar advocacies. These posts are being kept for posterity's sake and for no other reason. No effort is being made to claim that the author will not contradict himself from his previous positions or that such advocacies are absolute.
Contact
Request access to my Linked-in Profile
