Federal Bill Aims to Study Media and Children

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Lauren Barack -- School Library Journal, 3/31/2006

While studies on television's effect on young children have been percolating since the advent of the tube, there have been few reports analyzing the impact of newer media forms, such as the Internet or video games.

A new bill before Congress hopes to change that, and gather more research on electronic media and the effect on children. Tagged the Children Media Research and Advancement Act, the bill proposes to create a joint program with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health. Grants would be given over a period of six years to study how media impacts a child's ability to learn and how it affects each child's social, emotional, physical, and behavioral development.

The bill is set to go before the Senate floor for approval. Details, such as the immediate cost for the program, have yet to be disclosed. Calls to both Senator Joe Lieberman (D-CT) and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY), who were among six cosponsors of the bill, were not returned.

But any research would be welcome, say those who work with students and educators on media literacy. "There is still a lot of uncertainty about effects of media on children, and on adults," says Frank Gallagher, assistant director of education for the nonprofit educational foundation, Cable in the Classroom, which is funded by the cable industry. "Educators, especially school library media specialists, need to teach kids a new literacy for the 21st century so they're not passively absorbing media messages but thinking critically about them."

"Kids are more and more connected to media, whether it's a cell phone and they're text messaging, or they're playing video games," he says. "This area is much less studied because it's a new phenomenon."