The Kahuna Speaks:
During National Library Week this past April, I delivered a talk to parents, educators, and librarians entitled "Our Children's Future in the Digital Age." Here is a condensed version of its contents:
After fifty years of controversy over the impact of television on children, a new line of media is emerging that will have an even greater impact on them. At present, one million children are using the World Wide Web, and 3.8 million have access, with this figure rapidly growing. This vast digital universe will transcend the family, the local communities, and even the nation.
The dazzling graphics and engaging interactivity of this new multimedia of technologies will make them potent forces in the lives of children. And, if harnessed properly, the computer could enhance a child's drive to learn, provide access to a rich diversity of information and ideas and enable them to reach across community and national borders. On the other hand, the perils have the potential to further compound problems that have existed such as manipulative forms of advertising, virtual shopping malls, and video game channels.
We, all of us, are a part of this formative stage in developing the new digital age as government policies are debated and enacted, programming strategies are being developed, and services for children are being designed. However, history offers us cautionary lessons. Enthusiasts have hailed every new medium from radio to FM to television to cable and satellites with claims they will invigorate our culture, expand educational opportunities, and enhance the democratic process. None has lived up to these claims. In fact, in each case, powerful commercial forces have used civic values to gain support for the new medium--and then squelched the very policies necessary to serve public good.
In the wake of this new media, critical issues that have a significant long-term effect need to be addressed. First, digital media will become an integral part of daily life. Those individuals, especially children, without access to the communications system are likely to fall behind in education and will be unable to compete in a highly competitive job market. And yet, according to a 1994 survey, eleven percent of families with incomes less than $20,000 have a computer as opposed to fifty-six per cent of families with incomes above $50,000. In the United States, one in ten children, under the age of six, lives in a home without a telephone. The disparity between the information rich and information poor is dynamic and far-reaching. President Clinton, in his 1993 'Agenda for Action' has called for all schools, libraries, and hospitals to be connected to a national information infrastructure by the year 2000. However, only a handful of government programs have emerged, and most of these programs rely on private, voluntary efforts to meet this goal. In addition, even if more schools and libraries have computers, those in lower income strata will still be at a disadvantage due to lack of access at home.
But access isn't the only challenge. The quality of this new media culture for children also raises concern. Unlike TV, online media are dynamic and two-way. The participatory quality of computers is compelling to children. Such technological break-throughs as real-time audio, real-time video, and virtual reality modeling language are transforming online media and eventually could supplant traditional television as the most powerful and influential medium in children's lives. Marketing to children has become a multi-billion dollar business as the direct spending power of children has risen rapidly in recent years. In 1995, "Interactive Marketing News and Youth Markets Alert" cited the following statistics: children under 12 years of age (in the U.S.) spent $14 billion and teen-agers another $67 billion. Together they influenced $160 billion of their parent's annual spending.
New online services are being developed in the context of this highly commercialized children's media culture. As Saatchi, leader in the online kids marketing field proclaimed, "There is nothing like it for advertisers to build relationships with kids." Major advertisers now have web sites in which children are encouraged to come and play with such products as Ronald McDonald, Kellogg's Snap, Crackle, and Pop, and Chester Cheetah.
We, parents, educators, and librarians, need to develop standards for this new media whereby children will be able to play and learn without being subject to manipulation or exploitation. Everyone from child advocacy groups to parents and other constituencies needs to understand what may seem to be a highly technical subject.
We have the opportunity to influence the design of new interactive services for our children. New models need to be explored by an alliance of non profit organizations, artists, film makers, and educators. This is the ideal time for efforts to insure this new medium serves the needs of our children. For once it is firmly entrenched, it will be almost impossible to change.
Let's begin today to create a rich electronic legacy for future generations.
Liz Bryson, http://www.cfht.hawaii.edu/~bryson/children.html
Return to Contents page.
Created by: Laurel Kristick, August 1, 1997
Modified by: Laurel Kristick, August 6, 1997