Overview: National Conference on Kids and the Media
Media consumption presents a daunting challenge for raising and educating kids and youth in the new millennium. Today, young people inhabit an environment saturated and shaped by a complex "mediascape" that envelops them day and night. Roaming among TVs, the Internet, iPods, movie screens, cell phones, and video games - and often engaging with one or more simultaneously - American kids spend far more time with media and entertainment (more than 45 hours per week on average) than they do in direct contact with their parents or in school.
How do we look at media and entertainment today, and what is their impact on kids and families? What are the ethical standards that govern media content for kids? How do we harness the best that this new media environment has to offer and turn it into an agent of productivity, education, and human development? Which media and entertainment are good for kids' health, and which aren't? How do we define and govern the roles for key stakeholders?
Common Sense Media and The Aspen Institute will bring together some of the best minds in the worlds of media, entertainment, policy, business, education, community, and public health to discuss the impact of media and entertainment on kids and families. Scheduled for February 2007 in New York City, this conference will be sponsored jointly by The Aspen Institute and Common Sense Media, the nation's leading nonpartisan organization dedicated to improving the media lives of kids and families.
Media executives, leading policymakers, and experts in kids' and family media will collaborate to generate innovative solutions for the aforementioned questions as part of an ongoing commitment to creating a healthier media environment for kids. Our short-term goal is to create the most significant national discussion on the impact of media and entertainment on kids and families. Our long-term goal is to build a consensus focused upon creating a healthier media environment and understanding the impact of media on the development of children.
Specifically, our conference programs will focus on these four objectives:
- Building a sustainable, ongoing awareness of media as a public health issue for children and our broader society.
- Leveraging the power of the media and entertainment thought leaders to drive positive change.
- Bringing together leading researchers, media opinion makers, policy makers, public health officials, and community leaders and activists for an ongoing dialogue on the impact of media on kids and youth.
- Highlighting the latest trends and impacts of the media environment on kids and disseminating this information to a broad media and public audience.
