Empowered by Play » Sesame Street

Mitigating the Nag Factor

Geralyn — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 12:45:04 +0000

When my twin sons were just 3 years old they started begging to watch the Transformers movie, rated PG-13. They first learned about it when we were selecting “On Demand” shows for them to watch. The Transformers promo frequently appeared in the corner of the screen, offering endless enticing explosions. I couldn’t believe my little boys were actually interested. These were the same boys who huddled nervously in the corner of the living room while watching Grover climb a dark staircase on a Sesame Street video. They were scared of this – and now they were asking to watch Transformers?!

My husband was initially supportive of the idea, saying, “If it’s just robots blowing up other robots, not people, how bad could it be?” I was amazed, since I’d been telling him about media influences on children for many years. How could I be facing this dilemma before the boys had even reached their 4th birthday? How could these commercials for Transformers be bringing such an unwanted dilemma into our household? My husband decided to call some family friends – all of them parents who had seen the movie – for feedback. The replies were mixed, but mostly negative. So one night he and I previewed the movie while the little boys slept. Within minutes he was convinced: this was no movie for young children. The boys took the news pretty well, although one of them told us pointedly that his (imaginary) brother Kevin watches Transformers and his mom “is okay with that.” (My young sons had imaginary brothers, “Jake and Kevin”, who got to do all the adventurous things they were to young to do.)

Soon after this happened, we cut the cable and never looked back. That was four years ago. Cutting the cable was a strategy that worked for our family. It definitely help shift the power back into our parental hands. It is now much easier to control what the boys view through borrowing DVDs from Netflix, and the commercials the boys see are much, much fewer.

Above all, this cut down on the nagging – the incessant begging for things we didn’t approve of. Marketers have actually researched effective nagging as a way to increase their sales. (See Susan Linn’s Consuming Kids for more information about the 1998 marketing study called The Nag Factor.) Research has shown that marketing to children is a factor in nagging – as well as materialism, violence, eating disorders, childhood obesity, precocious sexuality, and more.

Cutting the cable may seem extreme to you and your family, but there are many other strategies that can help mitigate the issues surrounding excessive screen-time and marketing to children. In talking with other parents about these issues, here are some strategies that have worked:

Watch TV with your child; talk about the ads, stereotypes, your reactions, etc.
Limit TV time (such as no TV on school nights)
Only adults are allowed to turn on the TV or use the remote
Watch only PBS or pre-screened DVDs
Keep TVs out of the children’s bedrooms
Replace TV with reading
Go outside
Get messy!
Mute the commercials (teach the children how)
Talk about your values with your children and your extended family
Keep yourself informed and share information with others

If you are a frequent reader of this blog, you know that next Monday, April 18th begins national Screen-Free Week. Are you participating? Are your children? Does it seem impossible? Maybe turning off screen entertainment for a week seems too daunting at this point. If so, consider using Screen-Free week as a chance to experiment with some of the ideas above. You might use the event as a spring-board for conversations about media influences on children with your family, extended family, and friends. Does that seem do-able?

For more information about marketing to children, including easy-to-download fact sheets, check out the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood.

Click here for more information and blog posts on Screen-Free Week.

Read a related blog post: Two Good Reasons to Cut the Cable.

Sad news about $esame $treet

Geralyn — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 19:17:00 +0000

Once again, Sesame Street is disappointing me. A few months ago, when many, many people were celebrating Sesame Street’s 40th anniversary, I wasn’t. Check out my post “When did Sesame Street become $esame $treet? “ for more about that.

At tomorrow’s Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas, the world will be introduced to Nintendo DS gaming accessories from our dear friends at Sesame Workshop. The new line of Sesame branded products includes earbuds, ear phones and other completely unnecessary products that will lure young children and their families further into the plugged-in world and farther away from real human interactions. See today’s Kid Screen Daily for a bit more information about these new products.

It aggravates me to no end when companies that parents have trusted for years exploit that trust and sell products which replace healthy social and emotional connections and actually get in the way of quality play. Parenting is a hard enough job already. Shame on you, Sesame Street!

When did Sesame Street become $esame $treet?

Geralyn — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 20:55:00 +0000

The love-fest for Sesame Street is all-encompassing this week, as the show marks it’s 40th anniversary. Pardon me if I sit this one out. I was a toddler when the show began; and watched it on and off as a young child; then later as an older sibling (suffering through, pretending not to like it); later as a babysitter; and eventually as a mother.

As a child I enjoyed the light-hearted skits, especially the songs, but as a mom I am utterly disappointed in the company. My sons inherited a few Sesame Street videos and they watched them occasionally as three and four-year-olds: Elmo at the Fire Station was a favorite of theirs, I’ll admit. And just a year ago I discovered a cassette tape of Sesame Street alphabet songs that my sons and I listened to over and over again for about a week last winter, enjoying the energy the songs injected into our day.

However, I truly believe that Sesame Street has completely taken advantage of parents whose trust they have earned over the decades. Sesame Street has perfected the art of cradle-to-grave marketing. Their characters adorn countless products. A Google search for “Elmo toys” alone resulted in over 1,500,000 matches. Many of these are ridiculous, expensive and unnecessary toys, such as “Elmo’s Tickle Hands – Press Elmo’s nose for tickle or dance modes”, on sale at Walmart for $27. The Sesame Street characters sell anything you can possibly imagine, from pajamas to fruit snacks, and add to our culture of consumption. I’ve come to expect it from Nickelodeon, but from Sesame Street? Come on. Enough’s enough.

What really gets me worked up, however, is the line of baby videos and DVDs under the “Sesame Street Beginnings” name, which was launched in 2006. These videos, marketed for babies (ages 6 months and up), are an underhanded way of indoctrinating our youngest citizens into Sesame Street nation. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no screen-time for children under two years old. There is just not enough information yet about the potential harmful effects of screen-viewing on developing brains. These videos are for parents and babies to view together, but I wonder how many people actually watch with their babies. Why couldn’t Sesame Street stick to audio tapes and CDs for families to listen to together? Why promote screen-time? It just doesn’t make sense – unless Sesame Street is actually just trying to establish a viewing habit in the upcoming generation.

Ugh. I hate to be a party-pooper, especially since Sesame Street has done some good things. I love seeing the star clips (my favorite might be James Taylor singing “Jelly-Man Kelly”) and kids of all shapes, sizes, colors and abilities. I just wish Sesame Street hadn’t cashed in on their trust in such a shameless and harmful way.