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What are the problems with children and the regulation of new media?
With access to new media such as internet, and games becoming more portable, fashionable and easily reached, it is thought by some that the regulations used to protect the younger generations are not strict enough. For example some now seem to pass the blame of aggressive and disruptive children onto the child’s video gaming habits, hypothesising that a child that spends a great amount of time on an aggressive video game, will have more aggressive tendencies than a child who does not. Those opposed to this idea would disagree due to the lack of evidence, and even evidence supporting the usage of video games to help areas of social development. The progression of new media has meant that a large amount of young people have access to a computer, and the internet (90% of children aged 5-16 now have a computer at home, childwise 2008), however the worry is what is now available to these young people, and how content is being regulated.
Regulation of new media includes parental enforced filtering of internet and gaming, certifications of films and video games, but also regulations such as age restrictions on sites, for example you must be 13 to join social networking sites such as “Habbo Hotel”, a prominent discussion is how easy it is to overcome these restrictions ? On websites such as “Habbo Hotel”, the participant is asked for a date of birth to prove they are over the restricted age, some say this is not enough due to the easiness of cheating the system. I will look at the topics of certifications, filters and research into the effectiveness of regulatory systems, by Byron (2008)
The discussion of whether new media technologies, such as video games have an adverse effect upon young generations is controversial due to the high usage of these games, and the fairly low-key regulation of them. Regulation of video games includes certificating each game to an age range, this is decided by looking at how much sexually explicit, and violent content there is in the game. The Byron report of 2008, suggest that the certification of video games and films should be done by one labelling system as opposed to two individual companies, as the different labels can be unclear and confuse people. Furthermore in her report, Byron found that many parents bought their children video games that are rated too old for them. The fact that some parents are willing to do this, shows that the regulations that are in place are weak as underage children still have access to films and video games that they should not be seeing. Furthermore this topic of the regulation of film and video’s was sensationalised in 1993, with the murder of James Bulger, and the suggestion that the murderers may have watched a horror film rated beyond their age before the incident. However this claim was later proved wrong, yet the this fact got little media attention, furthermore the lack of evidence for violent video games and films causing violent children isn’t published often, yet is considered the more evidentially supported view.
The internet is possibly the most difficult piece of new media to fully regulate, large global companies such as Google freely admit that ‘no filter is 100% accurate’ for regulating inappropriate content. Again in the Byron (2008) report, she puts forward the idea that an independent council should be made who can manage the regulation of new media, she also says that there should be more supervision over the internet and interactive video games, especially those which allow for internet access and instant messaging.; and that parents should have more control over what their children watch, online sites and also that hardware creators should talk about better ways to regulate online content. The regulatory company Ofcom found that 99% of children aged 8-17 have access to the internet (2008), showing that nearly all of young people today have access to sites, yet some might say that the regulatory systems for the internet have not been modernised along with the media.
Of course the obvious problems with the internet and regulatory schemes are that they are not fully regulated. A problem that was found, again in the Byron report of 2008, was that parents felt their children had more education in using new technologies such as the internet, than they did. Byron put forward the idea that parents should be taught ways of enforcing filters and regulations on computers and games with access to internet. The risks that have taken over these new technologies, are those such as internet bullying, with ‘happy slapping’ video’s being published regularly on YouTube. Sexual predators having unlimited access to social networking sites such as facebook, bebo, myspace, twitter and blog’s, with very little regulation of who can and cannot sign up to these sites, besides a questionnaire at the beginning of the signing up process, giving age restrictions, yet there is no way to tell if the person signing up is telling the truth. Furthermore the risk that younger children may come across sexually explicit content on the internet is high due to the large quantity of this content on the internet, and with very little control over who can reach this. Byron found that younger children finding this kind of content upsets them, yet there isn’t evidence for long term effects, she found again that there was little evidence for the idea of violent video games causing aggression in children.
Some parents who are able to use internet filters, such as Google’s, have opposition from younger generations who argue that social networking sites, although open to the general public, are used to make new friends, and stay in contact with friends, and most social networking sites such as Bebo have a “report abuse” button on the page at all times, and facebook settings can be set to private, so only people you know can see your profile. Furthermore with the progression of the accessibility to this new media, came the phenomenon of internet and games on mobile phones, if you have a phone with internet access and are on a contract, then your mobile phone company enforces a filter on social networking sites, and on sites where it is mainly user generated content, such as youtube. David Gauntlett suggests that when looking at censorship of today’s media, a look at freedom is also necessary, he proposes a look at John Stuart’s Mills’ theories about freedom of expression, if this is applied to modern media then people may feel that regulating what content younger people can and can’t see is an infringement of this, and also that the younger generations should be allowed to get a clear image ofcertain realities, even if it is from purely user generated content such as youtube. Byron (2008) however would oppose this suggesting that the regulation and filtering is necessary due to the fact that younger children’s brains are not fully developed yet.
There are many problems with the regulation of the new media, regarding children, with cyber bullying, online paedophiles and sexually explicit content, some arguing children are just not ready to have the full responsibility of having free reign over the internet, and that filtering and regulation is necessary to protect children from harm. Some also worry that as the world of media 2.0 expands, reality in children’s lives diminishes, and is replaced by computers, with social networking sites, avatars and second life; therefore hindering children’s social and cognitive development. With all the recent technology advancements it is hoped that regulatory systems will now be bought up to date to be able to deal with these worries.




Bibliography:
• http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/byronreview/pdfs/A%20Summary%20for%20Children%20and%20Young%20People%20FINAL.pdf
• http://www.childwise.co.uk/childwise-published-research-detail.asp?PUBLISH=53
• http://www.abc.net.au/rn/lifematters/stories/2009/2773953.htm

• www.wikipedia.com
items searched for:
1. James Bulger
2. Video games
3. Regulation of internet
4. John Stuart Mill
5. Freedom

• www.google.com
items searched for:
1. Google safety tips
2. Regulation of internet and video games
3. David Gauntlett