Wednesday, February 09, 2005
Childhood for sale
Your children are being preyed upon. Not by pedophiles, but by advertisers. And it is not benign.
Two new books catalogue some disturbing trends:
By 2002, US children between the ages of 4 and 12 spent over $30 billion in purchases, up from $6.9 billion in 1989;
Shopping has become one of kids' main leisure activities;
Advertisers are invading school classrooms;
Advertising has created sexualised sub-teens;
The main ambition of most kids now is to be rich or famous;
Relationships with adults are being endangered;
Sex, crime, drinking and drugs among young children are all increasing.
In other words, there has been a hostile take-over of children.
Despite the gloom, though, the article concludes that there are encouraging signs that kids themselves are beginning to shake off the pit they have got into.
Your children are being preyed upon. Not by pedophiles, but by advertisers. And it is not benign.
Two new books catalogue some disturbing trends:
By 2002, US children between the ages of 4 and 12 spent over $30 billion in purchases, up from $6.9 billion in 1989;
Shopping has become one of kids' main leisure activities;
Advertisers are invading school classrooms;
Advertising has created sexualised sub-teens;
The main ambition of most kids now is to be rich or famous;
Relationships with adults are being endangered;
Sex, crime, drinking and drugs among young children are all increasing.
In other words, there has been a hostile take-over of children.
Despite the gloom, though, the article concludes that there are encouraging signs that kids themselves are beginning to shake off the pit they have got into.
