Sue Scheff: Understanding the Power of Media & Its Effect on Kids

By Connect with Kids

Selling Children: How Media Affects Kids

The 31.6 million kids in America today represent the largest generation in U.S. history. These kids – who collectively spend $200 billion each year on products and are a major target for advertisers and marketers – are recipients of a “marketing campaign that never stops.” Messages about body image, self-worth and sexuality are everywhere in advertising. What is their impact on the health and well being of children and teens – and their parents’ wallets?
Experts agree that too often television, music lyrics, movies – and the advertising messages surrounding them – sell discontent, playing upon our children’s youthful vulnerability. They say that media literacy, learning to understand these messages, can actually help kids learn to think for themselves.

What can you do to help your children understand the power of the media – and become more critical thinkers?

Watch Selling Children: How Media Affects Kids with your kids and learn ways to help kids become more aware of the underlying messages: how to decode them, question them and, ultimately, understand them.