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By Mark Rais Today, neither parents nor government
are the primary influencers of childrens behaviours. As
much as parents and even those in government believe that
they have the ability to effectively influence childrens
motivations and actions, there is a far more effective
influencing agent at work in the hearts and minds of our
children. The bombarding of thousands of messages
across media has instructed children in ethics, moral
principals, and priorities often in conflict with those of
parents and government. A
Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation report on the exposure to
media messages sheds light on the true intensity. The report
titled Generation M: Media in the Lives of 8-18
Year-olds, notes that a typical 8 to 18-year-old is
exposed to 8.5 hours of recreational media content
daily. It is very difficult for either parents, or
government role models and authority figures (teachers,
counsellors, law enforcement officers) to effectively convey
information that is contrary to such a thorough barrage of
communication. Todays children are being programmed
through the consistency and proliferation of advertising
messages -- not in the dozens, or hundreds, but by the tens
of thousands per year. Children have always had a
tendency to reject authoritative voices. They have always
had a tendency to desire immediate physical gratification,
whether it is exercised in sex, alcohol, food, etc.
However, never before have parents and government had their
voice so thoroughly dampened by countless messages and
ethics of someone else. It is a very real war for the
hearts and minds of our children, a war fought between those
who care about how well children grow up to be adults and
those who care how well they grow up to be
consumers. What happens to a society when inner wants
are profoundly emphasised and constantly encouraged is that
there is an unforeseen and significant change in
behaviour. IGNORING AUTHORITY Children
may be instructed subtly to accept a desire or motivation
over what is a parental voice, or even the law. When this
is combined with the pressures and bullying that often
accompanies children among peer groups, the force to act on
negative desires is extraordinary. Not all
advertising pushes the boundary so far as to provide
teaching on a divisive form of ethics or morality.
However, there are substantive numbers of messages promoting
behaviours directly in conflict with the intent of parents
and those in government. Parents and government are
potentially seen as fundamental inhibitors to a childs
desires. As a result, parents and government become
the key barriers to selling products to children because
they have the power to: 1. Restrict the level of
influence a third party can have over desires and actions
2. Impede the successful conversion of marketing
dollars to product sales For this reason, many
messages are subtly encouraging children to challenge voices
that do not give them the coached desires. The result is
an increase in anti-social behaviour, because social
norms and authority voices are now considered negative
by such children. In a summary of how strong the
influence of advertisements are on children, a New American
Dream article
notes it is often the case for children nagging parents that
No Means No,Until It Finally Means
Yes." In a recent NZ Herald article
on violence and video games, it was reported that:
Ministry of Justice figures showed sharp increases in
the number of young people aged 14 to 20 caught by police
for violent behaviour in 2005 and 2006. Such
anti-social behaviour is increasing in prevalence throughout
New Zealand, in large cities and small communities alike.
It is substantive enough that leaders such as
Taupos Mayor Rick Cooper have begun new plans to respond
to the growing
anti-social behaviors. MASS MARKETING IS
EFFECTIVE In the United States alone, the
advertising market now exceeds
over $150 Billion per year. It is estimated that
approximately $12
Billion is spent for advertising explicitly targeting
children. Billions of dollars in advertising
expenditures targeting children occurs because it is
effective at influencing people. However, few are willing
to make the association between influencing children and the
results of their behaviours. A growing pool of
research now indicates that advertising is a significant
influencing agent, especially among children. In an article
in The Nation, Steven Manning reports: The sheer amount of
advertising [children] are exposed to today is "staggering
and emotionally harmful," says Susan Linn, a Harvard Medical
School psychologist who studies media at the Judge Baker
Children's Center in Boston. Todays advertising
is not simply creating direct links between consumer and
product. Instead, advertising has taken on a role as
ethical instructor. Advertising now poses as the role
model, mentor and cultivator for children. NOT
IN ISOLATION There is minimal quantifiable
evidence that a particular media message can invoke
anti-social or dangerous behaviour in children. However,
the reason is because marketing is not effective when
isolated in terms of a message, or an image, or one ad.
Effective persuasion occurs when multiple media are
used to convey multiple levels of the same message in
coordination. For this reason it is often
impossible to prove that a particular media message was
behind specific behaviour in a child. However, if
you observe a child, who for example may have a
predisposition to sadism, and then have that child observe
violence in ads, play violent video games, listen to violent
music, watch violent television shows, attend violent sport
events, and view violence in movies, a unique formula
appears. THE FORMULA Total
number of messages appealing to a desire in child
+ childs
susceptibility to that desire = likelihood of acting on that desire This is
a key formula for advertising, or it would not be a billion
dollar industry. Notice that even if a child has
negligible predisposition, they may still act on the desire
when exposed to sufficient messages. The point of emphasis
is that exposure to the message is a key
influencer. What few people understand is the cost to
society when children are exposed to so many, often
unhealthy or anti-social messages. THE COST IS
HIGH Having advertisements and media messages as
the primary influencing agents in the development of a
childs desires can directly impact the costs associated
with education, health care, law enforcement, justice,
corrections etc. The American Psychological
Association declared in a task
force report that television advertisements targeting
children leads to unhealthy habits and those children
are unable to critically comprehend televised advertising
messages. Another cost is the decline of
childrens maturation into productive and responsible
adults. This is not a new point. This
has been conveyed for some time by leading psychologists and
other medical professionals. The American Association of
Pediatrics recently took a direct stand against marketing to
children. In a policy
statement the AAP notes that, "Research has shown that
young children are cognitively and psychologically
defenseless against advertising." The Pediatric doctors have been
expressing their concern for years, including a statement from
their Committee on Public Education, stating that, In the
scientific literature on media violence, the connection of
media violence to real-life aggressive behavior and violence
has been
substantiated. CONCLUSION Today we
face an increasingly violent, sexual, anti-social messaging
that is targeting children. Of course, children have
always had a tendency to want to go around authority, to
play games and place fun over responsibility. However,
never before have the parents and the government had their
voice so thoroughly dampened by the messages and ethics of
someone else. The war we face to help our children
develop into socially responsible adults is not between
parents and government. It is a very real war for
the hearts and minds of our children, a war fought between
those who care about how well children grow up to be adults
and those who care how well they grow up to be
consumers. The most profoundly effective power both
parents and government have today is the power to protect
children from the bombardment of messages that are often
neither beneficial nor benign. The responsibility that
government has is to invoke and enforce laws that ensure
children are not the explicit target of media messages that
promote anti-social behaviour. Similarly, parents play an
important role in helping to encourage and protect children
from messages that are often not beneficial for their
development. Fundamentally, the real issue is whether
either government or parents understand that their own voice
is being replaced with the voice of another. |