Research has previously shown that children under the age of seven can’t tell the difference between ads and other content, and yet countless children using their parents’ smartphones and tablets are being targeted by advertisers.
Much of this advertising is being done with “manipulative and disruptive methods”, says the study’s senior author, Jenny Radesky.
“With young children now using mobile devices on an average of one hour a day, it’s important to understand how this type of commercial exposure may impact children’s health and well-being,” says Radesky, a developmental behavioural expert and paediatrician at University of Michigan’s C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital.
The study, published in the Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics, reviewed 135 different apps, many of which were clearly focused more on making money than on the child’s experience, despite often being categorised as “educational”.
Cornwall Council wants register of children ‘missing in education’
The Department for Education (DfE) has been consulting on the issue across England and said it would “respond in due course”
The report to the DfE by Cornwall Council said the “majority of parents and carers engage with the local authority readily” when they removed their child from school.
But it said voluntary registration of home schooling “allows some children to become missing in education”.
The council is calling for a compulsory register of those who are homeschooled.
And it is urging ministers to provide enough money so it can monitor and support home education properly.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cornwall-45358435
Teaching children without play was soul-destroying
To a child, play is serious work and the motivation to learn is intrinsic
One year, during Sats preparation, I watched as a number of my year 2 students cried because the paper was too difficult. I told them not to worry and to just try their best, but inside I felt dreadful. I knew that no matter how hard they cried, I would force them to continue. I’ve been a teacher for five years and I love working with children. But I’ve realised I don’t want to teach them any more.