Posted on March 16, 2014 at 3:54 pm
Cinema Blend has a terrific new series called Parental Guidance, the saga of a devoted dad and his 15 year old daughter who’ve agreed to watch some of the dad’s favorite movies together. So far, they’ve watched “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and “Ghostbusters.” His description of their reactions to the films is marvelous, and I can’t think of a better way to bond. I look forward to whatever they decide to watch next.
Posted on March 12, 2014 at 8:00 am
Cris Rowan has a provocative but compelling piece in Huffington Post arguing that no one under 12 should use smart phones, tablets, or other devices. Her reasons include studies linking the amount of screen time to radiation exposure, obesity, and attachment and developmental disorders. Of course, a lot of this applies equally to adults, who should be careful about overexposure and especially the example they set in the use of their own devices.
Posted on January 22, 2014 at 3:50 pm
I am a big fan of Slate’s podcasts, especially the Culture Gabfest, and am delighted that Dan Kois (of the excellent Book Club) is co-hosting a new one about parenting. Kois and his co-host, Alison Benedikt, lead off with their own current struggles and triumphs (so far managing to be candid without overly intruding on the privacy of their spouses or children). The current episode takes a more nuanced approach in discussing the current fan of “mindful parenting” than Slate’s Double X essay by Hanna Rosin and I like its overall tone, friendly, accessible, supportive, and curious.
Posted on January 3, 2014 at 7:13 pm
Dreamworks is teaming up with Fuhu, the maker of tablets for children to create the first tablet in which the content provider controls what the user sees. In other words, it’s more like a television. While Amazon sensibly makes sure that its Kindle Fire line gives parents control over the content available to children — and lets them set daily time limits as well — Fuhu gives parents no control at all.
The partnership is a convergence of two business trends. With children as young as 2 or 3 now routinely using their parents’ iPads or smartphones — if the toddlers don’t already have their own — technology companies are racing to introduce gadgets made for smaller and smaller hands. Fuhu itself sold more than two million Nabis in 2013, and its tablets, which are primarily designed for children 6 to 11, now collectively deliver more than 20 million video streams a week.
Entertainment companies have been surprised at how speedily children have taken to tablets, sometimes forgoing TV sets altogether. As a result, DreamWorks, Disney and their competitors are searching for ways to make it easier for users to find their characters on portable devices.
According to the New York Times piece, “Nancy Bernstein, a movie producer who is in charge of creating what she calls ‘character moments’ for the DreamTab, insists that the effort is not simply an advertising opportunity for the studio.” That is absurd. Giving content providers control over the characters and images children see is advertising. Even if the penguins from Madagascar are not specifically promoting a new sequel or toy, they reinforce brand loyalty, which is the whole point of the arrangement. I’m not in favor of tablets for children to begin with, but this is really a new low.
Posted on January 2, 2014 at 3:59 pm
It’s a challenge to keep kids away from television and computers and tablets and smartphones, especially in the winter when they are indoors much of the time, and when they’re out of school. And it is a challenge to make sure they get the most out of the time they do spend on media. The Chicago Sun-Times has some great advice from the wonderful Nicole Dreiske, founder of the Chicago-based International Children’s Media Center, which offers workshops and festivals for teachers, parents and children that promote constructive screen engagement.
“It doesn’t matter how many opportunities kids have to interface with screens, parents are still the most important people in their lives, and the holidays are a time for family.”
Building a positive relationship between parents and children around screen time is an achievable goal, Dreiske contends, one that could result in less tension with children over media and gaming choices and time limits.
A mistake parents make, she said, is that they put themselves solely in the position of the “media warden, trying to monitor all the media coming into the home and that’s never going to work,” Dreiske says.
A more constructive approach is to give children an opportunity to talk about what they’re watching.
I’m honored that this website was one of the resources she recommended for parents. Many thanks!
