The BBC, children, and mobile phones - what do you think?

[Rhubarb]

Since coming back and watching children's programmes with dd after school I've noticed an awful lot of mobile phone advertising on CBBC. The presenters encourage children to text in answers to competitions, Newsround encourages them to text in opinions and so does Blue Peter - that was all in just one evening within the space of an hour.

A recent report has shown that half of all 10 year olds own a mobile phone, rising to 90% by the time they are 12. On average a child aged 11 - 17 sends 9.6 text messages a day and half of all girls aged 15-17 admit that they are addicted to their mobiles.

Reports on the potential damage done to children's brains by mobile phones and mobile phone masts are inconclusive, teachers say that children are completing essays in "text speak" and mobile phone companies are being heavily criticised in their marketing techniques aimed at young children. So considering all of this, are the BBC not being a tad irresponsible in encouraging the usage of mobile phones by their young viewers?

Opinions please!

Well I thought it was an interesting discussion point! Huh!

Well I am a parent who is resisting at the moment - if the children are going somewhere they need a phone they can borrow mine. But don't get me started I'm on one today with regard to children becoming old before their time and just generally being owerwhelmed with excess.

I agree completely. They are also being given email addresses and told to email the programmes.

Children are being pushed into a grown up world far too soon and I do think they will suffer social skills problems later on in life because they are not encouraged to go out and play with each other! They are being told instead to stay at home, watch tv, email and text.

the bbc likes texts as a whole though, especially the news and radio programmes. i don't mind it though my sons don't really watch cbbc

Ooooooh who's a smug mummy then! Don't tell me you let them watch trashy ITV instead?

blimey no we have zillions of channels hahah

evil mummy!

"reports" on the damage done to children's brains ?

I've not seen one, except of the form "no evidence found".
I've seen a couple which actually indicate that rats brains work better when given the level of exposure you get from phones.
I'm not suggesting this as a way of making your kids smarter

I recall when Noel Edmonds did the first episode of "Swap Shop" in the early 70s , so many kids rang in that they crashed the exchange near the BBC, then the one next to that, screwed large bits of the BT network.
Was funny in it's own way...

totally agree with you rhubarb
however, what annoys me more than the mobile phone advertising, are the constant ads for loans direct and other such companies on childrens channels. why would the average three or four year old watching nick junior need the services of a loans company?
'mommy, i need the latest plastic crap' 'sorry hunny, we cant afford it' 'mummy just get a loan out'

and dont even get me started on the compensation ads

stitch are you in the usa (I am) or is that happening in the uk?

uk im afraid mrsA
sad isnt it?

I agree with stitch - my two youngest love the programms on Nick Jnr, but the ad breaks are far too long and I hate all those loan ads. It's amazing how much they pick up on it. The other day I picked up the post and there was a letter from Esure my DD aged 4 and not able to read said - oh you've got a letter about car insurance. I asked her how on earth she knew that and she said she'd seen the mouse on tv talking about it!

It is bizarre that 5 year olds get offered cheap loans

As I understand it, this is because there is a lot more kids programming than adverts for them.

One deal is that the TV station gets a rake off from each policy or loan sold, or sometimes a per call fee. They don't directly charge for showing the ad.

Thus they use these adverts as filler, on the off chance their parents are watching with them.

This doesn't make for big revenues of course, which is why non-BBC kids programming is so densely packed with adverts yet is done very much on the cheap.
I suspect Dr. Who had a greater budget than the whole of Nickelodeon for the year.

But what there isn't...
Is a sort of Seasame Street on a larger scale.
A channel with mildly educational content but with the attractiveness of the trashy TV.

Coul;d be done cheaply(ish). For instance teach langauges by showing Thunderbirds in French.

Far more fun.
Instead of "Jean Paul and Claudette go into the garden. Look ! there is Bruno the dog !"

we'd have "Run for your lives ! the bridge is falling into the river and will explode !"

I do this with DS a little, and he quotes bits of Shrek in French "Je suis an Ogre", sort of thing.

I see no need for younger kids to have a mobile - my rule with DD1 was she'd have one when she was out on her own ie at secondary school, so she had the freedom to call and say if she wanted to go to a friend's house, or if an after school club was cancelled etc.

CBeebies are pushing the website too much now in my opinion - it's great that there are these free resources for computer games but with DD1 almost a games obsessive I'm trying to keep the 3 year old away from the PC more. yet in Jessops the other day, she saw the computers there for printing your own pics, and told me that she needed to go on the internet to play games! She's never yet played the games as they look a little complex for her, but she knows where to find them ("it's another way to play...")

Regarding the adverts, they drive me mad too but we are lucky enough to have Sky Plus, so I pick the best of the other channels (we are big CBeebies fans) and stick them on record, so we can watch and fast forward the ads.