CDMC: Little Known about Media's Effect on Children; Brownback, Lieberman to Sponsor Legislation to Study Role of Media in Child Development

4/9/2003

From: Erin Geisler of the Children's Digital Media Center, 512-475-8071, or 512-422-1886 (mobile), Dan Gerstein for Sen. Lieberman, 202-224-0414, or Erik Hotmire for Sen. Brownback, 202-224-0327

WASHINGTON, April 9 -- Child development experts gathered in Washington, D.C. today to raise awareness of the limited understanding of the impact of electronic media on children's development and the need for federal support for additional research.

The forum, sponsored by the Children's Digital Media Center, opened with addresses from Senators Sam Brownback (R-KS) and Joe Lieberman (D-CT), who announced their intent to introduce legislation to provide new research funding through the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHHD).

"It's not enough to just raise awareness - we must increase our knowledge," Lieberman said. "That means putting our money where our minds are and investing in new research. This is clearly an issue of national interest, and will only grow more relevant as our country fully transitions to a fully digital society and the electronic media expands its reach into every nook and cranny of our lives."

"Although our research base on the power of interactive media to influence children's learning and development is growing, it is still small," said Brownback. "If this nation wants to realize the best for its youth, then additional research funding is essential to provide the information parents need to make informed decisions about their children's health."

Since 2000, both large- and small-scale studies have been published on the penetration of children's in-home use of interactive media. These studies indicate that interactive media use continues to grow; yet very little academic research has been conducted on how interactive appliances, such as handheld games, interactive toys and wireless technologies, affect children.

"We have a paltry research base upon which to make judgments about the role of electronic media in children's overall cognitive, social, emotional and physical development," said Dr. Ellen Wartella, director of the Children's Digital Media Center and dean of the College of Communication at The University of Texas at Austin. "Despite the effects of television, video games and interactive entertainment products on children being a topic of ongoing public discussion, there is no federal agency charged with sponsoring funding for any kind of media research."

The video game industry is a $7 billion a year industry and growing, yet there is little research substantiating the educational claims of many of these products. Parents are left to make their decisions based on marketing assertions, not third-party research, and the little research that does exist about the effects of electronic media on children is limited to television.

"American children now grow up with electronic media at their fingertips. Yet there are important gaps in our knowledge about the role of media - especially the newer interactive digital media - in children's healthy development," said Dr. Sandra Calvert, a professor of psychology at Georgetown University and the principal investigator and director of the Children's Digital Media Center. "With federal funding to support more complete research, the NICHHD will enable researchers to further examine the role of media in children's cognitive, physical, social, emotional and behavioral development; and ultimately, empower parents, educators - and children - to make informed choices about their media consumption."

About the Children's Digital Media Center The Children's Digital Media Center (CDMC) is a four-university consortium uniting a national interdisciplinary community of scholars, researchers, educators, policy-makers and industry professionals whose goal is to understand and to improve the digital media environment in which children live and learn.

The CDMC is located at Georgetown University, University of California, Los Angeles, Northwestern University and The University of Texas at Austin, and is funded in large part by a five-year $2.45 million grant from the National Science Foundation. Additional funding comes from Georgetown University, the Markle Foundation, Northwestern University and The University of Texas at Austin. For more information, visit http://www.Digital-Kids.net