Sleepwalking Over The Edge
The Media Bill does little to support content for children. This CMF event on May 17th explored why public service content is vital for the well-being of young people and the future of UK society.
Media Advocacy for UK Children and Young People
Evaluating the Evaluation
What does the Evaluation Report for the Young Audiences Content Fund tell us about the future of public service media for young people? View this CMF event from 22 February for a better understanding.
Public Service Media Report
Explore the CMF multi-authored Report: Our Children's Future: Does Public Service Media Matter?
Sleepwalking Over the Edge - CMF Event 17th May 2023
This public event explored the consequences of the "lost audience". As kids in ever greater numbers desert public service media channels for YouTube, TikTok and the streamers, what are the implications as they reach adulthood - for them as engaged citizens, and for society if there is a generation of young people with no concept of public service media and its value and purposes.
Evaluating the Evaluation
This CMF event on 22nd February discussed the YACF Evaluation and consider how its findings will influence future thinking about public service media. Watch the full recording of the event here:
Media Bill Amendments
CMF is seeking amendments to the Media Bill - about to be put before Parliament. There is currently no reference to children anywhere in the policy background document issued by the government when planning the Bill. There need to be specific obligations placed on providers of public service media in the future to ensure content is made for kids and young people.
The policy background document mentions evaluating the 'Contestable Funding pilot' - what we call the invaluable Young Audiences Content Fund, now sadly closed. One of CMF's priorities for the Media Bill will be to ensure that this evaluation results in a new fund being created, financed from levies on the streamers and online platforms.
Latest Campaigning
CMF is a member of the Children's Coalition pursuing child-focused amendments to the Online Safety Bill. The coalition has recently tabled a series of amendments in the House of Lords where the Bill is in its committee stage. They are intended to protect children more effectively than the Bill currently provides for - particularly in relation to age-verification on pornography websites and the powers Ofcom will have to enforce good practice that will enhance child-well-being.
CMF is supporting an initiative to develop an ambitious new plan for a comprehensive strategy for children's media in the UK. This response to the loss of the Young Audiences Content Fund grew out of a meeting of minds at the CMF-produced debate at the Children's Media Conference on the future of public service funding for kids' content. Read about the UK Children's Media Plan...
CMF has joined the Broadcast 2040 Campaign to support the continuation of broadcast TV services until at least 2040.
All CMF campaign activity is listed here.
CMF - Listening to Kids
The Children's Media Foundation's Public Service Media Campaign is Listening to Kids.
Listening to Kids - Young Voices on Media Choices was the first of a series of events in which the voices of young people informed the debate on how public service media might be funded and delivered in the future. Kids Know Best talked to young people about their media choices and contributors to the CMF Public Service Media Report discussed the ideas.
Previously Dubit partnered with CMF on their State of the Nation's Kids research, exploring children's attitudes, preoccupations and concerns in their non-media lives.
CMF's research strategy revealed.
Children's Media Yearbook
The Children's Media Yearbook 2022 is packed with articles and research reflecting on the past year in children's media and the future of kids' and youth content. You can order a print copy for £12.50 or download a digital version for £10.
Take a look at the content list. And preview articles:
- Industry Under Pressure, Audience Under Threat
- Can we Help our Children Save the Planet
- The Metaverse: Words of Definition and Caution on the Word of the Year
Yearbooks 2020 and 2021 are also now available for the first time as print copies.
"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."
Sir Philip Pullman, Author and Lifetime Patron,
"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."