Electronic Media, Children's Use of

As long as there have been media, children's content has been offered. Never before, however, has such a vast array of electronic media been targeted toward young consumers. These media include traditional media (e.g., television, radio, and recorded music) as well as computer and wireless media (e.g., Internet, video and computer games, cell phones, personal digital assistants, and instant messaging). Children's use and comprehension of media content change significantly from preschool through adolescence. This entry reviews children's electronic media use in four age categories: young children (0 to 6 years), older children (7 to 10 years), young teens (11 to 14 years), and older teens (15 to 18 years).

Across these stages of childhood, several themes emerge about media use. First, it is clear that this generation of children lives in a media-saturated environment. Ninety percent or more of American homes own a television, a VCR, a radio, a CD player, and a telephone. Nearly two thirds of families with children now own computers and video game players. Second, higher percentages of children report that they own their own media hardware, much of which is stored in their bedrooms. Increasingly, a typical home includes multiple televisions, radios, and CD players. A third theme concerns the environment in which children use media. In many homes, media are on most of the day, competing for attention as family members interact and engage in work and play around the house. Finally, television and music still dominate the media mix in most children's lives. However, the Internet and new wireless technologies occupy a growing portion of children's time, changing the way children deal with information, family members, and their peers.

Studies by the Kaiser Family Foundation, the Annenberg Public Policy Center, and the Pew Internet and American Life Project all document a remarkably consistent picture of this media-laden culture. Children in those studies were reported to spend an average of 6½ hours per day with all media combined. Screen-based media (e.g., television, computers, video games, videos) account for about two thirds of that total. A typical child spends 25 hours with television every week. Those numbers increase when children live in single-parent, minority, or lower-income homes, or with less educated parents. The same is true for what researchers call a “TV-oriented” home, one in which the television is on most of the day (including mealtimes) and in which the parents have few rules for children's television use. This environment has been linked to heavy use of television, video games, and the Internet. These aggregated statistics, however, mask the shifts in children's media use from infancy through adolescence.