ABSTRACT
How does one summarize the insights and propositions offered by so many well-intended professionals, from very diverse backgrounds, who share a love for children and a concern for their wellbeing? These concluding notes highlight some of the strands with which we can braid their thoughts together with my analysis, interpretations, and vision. First, as a general term of reference and set of criteria, we remind ourselves
of the communication rights of children, as delineated in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which include the rights to be heard and to be taken seriously; to free speech and to information; to maintain privacy; to develop cultural identity; and to be proud of one’s heritage and beliefs.1 Yet, whether boys and girls live in deprived and resource-poor societies, or in overwhelmingly commercialized and profit-driven ones, their voices are mostly neither heard nor taken seriously; they have limited possibility for free speech or access to much-needed information; their privacy is often not respected and their cultural heritage is often ignored or erased. This situation has led some concerned adults to seek to limit children’s access to media, to legislate the regulation and control of content, and even to advocate the use of direct censorship. Two alternative courses of action have been advanced by those who, too,
are concerned about children’s wellbeing, but oppose direct government intervention and the use of censorship: First, according to some proponents, parents should be encouraged to regulate and to mediate their children’s media use at home; second, children should be educated in their schools to become literate media users. However, the limited yet very specific research evidence gathered to date indicates that neither of these strategies has yet proved its efficiency in mediating the processes of meaning-making and in counteracting the type of values and worldviews promoted by much television fare.2
