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Using parental mediation and protection motivation theory, a serial moderated mediation model was developed to study what drives parents to employ technical restriction tools offered by Subscription Video on Demand (SVoD) services. Based on a survey of 1,022 parents of elementary school children (generally between the ages of 5–12) in Mexico, it was found that for Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, the use of technical restrictions appears to be triggered by parents' perception of risk and that parental involvement in children's media use and perceived knowledge of the available technical restrictions mediates the usage of the parental control tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Capitalist enterprises continuously push consumption of commercial products on children, for instance in the form of transmedial worlds in which multiple stories can play out across media and over time. The popular Swedish children's franchise Bamse has undergone an obvious capitalist expansion over time, with more and more commodities being made available for purchase. At the same time the brand continues to be promoted as a force for spreading good values and thus provides a valuable service to its audience of Swedish children. The present article explores, through a combination of paratextual analysis and political economy, how these inculcative and commercial goals coexist in a tense but seemingly functional configuration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research explores children's and parents' perceptions of parental mediation strategies of children's digital technology (DT) use. The sample consists of 31 parents and 30 children (ages 9 to 14; average age is 11) who participated in focus groups. The results of focus groups with parents and children showed that they recognize four similar types of strategies with slight differences. Children often do not recognize clear rules about DT use. Active mediation is perceived by children as co-use, while parents usually talk about the consequences of DT use and highlight balancing with other activities. Without a prepared media plan, parents describe mediation as "a struggle." The findings point to mediation being "a dynamic process" with children as active agents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article utilizes the term "digital authoring" in order to explore the ways in which children create multi-modal, digital media texts. Drawing on the notion of "emergent literacy" we share vignettes from different pedagogical and research contexts where children use media to tell stories in different forms with different technologies. These accounts demonstrate the value to children of opportunities to make volitional choices about the mode, media, and form of their own texts. We reflect on moments of authoring in our vignettes which provide insights into the intrinsic pedagogic affordances of cultural practices such as vlogging and video diaries situated as they are, in wider socio-cultural practices. In doing so, we draw on the notion of "playful tinkering" as a key pedagogical approach which recognizes the value of children's volitional engagements with digital media, to their emerging skills and dispositions as authors of digital media texts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Children are often exposed to too much screen time but few studies have explored the use of old and new digital media among young children. This study assesses screen time, including traditional and mobile devices, in pre-school and elementary school-aged children, according to their gender, age, and socioeconomic position (SEP).Methods: A total of 8430 children (3 to 10 years; 50.8% boys) from the north, center and south-central Portugal were included in the present study. Data was collected by a parental questionnaire during 2016/2017. Children's screen time (by media device, weekdays and at the weekend; calculated by mean minutes per day) were reported by parents. Analysis were carried to compare screen time by children's age, gender and family SEP (classified using father's educational degree).Results: Daily screen time was high both in children aged 3 to 5 and 6 to 10 years - 154 min/day (95% CI: 149.51-158.91) and 200.79 min/day (95% CI: 197.08-204.50), respectively - and the majority of children, independently of their gender, exceed the recommended 2 h/day of screen viewing. Children are still primarily engaging in screen time through television but the use of mobile devices, particularly tablets, were already high among 3 year-old children and increased with age. SEP was a negative predictor of screen time in the linear regression analysis, including after adjustment.Conclusions: Considering the negative health impacts of excessive screen time, recognizing subgroups at risk of excessive screen time and identifying how each device is used according to age is fundamental to enable appropriate future interventions. The screen time in children aged 3-10 years is longer than the recommended, particularly among boys and in those children from lower SEP. Parents and policymakers should have in mind that children spend most of their screen time watching television but mobile devices are becoming extremely popular starting at a young age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of the social construction of the body has become crucial to contemporary academic discourses in education and physical education. Employing feminist poststructuralist theory and a qualitative ethnographic design, this study investigated how high school students identified themselves with images of bodies drawn from fitness and sports magazines, and how their body narratives were linked to their participation in physical education. Students' body narratives reflected notions of comfortable, bad, and borderland bodies that influenced students' physical activity choices and engagement in physical education. Girls' narratives of their physicality were found to be significantly less comfortable than boys'. Critical pedagogy to destabilize gendered dominant discourses of mass media body culture and to develop positive, meaningful, and empowering student physicality is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parents can significantly impact their adolescent child's sexual and relationship decision-making, yet many parents are not effectively communicating with their teens about these topics. Media are sexual socialization agents for adolescents, which can encourage early or risky sexual activity. Media Aware Parent is a web-based program for parents of adolescents that was designed to improve adolescent sexual health by providing parents with the skills to have high-quality communication with their child about sex and relationships as well as to mediate their media usage. This web-based randomized controlled trial was conducted in 2018–2019 with parent-child pairs (grades 7, 8, or 9; N = 355) from across the United States. Parent participants identified as mostly female (75%), white/Caucasian (74%); and non-Hispanic (92%). The youth sample was more balanced in terms of gender (45% female) and more diverse with respect to race (66% white) and ethnicity (86% non-Hispanic). Twenty-eight percent of the families identified as a single parent household, and 35% of the youth were eligible for free school lunch. The present study assessed the short-term effects of Media Aware Parent on parent–adolescent communication, adolescent sexual health outcomes, and media-related outcomes across a one-month timeframe. Parents were randomly assigned to the intervention (Media Aware Parent) or active control group (online access to medically-accurate information on adolescent sexual health). The intervention improved parent–adolescent communication quality as rated by both parents and youth. Youth were more likely to understand that their parent did not want them to have sex at this early age. Youth reported more agency over hook-ups, more positive attitudes about sexual health communication and contraception/protection, and more self-efficacy to use contraception/protection, if they decide to have sexual activity. The intervention improved media literacy skills in both parents and youth, and resulted in youth being more aware of family media rules. Parents gave overwhelming positive feedback about Media Aware Parent. The results from this pretest-posttest study provide evidence that Media Aware Parent is an effective web-based program for parents seeking to enhance parent–adolescent communication and media mediation, and positively impact their adolescents' sexual health outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parental mediation research is based largely in studies of TV mediation, with recent work examining mediation of children's video game and internet use. Few scholars have explored mediation of cell phone use. Some research has examined mediation in the context of parenting styles, but research suggests that parental stress can also influence mediation behaviors. This study extends the findings on TV mediation to cell phones and explores the role of parental stress in mediation. The findings indicate that few factors are associated with both TV and cell phone mediation, and that parental stress plays a significant role in the mediation process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Journal of Children and Media (JOCAM) provides an important home for scholars who focus on children and adolescents. It is committed to publishing research from underrepresented countries. Despite this commitment, however, much of what is published in JOCAM, as well as in other youth-focused journals, draws its samples from so-called WEIRD settings (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic). Moreover, research on children, adolescents and media (CAM) often fails to recognize children who are at the margins of society because they are poor, housing insecure, or living with disability. In this commentary we examine the invisible children of CAM research and explore why their experiences remain largely unexamined. We highlight the barriers to conducting research with these particularly vulnerable populations, and we suggest opportunities for reducing such barriers. We conclude by arguing that it is our moral and ethical duty to do our best to represent the role of media within the diverse experiences of childhood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research investigated the effectiveness of parental mediation on reducing harm from media. Specifically, it examined the magnitude of the effects of three main parental mediation strategies on reducing the amount of media use and the incidence of media-related risks. A meta-analysis was conducted using 52 empirical studies on parental mediation, which represented a total sample of 74,159 participants and yielded 122 independent correlations. The results indicated that restrictive mediation was more effective than active mediation in decreasing the amount of time children spent on media, whereas the effects of active mediation and co-using were greater than those of restrictive mediation on reducing the incidence of media-related risks. According to the moderator analyses, age, risk type, medium, and culture significantly moderated the effects of active and restrictive mediation on reducing the amount of media use and the incidence of media-related risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using an online questionnaire among 516 Dutch parents (children between 1 and 12 years; 68% mothers, 18% single parents) this study explored whether parents see media devices as useful tools in childrearing, and how parent-family characteristics and parental perceptions on parenting, media effects and child development predict the acceptance of instrumental media use. Findings revealed that parents saw media as a) a distractor providing the parent relief in childrearing, b) a babysitter when the parent is unavailable, and c) a tool to modify children's behavior. Whereas 20 to 30 percent found media useful as a modifier or babysitter, only about 10 percent perceived media helpful as a distractor. Acceptance of the different types of instrumental media use depended more on parental perceptions than on parent-family variables: i.e., instrumental use of media was primarily endorsed by parents who are less confident about their parenting, have less support from a partner, expect positive effects from the media, and report health and conduct problems in their children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parental mediation of screen media (e.g., television, video games) is associated with better outcomes for children. Although much research has examined parental mediation of television (TV), there is a dearth of research examining communication about mobile media (e.g., Smartphones, tablets) in the digital age. This study seeks to identify themes of family communication around media and mobile devices using naturalistic observational methodology. The sample consisted of 21 toddlers (ages 12-24-months old), 31 preschool-age children (3-5 years old), and 23 school-age (10-13 years old) children and their families. Children wore Language ENvironment Analysis (LENA) audio recording devices, which recorded vocalizations and other sounds proximal to the child wearing the device in the home environment, as well as audible screen media use. ATLAS.ti was used to transcribe dialogue from the audio recordings that pertained to screen media. Experts from the fields of communication, clinical child psychology, and developmental-behavioral pediatrics independently analyzed the transcripts to identify common themes. Five main themes emerged. First, parental mediation of screen media was primarily restrictive, reactive, and focused on technology functionality. Second, active mediation was child-driven. Third, siblings played a more dominant role in mediation than parents. Fourth, parents and children negotiated screen time limits. Finally, parallel family media use was common. Multiple family members engaged with their own mobile devices while simultaneously being exposed to background screen media (i.e., media multitasking). Assessing media use in the naturalistic home environment elucidated current patterns of family media use and communication about media in the digital age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors compare the fine-print disclosures in children's Saturday morning television commercials with disclosures in prime-time commercials aimed at more mature audiences. The prevalence of fine-print disclosures in the two venues is compared, as well as the placement, duration, and informational characteristics of the disclosures. Statistical differences between Saturday morning and prime-time ad disclosures suggest that advertisers differentiate between audience types in the use and execution of fine-print disclosures. However, the differences do not necessarily suggest that the messages are reaching either audience group effectively. The findings have implications for how advertisers, regulators, and media firms might change fine-print disclosure practices in children's TV advertisements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The children's television advertising environment generally is studied from the 1970s onward. Indeed, so little academic research was reported in the 1950s that the decade has been referred to as the prehistory of research on children's television advertising. The authors rectify that oversight by examining commercials of the 1950s in programs aimed at the child market. Content analysis shows marked distinctions from commercials of subsequent decades in total commercial time, product type, promotional appeals, age and gender of participants, production variables, and controversial techniques. Some of the differences are due to the television technology and technical standards of the 1950s, but others illustrate growth in advertisers' and television executives' understanding of the medium as a way to reach specialized child audiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines parent-child communication patterns and mothers' consumer-socialization tendencies. Results indicate mothers' concept-orientations are related to number of goals, discussing advertising, coviewing, coshopping, children's influence, yielding, and granting children consumer independence. In contrast, socio-orientations are related to limits on children's TV exposure and refusing requests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports the results of research that updates and expands previous research on disclaimers in children's television. The study examines the incidence, form, position, language level and variance by product category of a sample of nearly 1,000 advertisements televised during children's programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study, as an extension of previous research looking at children's responses to television advertising, compared their responses to radio and print advertising in addition to television. They were exposed to simulated ads for a fictitious product and their response was measured by their ability to correctly identify the package they had seen or heard about from an array. The children were classified into cognitive stage by use of a Piagetian conservation task. It was expected that older children would perform better than younger children. and this was confirmed. It was also expected that younger children would have more difficulty in the radio condition than in either the television or print condition. This was based on the argument that the radio situation constituted an intermodal recall task, while the television and print situations constituted an intramodal recognition task. Surprisingly, this expectation was not confirmed which was argued to be suggestive of greater cognitive ability than previously supposed. In addition, underlying attentional strategies in terms of central versus incidental information were explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Four hundred parents were interviewed in the Southwestern United States to study parental response to the idea of child marketing and specifically television advertising to children. Findings indicate that the children of those parents interviewed are exposed, on the average, to more than twenty hours of television each week and that in-store product recognition on the part of the children is quite high. General response of the parents indicate a strong doubt in the honesty of advertising to children and a call for greater federal legislation to correct the situation. Also, a strong degree of cynicism was observed among parents interviewed about the institution of television advertising to children and its apparent misleading aspects. Parents were quick to criticize the use of premiums and prizes as a tool of selling to children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little published research exists to guide self-regulators in their evaluation of advertising directed to children. Academic researchers have principally studied the effects of advertising upon children, rather than children's perceptions of specific commercials and ads. Research on such questions as fantasy, using famous presenters, scale disclosures and disclaimers would undoubtedly show age related differences of perception. This might call into question the advertisers' responsibilities to the pre-school, pre-literate child. The situation is more complex when the advertiser seeks to address older children at times when younger children are also watching. Research will never satisfy the critics, but industry and self-regulators should pursue the question of how children perceive advertising. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors examine the conditions under which children are likely to make attitude-consistent choices in response to a television commercial. Two experiments show that children's age and the demands of the choice task are determinants of attitude-behavior consistency. These findings are discussed in terms of children's decision-making abilities and the more general issue of how attitudes are related to behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An experimental analysis of host selling, premium, and announcer television commercials directed toward children was conducted. Stage of cognitive development, sex, and race of the children were assessed as well. Premium format commercials were more effective than host and announcer commercials in producing desired behavioral changes. Girls manifested more favorable attitudes toward the advertised product but there was no difference in the percentage of boys and girls who selected the advertised product. No differences were found between white and black children in attitude or recall but a higher percentage of white children selected the advertised product than did black children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, a number of high-profile privacy cases involving children have come before the English courts. This article draws on developments from ‘PJS v News group, Weller v Associated Newspapers’ and ‘Murray vExpress Newspaper’. In these cases, the courts considered concepts of welfare and well-being when balancing a child’s article 8 right to privacy with the article 10 right to freedom of expression for the media to reporton matters involving or affecting children. The article argues that by contrast, press regulation and its enforcement sometimes lag behind legal developments. The article draws on comparative research of fifty-seven press codes from press regulators around the world to identify patterns and gaps in ethical press standards regarding the representation of children. The article recommends ways to enhance the relevance and robustness of press regulation to better protect and promote the rights and interests of children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The American Academy of Pediatrics advises having no media devices in children's bedrooms. We examined the link between media devices in parents' and children's bedrooms and children's media use. Methods: Ninety parent-child dyads participated in a communitybased healthy weight management study targeting 8-to-12-year-olds with body mass index (BMI)-for-age ≥75th percentile. Parents and children reported the number of media devices in their bedrooms and hours spent using media devices on weekdays and weekend days. Results: Most children (61%) and parents (92%) had at least one media device in their bedrooms. The numbers of devices in parents' and children's bedrooms were positively correlated. Children with no bedroom media devices reported less weekday media use compared to children with bedroom devices. A similar non-significant pattern was found for children's weekend media use. Conclusions: Study findings indicate similar media devices in the bedrooms of parents and children and a significant association between media devices in children's bedrooms and their weekday media use. Efforts to reduce media in parent bedrooms may enhance interventions targeting reduction of media use among children, especially those with higher BMI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is well documented that most children consume over four hours of screen media each day (Common Sense Census, 2015). The majority of this time is spent watching traditional television, on a television set in the home. This television consumption statistic has remained relatively consistent over the past five years, even though children have access to numerous forms of digital media via computer and mobile devices. Children’s options for media consumption may extend far beyond traditional television, but their habits are still routed in television. Additionally, their habits remain routed in the two brands that have been the most popular children’s media brands for decades: Nickelodeon and Disney. Through these networks, messages about media creation, media literacy and many related topics (i.e. gender representation) are conveyed. Since children watch programs and episodes on these networks over and over, the messages are conveyed with repetition. What are the messages children are receiving about the role of media in their lives and their relationship and responsibility with media through their television viewing on these popular networks? This research study analyzed the integration of media literacy concepts in current popular children’s television in the USA focusing on four highly-rated television programs from Nickelodeon and Disney Channel: Game Shakers (Nickelodeon), The Loud House (Nickelodeon), Bizaarvark (Disney Channel) and Stuck in the Middle (Disney Channel). Episodes were coded along four key definers of media literacy according to the definition of media literacy from the National Association for Media Literacy Education: access, analyze, evaluate, create. The study assesses the opportunity for increasing media literacy messages, while recognizing that the primary goal of the content is entertainment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study attempts to solidify a predictive model of parental mediation across four media platforms (television, video games, internet, and cellphones). The analysis compares U.S. mothers’ and fathers’ mediation, specifically within the larger context of parenting behaviors and media attitudes. Results indicate that there are only a few, small gender differences in parental mediation. Across media, parental mediation was largely predicted by the child’s age, parents’ attitudes about media effects, and levels of parent–child involvement and communication. More involved parents were more frequent mediators for television, video games, and the Internet. Parents who reported frequent talks with children more frequently mediated all four media. The results are discussed within the context of research on parenting. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Children are one group of people hardly covered by the media. Thus, in many places children’s issues are never reported. This study concludes that the media do not give a significant attention to children’s issues hence a very low reportage. Considering the agenda-setting potential of the media, this situation means children’s issues are never prioritised in public discourse and, consequently, not on the national agenda of policy-makers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Domestically produced children’s television is frequently highlighted as both an area of market failure, and also as an area where children’s changing consumption habits necessitate new and different ways of thinking about funding children’s content across a range of platforms. In the light of a recent U.K. proposal to set up a Public Service Content Fund to support “genres” under threat, including children’s programming, this article considers how you fund diverse high-quality children’s content in a more challenging media environment where children’s content is arguably still a market failure “genre.” The first part of the article provides context by outlining the market failure characteristics of children’s content as a framework for analyzing the validity of market failure arguments across a range of platforms. It then investigates the causes of perceived market failure in the U.K. children’s television production market. The final part examines the implications of recent U.K. policy responses to provision for children that seek to address market failure through (1) the possible introduction of a contestable fund for public service content; (2) more stringent obligations on the British Broadcasting Corporation; and (3) the re-imposition of quotas on commercially funded public service broadcastings (ITV, Channel 4, Five). Drawing on regulatory and stakeholder responses, it concludes that attempts to overcome market failure in U.K. children’s television appear unsuited for funding the longer-term curation, distribution, and discovery of new types of content on platforms other than broadcasting. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses how toys, particularly the LEGO toy brick, can be used as a communicative device or tools for children to express their voices and aspirations on issues like children's digital citizenship policies. Other topics include how said toys can communicate the children's everyday experiences of media and digital cultures, and the studies conducted by The LEGO Group on the issue.

The article offers tips on enhancing parent participation in their children's reading education. Topics discussed include the American Academy of Pediatrics' (AAP) recommendations when it comes to children's use of media, such as television, videos and online platforms, the factors that should be considered by parents when selecting the types of media that they will allow their children to use and the need for parents to monitor their children's digital activities through co-viewing.

This study examined how child abuse and neglect were reported in a sample of 459 newspaper articles between 2003 and 2013 in England and Wales. The results were compared with data on child abuse and neglect over the same decade. Sexual abuse was by far the most commonly reported, in both tabloid and broadsheet newspapers. Although neglect and emotional abuse are the most common causes of child protection plans in England and Wales, neglect and emotional abuse are relatively invisible in newspaper articles, as is physical abuse. Possible explanations for this disproportionate focus on sexual abuse, which has also been found in Australia and the United States, include the fact that sexual abuse cases reach the criminal courts more often than other forms of child victimisation. Although broadsheet papers were more likely than tabloid newspapers to comment on causes and solutions beyond the individual perpetrator committing a crime, the majority of articles in broadsheet papers still did not frame either the causes or the solutions in broader terms. It seems possible that the notion of the decontextualised ‘evil’ perpetrator serves to distance journalist and reader alike from the pervasiveness and pain of child abuse. The article concludes with ideas to improve the accuracy and utility of the coverage of child abuse and neglect in newspapers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The worldwide spread of social media is changing the forms and rules of social relations, the boundaries of private and public spheres, and the definition of privacy and its protection. In reflecting on children’s rights in a digital age, the online experiences of adopted children and their families foreground the tension between the right to privacy and protection and children’s right to know about their origins. This article explores the Italian case through a qualitative study of professionals working in private and public foster and adoptive services. It analyses the risks and opportunities presented by social media in the everyday life of adoptive families, with particular attention to children’s rights and recommendations for families and professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article draws on contributions by the New Zealand Children's Screen Trust to a strategic review of children's media provision and delivery in 2015-2016. The Trustees' understanding of local media policy settings, their research into international best practice and their local production expertise enable them to address the challenges facing local public service provision for children in Aotearoa/New Zealand. How can one effect change to meet children's evolving media requirements in a radically deregulated broadcasting and media economy with static funding? This article tracks the Trust's engagement with children's media policy in New Zealand from the perspective of one of the trustees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although children’s use of touchscreen devices has rapidly expanded, how young children conceive of these devices is relatively unknown. Here, we examined young children’s recognition, attribution of functions, and preference for using touchscreens as opposed to other devices. Forty-three preschoolers answered questions regarding six devices; for comparison, a group of 16 adults was also tested. Children recognized the devices as well as adults, but attributed fewer functions to touchscreen devices than did adults. However, compared to other media, children attributed more and different functions to touchscreens. Interestingly, children did not uniformly prefer touchscreen devices, but chose selectively for different tasks. The results show surprising differences from adult users as well as a developing understanding among young children regarding media tools. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Adults and children form one-sided, emotionally tinged relationships with media characters known asparasocial relationships.Studies have measured adult conceptions of their own parasocial relationships and parent perceptions of their children’s parasocial relationships, but little is known about how to quantify young children’s perceptions of their own parasocial relationships. In this study, a child self-report survey was developed based on prior parental surveys and behavioral measures to operationalize children’s parasocial relationships. Results revealed that 2–6 year-old U.S. children can name and report about their favorite media characters, who were the target for assessing parasocial relationships. Factor analyses indicated three components of children’s parasocial relationships:attachment and friendship,humanlike needs,andsocial realism. Although the internal consistency improved with age onattachment and friendshipandsocial realism, only theattachment and friendshipsubscale reached conventional acceptable levels of internal consistency. This study provides a new method for operationalizing children’s parasocial relationships through child interview and describes future research directions for improving the internal consistency of the child subscales. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Does media use define the experience of childhood? The present article, based on Jordan's Presidential Address at the International Communication Association's 66th annual conference, argues that while we often view media technologies as dividing generations, it is equally valuable to consider how they connect generations and enhance their well-being. It highlights the challenges of systematically studying youth and media in this way, particularly in an environment where 'everyone's an expert' and judgments are based on personal experiences. The article concludes by arguing that as a field we must recognize that the experience of 'childhood' is not monolithic. The study of media in children's lives must reflect the familial, economic, social, political, and geographic contexts in which they develop. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior research in the third-person effects domain has shown that people who believe in harmful media effects are more willing to engage in preventive or accommodative strategies, such as censorship. This research extends that supposition by testing a thus-far unstudied strategy: negative evaluations of media companies. Results show that an overall belief in harmful media effects is connected to negative evaluations of the media companies potentially responsible for those effects. The third-person perceptual gap is not related to these negative evaluations of media companies, suggesting important differences between third-person effects research and influence of presumed media influence research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the ways young children’s use of mobile touchscreen interfaces is both understood and shaped by parents through the production of YouTube videos and discussions in associated comment threads. This analysis expands on, and departs from, theories of parental mediation, which have traditionally been framed through a media effects approach in analyzing how parents regulate their children’s use of broadcast media, such as television, within family life. We move beyond the limitations of an effects framing through more culturally and materially oriented theoretical lenses of mediation, considering the role mobile interfaces now play in the lives of infants through analysis of the ways parents intermediate between domestic spaces and networked publics. We propose the concept of intermediation, which builds on insights from critical interface studies as well as cultural industries literature to help account for these expanded aspects of digital parenting. Here, parents are not simply moderating children’s media use within the home, but instead operating as an intermediary in contributing to online representations and discourses of children’s digital culture. This intermediary role of parents engages with ideological tensions in locating notions of “naturalness:” the iPad’s gestural interface or the child’s digital dexterity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article investigates the portrayal of children in Albanian television news and introduces the term “adult gaze” to describe the construction of news items in such a way as to reinforce the perspectives of adults on children. Journalists choose to construct news items related to children by focusing the story around an adult figure, most often a politician, and giving his/her views on the issue being discussed, which points to unequal power relations between children and adults. A monitoring process over a period of three months was carried out for three national television channels. From a total of 4416 news items, 154 items were identified and were subject to further quantitative and qualitative content analyses. Based on our findings, news media portray children in limited roles as objects of emotional appeal, victims or performers. How news media think of and represent children can play a crucial role in shaping our perceptions of them and their positioning in society. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article presents a roundtable discussion on mass media for children and relationships between adults and children. Participants include scholars such as Natalie Coulter, Daniel Thomas Cook, and Henry Jenkins. Emphasis is given to topics such as the representations of children in mass media, age socialization, and young people's engagement with consumer culture.

This article examines Disney Infinity, a toys-to-life game launched in 2013. Billed as "a celebration of infinite creativity" ahead of its release, Infinity is the only toys-to-life platform that incorporates open-ended world building into play. It is designed to emulate kids' physical play by allowing them to mix and match characters and elements from disparate story worlds in a virtual environment. The essay considers Disney's use of children's creativity as an economic strategy, arguing that the company's deployment of creativity is exemplary of the term's rhetorical appropriation by industry stakeholders across contemporary children's media culture. Exploring the game's promotional materials, in-game features, attributes of gameplay, and aesthetics, the article situates Infinity within the broader toys-to-life market, demonstrating Disney's interest in creativity, particularly in the wake of heightened interest in STEM and STEAM initiatives, it suggests that Disney's creativity is complex and, at times, contradictory and that it relies upon a romanticized notion of children as "unruly" players. Making Disney characters and iconography available for user-generated appropriation, Infinity attempts to reframe creativity within the parameters of its own intellectual property. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this research was to explore media exposure of preschool children (1 - 6 years old) and outline demographic factors affecting it. The data show that media exposure of children in kindergartens is low. Parents, however, report much more diverse media habits of their preschoolers in their home environments. Even though the daily average media exposure of preschoolers in Slovenia does not deviate much from the recommended one, a group of children called large media users is identified. Understanding specific features of large media users can inform the development of early childhood educational programs and projects intended to raise awareness and educate parents and children about media, which are currently still a rarity in Central and Eastern Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to a social cognitive theory, children may learn to function through processes of modeling and observational learning, with parents and the media being the significant sources of socialization and learning in the home environment. Adolescence is a period when children progressively look for autonomy and independence. One of the important research questions is whether adolescents utilize screen-based media with or without parental monitoring and limit-setting. This exploratory study examines socio-demographic factors associated with parenting (i.e., co-using, limit setting on the amount, limit setting on contents, and active mediation) in regards to television and video game usage during adolescence. Participants were 799 adolescents (5th to 12th graders) and their parents. Results indicate no gender differences in parental monitoring, but age/grade differences were found with less parental monitoring (more autonomy or independence) of older children. Parental monitoring also differed by ethnicity and by household income. Asian parents were the most restrictive while Hispanic parents were the least restrictive. Parents also reported more active mediation or engagement in families with higher household income. Findings initiate consideration of parenting styles in adolescent media usage, which have implications for adolescent adjustment and developmental outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]