The Children’s Media Foundation – working to improve media choices for UK kids

Children's Media Yearbook

The 2018 edition of the children's Media Yearbook is available now.

Published by CMF, this sixth Yearbook is packed with articles on the way children watch, the latest trends in content, research outcomes, policy discussions and news of success and innovation in every field of children's media.

It's available to download (cost: £7.95), or in hard copy which delivers within a few days (cost: £10 + p&p).

 

Making the Internet Safe

The UK Government has announced the next phase of its Internet Safety Strategy. It outlines their conclusions based on responses to the public consultation on the Internet Safety Green Paper and their plans to move towards a White Paper before the end of 2018.

The CMF response to the Green Paper is here.

The House of Lords Communications Committee is also conducting an inquiry into potential regulation of the internet.  CMF contributed to this in May 2018.

Ofcom Review - Is Regulation on the Way?

CMF has responded to the Ofcom Review of Children's Content which help decide the extent to which it should regulate ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 to commission more children's programmes. This response was in part informed by the CMF event  held on 24 January to discuss these issues. The full response can be seen here.

Contestable Fund - for Children's Content

On 30th December 2017 the DDCMS announced that the proposed Contestable Fund for Public Service Content will focus on the children's audience.

This is a major success, following intense lobbying over several years  by the CMF - first, to create awareness in politicians that a fund was needed, and secondly, to ensure that the fund proposed early in 2017 should dedicate the whole of its £60m resources to the children's audience.

Woking hand in hand with the children's television tax incentive and potential new regulation by Ofcom, this is a major step forward for children's media makers in the UK and will be of significant benefit to the children's audience. The CMF response is here.

The DDCMS and BFI are now considering how the fund should be operated and firm proposals are expected in the summer.  CMF will continue to ensure that the UK children's and youth audience get best benefit from the new funding on offer.

Research

CMF's Research for Parents answers parents' concerns about their kids' media use, with an accessible explanation of the most respected current research.

"Children, and the media they use, are frequent topics of public concern and debate. The Children's Media Foundation will stimulate and participate in this debate - across the entire range of media that children experience."

Philip Pullman, Author and Founder Patron,