For the week of 4.17.06   

Previously, Culture Watch detailed the tremendous efforts which American retailers, many of them toy companies, are making to market cellular telephones to children as young as six years old, exploiting the youngsters' naïveté and desire to be "grown-up" in order to sell them new technology. But cell phones are only one of the myriad of technological devices now being sold to pre-teen children by corporations voracious for new markets.  Indeed, such marketing has already seen tremendous success in submerging children beneath a wave of technology.

A survey of children between the ages of 6 and 14 reveals that nearly 70 percent have televisions in their bedrooms today. Nearly half (49 percent) have videogame systems in their bedrooms, 46 percent have VCRs and 37 percent have DVD players, while 35 percent have cable or satellite TV service.  24 percent have personal computers, 18 percent with Internet access in their bedrooms. The study found that the high percentage of TVs in kids' bedrooms probably accounts for the skyrocketing levels of TV viewing among children. In 2005, children ages 6-11 watched 23 hours of TV a week according to Nielsen, up from to 21 and a half hours 13 years ago. (New York Post, November 6, 2005)

"Kids rooms are becoming kind of like mini-media centers." -- Ron Geraci, Nickelodeon head of research (New York Post, November 6, 2005)

In addition to the Barbie Phone, Mattel is marketing other technology aimed at children. At this year's American International Toy Fair in New York City, Mattel unveiled multiple new items for the child market, including a handheld digital video camera entertainment system for children 8 to 12. Called the Vidster, the camera can capture up to 10 minutes of video that can be played on a television and edited with simple software that allows children to create their own movies out of video clips. (New York Times, October 13, 2005; BusinessWeek.com, February 18, 2005)
 

Mattel is not alone in pursuing young buyers. Disney is selling its own line of digital audio players, called Mix Sticks, for six-year olds. The device allows the child to download music from the Internet or copy it from a CD. Hasbro, which gave the world G.I. Joe action figures and Tonka trucks, is marketing the Vcam Now, a digital video camera aimed at children 8 and older that can snap still photos or make short movies; the Zoombox, a portable video projector which broadcasts DVDs onto a wide range of surfaces; and the I-Dog, an MP3 accessory which wiggles in response to music and doubles as a speaker for a digital audio player. (New York Times, October 13, 2005)

Retail toy sales dropped 3 percent in 2003 and again in 2004 and declined 5 percent in 2005, while sales of children's electronics rose 40 percent in 2004 to $694 million. As a result, retail firms have moved to capitalize on the trend toward children's electronics. Best Buy is experimenting with a children's technology section in several of its stores. Toys "R" Us, which used to operate a department called Teentronics, has dropped the word "teen" and adopted "electronics and music" to better appeal to younger consumers. And Target has devoted a section of its toy department to what it calls "Tech Toys." (New York Times, October 13, 2005)

Toymakers have always designed products that allowed children to mimic adult activities, but until recently such toys were only imitations which allowed the child to "make-believe."  Today the adult product and the child's are virtually identical, a fact which may break down one of the last barriers between children's play and adulthood.

"There is a whole muddling of what is means to be a child." -- Gary Cross, Pennsylvania State University professor and author of Kids' Stuff: Toys and the Changing World of American Childhood. (New York Times, October 13, 2005)

Critics of this trend say that such technology, because it is designed for specific uses, offers only a narrow range of activities and limits children's imagination and creativity. Also, the fact that most such devices are designed for a single individual rather than a group reduces their value as a tool for teaching children how to share and solve problems. There is also the possibility that children will pass up the kid-friendly version of such technology and move directly to desiring the adult version, a trend that analysts have already seen with laptop and home computers – thereby further undermining the distinction between childhood and adulthood.

"Too much technology in a toy reduces time spent developing the social, personality and character skills needed for life." -- Marianne Szymanski, author of Toy Tips: A Parent's Essential Guide to Smart Toy Choices (New York Times, October 13, 2005)

From sex education for first-graders to ever more graphically violent movies, television programs and videogames aimed at teens, across contemporary culture a trend has emerged which urges children to think and to behave in ever more adult ways. While obviously a cell phone or camera is not as great a threat to a child's innocence as a pornographic movie or first-person-shooter videogame, still parents might wish to consider the desirability of their children listening to the siren song of gigantic corporations, which urge these innocents to leap from Sesame Street straight into a digital lifestyle, bypassing toy stores on the way. 

"If [technology] carriers want to grow their base, ultimately, it will come from kids and teens." -- Julie Ask, research director at technology company Jupiter Networks (AdvertisingAge.com, July 27, 2005)

Culture Watch - Entertainment Industry News

The Parents Television Council - www.parentstv.org