Sarah Blunden
The interrelationship between media usage and sleep on the wellbeing of in children and young people
It is well known that poor sleep, (that is, not enough sleep and not good quality sleep) can have serious detrimental effect on the physical and emotional development, behaviour, performance and cognitive function of children and young people. It is also well known that media usage, that is the amount of media a children engages in and the content of that media exposure can also affect children’s social, emotional and cognitive development. When media exposure occurs at night, in the bedroom and/or is used as a sleep aid, it can displaces sleep time and can also have a detrimental effect in the quality of sleep. The interrelationship between these two factors, sleep and media usage and cumulative effect on wellbeing is likely to be more significant than when considered individually.
This paper will consider a number of issues including: Is it the amount of media usage or the content of it that is most disadvantageous?, will increasing knowledge about the contributing effects of media usage on sleep, effect behaviour change in young people and their families and what role does sleep education have to play in this?
Ed Donnerstein
The Mass Media as a Risk Factor for Aggression in Children and Adolescents
Youth violence, from schoolyard fights to cyber-bullying, is the result of a multiplicity of factors. Due to the complexity of these and many other contributory factors, numerous health and academic organizations have examined extensively over the years the multiple causes of aggression in society. Cutting across all these investigations was a profound realization that the mass media, particularly TV, film, and video games, is a contributor to increasing the risk for anti-social behavior in our youth.
The goal of this presentation is to review what is known about the harmful impact of exposure to media violence on children and adolescents. It will examine how much time youth spend with the media and the amount of violence they are exposed to, specifically the context in which it occurs. It will ask what the research community has concluded about the effects of exposure to media violence. Since this research indicates that not all violent portrayals pose the same risk of harm to the audience he will delineate those contextual features of violence that have been found by empirical research to either increase or decrease the risk of harmful effects on both child and adolescent viewers
Richard Eckersley
Miners' canaries and sacrificial lambs: young people's wellbeing and complex media effects.
Most research on young people and the mass media focuses on direct effects of specific features of the media, such as violence and pornography. It is also useful to consider the media's pervasive role in a wide range of social changes and their influence on young people's overall health and wellbeing. The orthodox view is that young people have never been healthier; mortality rates continue to fall, and most report that they are healthy, happy and satisfied with their lives. This perspective tends to run counter to claims of media harm.
However, a wider analysis of data on young people's health suggests it is declining, especially through increased rates of mental illness and obesity. The media are implicated in these trends in multiple and complex ways. One effect of growing significance is the increasing frequency, immediacy and vividness of media images of global threats such as climate change. These portrayals have consequences for how people respond to these dangers, both psychologically and socially.
Douglas Gentile
Researching the ratings: parents' views, issues, and the evidence base for greater effectiveness.
The US has had media ratings for over 40 years, but research demonstrates many problems with the systems as they currently exist.
The systems lack reliability and validity, and equally importantly, do not provide the information that parents say they want. Perhaps more importantly, not all depictions of violence or sexuality are potentially harmful, but most rating systems do not differentiate between different types of depictions. Recognizing the problems with the existing systems allows us to design the next generation of rating systems.
Elizabeth Handsley
'A CROC of questions: obstacles and challenges of implementing children’s rights in relation to media use’
Professor Handsley will explore the actual and possible legal and regulatory responses to the issues of children’s media use and well-being that have been identified in the conference. Obstacles to effective regulation will be identified, including political pressure, ideological objections, technological developments and doctrinal fragmentation. Insights from the broader field of children’s law, including the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, will be used to lay down some principles and challenges for future regulation to be effective, seamless and (most importantly) evidence-based.
John P Murray
Thoughtless Vigilantes: Media Violence and Brain Activation Patterns in Young Viewers
As a result of more than 50 years of research by diverse scholars and the use of diverse methods to study the media vilolence issue, there is an emerging consensus that video violence does contribute to aggressive attitudes and behaviours amongst those youngsters who are extensive viewers. One of the interesting recent developments is the emergence of a growing body of research on children's brain activations whilst viewing violence. The technologies used to evaluate brain response focus on the use of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which is a non-invasive method to view the human brain during the processing of information. This presentation will review the current interpretations of these new studies in the context of the 50 years of behavioural research.
Wayne Warburton
Not the Six O’clock News: Children and violent or upsetting media content
Is it OK for my 6 year old to watch the 6 O’clock News, or are they likely to find the content frightening? What is the long term result of watching and hearing a lot of violent or upsetting media content? Can exposure to this sort of media change the way my child thinks and feels about themselves and the world? This talk will provide the evidence from several decades of research into the short and long term effects of violent and upsetting media. One of the key findings that will be discussed is that high exposure to such media can lead to enduring biases in the way that people perceive the world. Such biases include a reduced trust in others, the tendency to interpret ambiguous actions by others as being deliberately hurtful, and a pervasive belief that the world is a frightening place. This talk will also provide age-appropriate suggestions as to how parents, teachers and other professionals who work with children can help them to benefit from media rather than be adversely affected by violent and upsetting content.
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