This is newsworthy for kids - literally!

Check out this online resource Scholastic News Kids Press Corps!  It is current events and news reporting from a team of about 50 Kid Reporters from around the nation - "...reporting for kids, by kids."  Limiting violence and advertising and from a child's perspective - nice!  Check out the information/application on becoming a Kid Reporter too!

Frappacinos, Alcopops & Food Marketing to Kids

I, as all who know me will attest, am a coffee-addict. I will happily microwave days-old coffee before going without, and a latte is a standard indulgence. My children have been dragged on many a "mom needs coffee" expedition. So it should not be surprising to me that the preteens in my world are curious about caffeine or see drinking coffee as a way of entering adulthood.  For some kids, coffee and other stimulants are used to get all their homework done and still play sports and still do it all again tomorrow (in Race to Nowhere they claim that stimulants/ADD meds are the new drug of choice among high school students).  But, there are other forces at play too.  In 2007, Starbucks changed their previous "no marketing to kids" policy and rolled out fancy-pants caffeine laden drinks topped with whipped cream - they acknowledged their goal was to get the youth market and get them good (and for their whole lives).  And, drinks like AMP and Red Bull (and ) have sophisticated marketing campaigns and big budgets aimed at hooking kids. 

Frappacinos as gateway drug?  Frappacinos as a fun and frothy treat?  Once again, I find myself uncertain about how to best allow space for normal experimentation and provide healthy limits or feedback.  Food -- actually, that stuff that passes as food but is really more a perfect cocktail of sugar, fat, salt and crunch -- is such a fraught topic, I started to wonder if there is anything to learn from the research on other substances. 

• Maine Youth Action Network offers a ton of links (more than I can go through right now) on youth & substance abuse prevention
• Fact sheet on marketing alcohol to youth
• Maine Parents Resources (from Maine.Gov) for addressing substance use with kids
• Toys encouraging Alcohol Use by Children 
• Center for Science in the Pubic Interest on Alcopops / Marin Institute on Alcopops
• Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood's resources on food marketing  
• Sociological images analysis of how cartoons shape younger kids perceptions of cereal.

And a few resources on caffeine & other drinks (I don't understand brain science enough to know how much information effects kids behaviors and choices but it seems worth giving them the chance to assess the situation for themselves, to recognize that while they might be bucking the rules of their parents they are capitulating to the desires of adult corporate marketers?)

• NYT : A Century Later, Jury’s Still Out on Caffeine Limits  (they also offer a whole lesson plan - I've forwarded to the body-mind-spirit team)
• Berkeley Media Group : Alcohol & Tobacco Marketing to Kids in the Digital Age
• Washington University "neuroscience for kids - caffeine" 
• USAToday on research about the health effects of "Energy" drinks

Finally - some media literacy & food programs/sites to help teach kids to take on the marketing:

• Media Smart Youth : Eat, Think & Be Active (a NIH program) 
• Berkeley Media Group - Fighting Junk Food Marketing (a pdf) 
• Lesson Plan on Beer Commericals & the Superbowl 
• Media Power Youth - curricula on media & nutrition (among other things)

Media, Techonology, and Parenting Dilemmas

Adults sometime describe teens as "Digital Natives" because they've grown up with social media in a way that my generation (gen-x, that is) did not.  Gen-Y /The Millennials (born 1981-2000) and Generation Z (awful name, they'll rename themselves, I'm sure)  have digital technologies surrounding them and take internet access as a given.  Yet the term Digital Native is fraught, for me, because it somehow presumes that kids will be acculturated appropriately simply through immersion. In fact, digital media is tied intimately with corporate control and does not constitute a culture so much as a hyper-planned-and-highly-profitable-gated-community (oh anthropologists among us, please give me the proper term!) as well as the foundation of opportunities for the emergence of new democracy. As parents and educators, we want to reap the best possible elements of new technologies while protecting our kids from significant invasions of privacy, cyberbullying, and brain-fragmentation.   Below is a collection of interesting articles & links - no definitive anything.  I think this topic could be great fodder for parents to come together around!

General Info 

• PBS Digital Nation links for Parents and Teachers - includes streaming of their documentaries on growing up digital (we could watch together) - this site has all the links a person really needs
• Pew Research on Social Media & Teens (2010)  
• Common Sense Media on Teens and Social Media
• MacArthur Foundation research on the benefits of teens time online - links to tons of resources as well

 Curriculum & Scaffolding for Teaching Media Literacy

• DigitalLiteracy.Gov - the new federal portal for educators  (MacArthur Blog Post about it) 
• National Association for Media Literacy Education (they are hosting a conference in July in Philly) 
• Action Coalition for Media Education
• Media Education Foundation - films that are provocative / good conversation starters
• American Library Association Teen Tech Week Resources

Tools for Connecting Kids to Digital Media

• The Power of the Connected Classroom - using digital media to promote social justice education
• Parenting in the Digital Age - a Pro-Tech blog 
• NYT Technology Resources 
• Twitter Resources for Teachers 

Arguments for Reducing Kids Access / Exposure to Screens / Digital / Social Media

• Merriconeag's list of articles around brains & screens -- especially resources from Lowell Monke  (a pdf) and  18 and Under: Fixated by Screens, but Seemingly Nothing Else
•  Michelle Borba on practical tips for monitoring kids online like what POS means) 
• The Dumbest Generation  / The Shallows  books about what the internet is doing to our brains