What can you do to help your child become media literate when it comes to advertising?

Our world today is inundated with media. It is difficult to escape it, or protect our children from it (and should we?). There are many types of media, and within any type there is the good, the bad and the ugly. What we really want to do as parents is offer the good to our children, while keeping out the bad and ugly. As they grow, we must teach our children to do this for themselves.

Advertising exposure often promotes unhealthy behaviors. Children are exposed to more than 40,000 ads each year just on television. From one-quarter to one-third of television programming consists of paid advertisements and this seems to be increasing. The Kaiser Family Foundation reports that nearly half of all TV advertising consists of ads for candy and snacks, sugared cereals, fast food and soft drinks. We as adults have the skills to understand that purpose of ads, but studies have shown that children under the age of 8 may not be able to distinguish between ads and normal programs.Children learn to recognize brand logos as young as age two or three, and advertisers target them to develop brand loyalty from an early age. All this junk food advertising is likely contributing to the increasing obesity epidemic among our children. Not only does this advertising promote unhealthy eating habits but it also results in children wanting food at times when they are not hungry, thus causing them to eat more. In addition to increased caloric intake, television watching often replaces time spent in more invigorating activities - resulting in fewer calories expended.

While companies spend less on internet and video game advertising than on TV, these ads appear to be ever increasing in prevalence and taking a more interactive approach. 'Advergaming' is a new term to describe the myriad of free video games targeted to children on the internet. The cost to companies is far less than television spots and the children have repeated exposure, reinforcing the message, while playing the game over and over. These websites are usually kid-friendly and therefore may not be blocked by internet filters.

So, how can you help your child begin to understand advertising? The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that all parents become media-literate and teach media literacy to their children. Media literacy involves analyzing the messages and images in the media. Labeling the purpose of an advertisement or identifying product placement in movies or on the internet helps empower the media user to objectively consider what they are viewing. Parents who are media literate can make better media choices for their children. However, since media is such and integral part of our lives from a very young age, media literacy should be incorporated into everyday life, as part of a child's education.

What can parents do?

• Carefully select programs and watch with your child. Look for opportunities to teach media literacy as you watch - you can point out advertising or product placement.

• As stated above, young children have difficulty distinguishing between programs and commercials. To help them to learn the difference, you can play the “What are they trying to sell?” game. If you allow your children to watch ads, have them try to guess what the ad is trying sell. This game can help to teach your child that this is the only purpose of advertisements.

• Monitor internet use by putting the family computer in a central location in your house where you can view the screen as you move about. This way you can be aware of what your child is viewing and playing.

By Susan Mims co-author of The Triumphant Child - A practical guide to raising two, three and four year olds

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