The Children’s Media Summit ’24
We believe today’s children’s audience should be given access to the same range of culturally relevant, trusted and life-affirming content that was made available to previous generations. But that has to be in a form and on platforms that reflect the way children and young people live today.
The Children’s Media Summit in February 2024 considered the significant changes in the way young people discover and watch content, and how this impacts on their development, mental health and emotional well-being.
The Summit was hosted by the Children’s Media Foundation. Sessions can be seen on the CMF YouTube Channel.
The Summit was created as a response to concerns expressed at the July 2023 Children’s Media Conference. A series of meetings with broadcasters and industry and producers’ associations during Autumn 2023 led to the event on 28th February 2024, which involved industry professionals, academics and children’s advocates.
Ofcom research presented at the Summit confirmed that online video-sharing platforms are the main viewing destination for millions of UK children. While many of their experiences are positive, the services are not regulated to support culturally relevant, public service content. Children are no longer consistently experiencing content that connects them to UK culture and society and validates their place in the world. The Summit agreed this is affecting young lives, has implications for society as a whole and will lead to a lack of interest in public service media and values in the future.
The Summit produced a campaign document which outlined the issues and suggested a number of proposals. This had widespread support, and was used to lobby Parliamentarians and inform Ofcom – as the regulator launched its Public Service Media Review. You can sign to support the campaign here.
In Parliament the Summit document stimulated three attempts to amend the Media Bill to ensure that the unique situation in children’s media is urgently investigated. The amendments were not passed but the campaign ramped up with the arrival of the new government in July 2024.
Since the passage of the Bill, CMF has revised the briefing documents to update them and include research references. These are the briefing papers submitted to government and Ofcom in December 2024.
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