Media Advocacy for UK Children and Young People

The UK Children's Media Plan

Following our debate at the Children's Media Conference - "The YAC Fund - What Next?" CMF is supporting the development of a comprehensive plan for children's media in the UK.

The CMC Debate

Latest on the Plan

Young Audiences Fund Closure

CMF co-ordinated a campaign to save the Young Audiences Content Fund.

Campaign Open Letter

YAC Fund - the Facts

Campaign Coalition members discuss the success of the YAC Fund in this podcast.

Podcast

Public Service Media Report

Explore the CMF multi-authored Report: Our Children's Future: Does Public Service Media Matter?

About the PSM Report

Report Articles

Latest Campaigning

CMF is a member of the Children's Coalition pursuing child-focused amendments to the Online Safety Bill. The coalition has written to Secretary of State Michelle Donelan MP urging her to bring the stalled Bill before Parliament right away as otherwise it may fail to pass into law during this Parliamentary session.

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.

CMF responded to Ofcom's consultation on their plans to "Modernise the BBC's Operating Licence". Essentially the plans would take BBC children's content out of regulation and there would cease to be quotas requiring orginal programmes. CMF objected on a number of grounds.

All CMF campaign activity is listed here.

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:

Yearbooks 2020 and 2021 are also now available for the first time as print copies.

Young Audiences Fund Campaign

The Young Audiences Content Fund was closed by the then DCMS Secretary of State Nadine Dorries in January 2022. CMF convened a campaign group of industry bodies, children's media professionals, academics and creatives to send an Open Letter to Nadine Dorries.

The campaign generated significant political support including questions in both Houses of Parliament and at Select Committee hearings. CMF met DCMS Media and Creative Industries Minister Julia Lopez in April and there's some evidence that the government may take some action on the representations they received.

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.

More research partnerships and events will follow in 2023.

Our Children's Future - CMF Public Service Report

The Children's Media Foundation has published a comprehensive, multi-authored report into the future of public service content for children and young people. You can download the full report or read individual articles.

"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,