The Children’s Media Foundation (CMF)

Category: CMF Newsletter

Why We Couldn’t Wait: Launching Children United and TVCU

It’s easy to talk about what’s best for children and their media but all the while, children are growing up and missing out.  But while many talk, others get on with doing.  On last November’s World Children’s Day, something very special, but very quietly happened.  Nicky Cox MBE tells the story. Children’s media is at […]

Industry

Regulate, regulate, regulate!

Over the festive season and around the world, a few new laws came into force that one way or another affect children and their media providers.  CMF executive committee member Jackie Edwards takes a look at them and offers a timely reminder. On the 5th January 2026 new legislation came into force in the UK […]

Industry Policy

From recognition to real-world change: children’s rights in the digital environment

As childhood becomes ever more deeply shaped by digital technologies, the LSE’s Digital Futures for Children (DFC) Centre marked World Children’s Day on 20 November 2025, by convening a public lecture and expert roundtable to focus on a critical question: what difference has the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child’s General Comment No. 25 […]

Research

Children’s Media Production: Where do we Stand?

From May to July this year, CMF Executive members Dr Ashley Woodfall, Associate Professor in Children’s Media and Deputy Head of the Centre of Excellence in Media Practice (CEMP) at Bournemouth University,  and award-winning producer Terri Langan, Head of Hello Halo Kids, asked people working in UK’s children’s media what they thought about the general […]

Industry Research

Can same‑language subtitles help children learn to read?

Only a few studies have tested whether same-language subtitles help children become better readers, and their findings are mixed. To provide an evidence-based answer, the Nuffield Foundation recently funded two large-scale studies at the University of London’s Department of Psychology.  In this article, Dr Anastasiya Lopukhina & Professor Kathy Rastle discuss their findings. It’s an […]

Research

British Screen Forum Annual Conference 2025

On 19th November, the British Screen Forum held its annual conference.  Media consultant and CMF Board member, Helen McAleer went along to listen and report back. It was a day packed full of panels and keynote speeches and debate from some of the highest calibre professionals in the screen industry. The keynote was presented by […]

Events Industry Policy

Losing Our Stories: Why Britain Must Fight for Its Children’s and Family Film Future

Multi-award winning film and TV producer and CMF Executive Committee member, Ken Anderson is working with partners across the UK to strengthen the Children’s & Family Screen Sector.  He offers a timely reminder that securing children’s media content on all platforms includes the big screen and that  UK’s children’s and family film is of, not […]

Industry Policy

Sky Kids

Michael Rose OBE pays tribute to Sky Kids’ commissioning successes, the closure of which places even further strain on the already beleaguered children’s content industry in the UK. At the CMC in July, talk was inevitably rife about the crisis in children’s television and the forthcoming Select Committee Inquiry into its future. Just a few […]

Industry

Biddy Baxter MBE 1933-2025

On behalf of the Children’s Media Foundation, Joe Godwin pays tribute to one of the all time greats of children’s television, Biddy Baxter who sadly passed away in August. My relationship with Biddy had two phases, many decades apart. As a child, I knew her because twice a week this unusual name appeared at the […]

Industry

Closer Than Ever…

Jenny Buckland, CEO at the Australian Children’s Television Foundation, on the ups and downs of regulatory and funding support in Australia, and the inevitable similarities in audience migration across the world. Although we’re at the opposite ends of the planet, these days we are perhaps closer than ever, since the whole world can watch The […]

Industry Policy

Previous Posts Next posts

The Children’s Media Foundation (CMF)