Public Policy Leadership
Common Sense Media helps families by providing age-based media reviews and information, so that parents can make smart choices about the media in their kid’s lives. We also work to give families a voice – and ways to encourage policymakers, media companies, and others to improve the media environment for all kids.
Common Sense Media Policy Priorities
Digital media and technology play an enormous role in the lives and learning of our nation’s children. As a nation, we must use the best media and technology – from digital literacy and citizenship programs to digital tutoring and distance learning – to transform our schools for the 21st century.
At the same time, we must recognize the potential dangers of media. Kids today spend 45 hours per week with media and technology – far more time than they spend in school or with their parents – and some media messages and content can be harmful or inappropriate for kids of different ages.
The Common Sense Media policy agenda aims to empower parents, teachers and young people themselves to take control of the media and technology in their lives, in order to help keep kids learning, thriving, and safe.
- Promoting Digital Literacy and Citizenship – Key to 21st Century Learning and Online Safety.
- Addressing the Major Public Health Issues Related to Media
- Improving Consumer Tools and Ratings to Empower Families to Make Smarter Choices
Federal and State Legislative News
Common Sense Media recently filed comments in response to the Federal Communications Commission’s Notice of Inquiry (NOI) for the Child Safe Viewing Act. The NOI explored technologies and tools that parents can use to protect children from media content that the parents find indecent or objectionable.
Common Sense CEO Jim Steyer recently testified at the Senate Commerce Committee hearing on Rethinking the Children’s Television Act for a Digital Media Age.
Common Sense submitted video testimony to a recent Federal Communications Commission staff workshop on how broadband access can improve education.
Additional Information About Policy and Research on Kids and Media
Digital Literacy and Citizenship in the 21st Century is a Common Sense Media White Paper outlining strategies for educating, empowering and protecting America’s kids in the 24/7 media world.
The January 2009 Common Sense Media report, Broadcast Dysfunction: Sex, Violence, Alcohol and the NFL, found that one out of every six commercials shown during Sunday pro football broadcasts contained messages and images that were inappropriate for young kids.
In December 2008, Common Sense Media and the Department of Clinical Bioethics at the National Institutes of Health released The Impact of Media on Child and Adolescent Health.This meta-analysis reviewed 173 quantitative studies, and found that in 80% of the studies, greater exposure to media was associated with negative health outcomes for children and adolescents.
