Hi everyone!

Most of you must be aware of these 2 stories in recent news - (1) how sugary breakfast cereals have been cleverly targeting kids (http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/...-cereals_N.htm), and (2) how Disney has admitted that their Baby Einstein videos do not increase intellect (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/24/ed...baby.html?_r=1) - they are offering refunds to buyers of Baby Einstein videos! Adults and kids are gullible alike

The TIME magazine article on sugary cereals reported that "each year preschoolers (ages 2 to 5) see an average of 507 cereal ads that are designed to appeal to kids. "

It is shocking indeed! Media watchdogs do need to crack down on such blatant exploitation of children. There needs to be some policy in place to promote safe TV viewing for kids. At the same time, I think serious thought should be given to media literacy as a new literacy for kids. Robust curricula will help make kids critical of, and less vulnerable to, messages in media, especially advertisements. There are many people and organizations working on this issue, but I guess concerted action is needed!
I work hard to discuss these issues with my kids. Here are a couple of articles I found to be very useful for this purpose - http://www.thesmartbean.com/magazine...ption-by-kids/ has very useful guidelines on safe media consumption, and http://www.thesmartbean.com/magazine...ages-in-media/ - "Defense Against the Dark Arts: Teaching Kids to be Critical Consumers of Media" has concrete ideas that all kids must be made aware of, in my opinion.

I think we need to start by regulating TV time, and then educating our kids on how to be savvy about what they see and hear on TV (and in print media). (I guess they need to be a little older before they can discern such subtleties..)