Partner Update: Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood Adopts New Dream’s Kids & Commercialism and Kids Unbranded Programs and Assets
February 19, 2020
For over 15 years, New Dream has supported parents, educators, and caregivers with practical tools and resources to take action to reduce exposure to harmful advertising, media, and other manifestations of commercialism. Our Kids & Commercialism and Kids Unbranded programs equip parents, educators, and caregivers with the background they need to best understand how manipulative marketing unfairly targets children, what the impacts are, and how to avoid it.
We’re excited to announce an important update to these programs. Our longtime partner, Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC), has officially adopted New Dream’s work in this area. CCFC is committed to helping children thrive in an increasingly commercialized, screen-obsessed culture, and is the only organization dedicated to ending marketing to children. Their important work actively supports parents, educators, and caregivers navigating this complex media and marketing landscape, and also takes aim at the manipulative practices of corporations through advocacy campaigns and policy change.
Going forward, CCFC will be posting updated versions of our Kids & Commercialism resources all year long at www.commercialfreechildhood.org, where you can also sign up for their newsletter to get updates on new programs and resources. New Dream and CCFC will continue to partner on shared programming, including advocacy campaigns and tools for grown-ups who care about the well-being of children.
And, CCFC has some exciting new resources to share. Check them out and sign up below!
Webinar: Take My Phone, Please! College Students on Devices, Anxiety, and Real Connection
February 25, 2020 at 7:00 p.m. Eastern (US and Canada)
In the ongoing conversation about smartphones and teen anxiety, there’s often an important voice missing: teens themselves! Join CCFC, media professor and Action Network advisory member Joni Siani, and Joni’s students live from Manhattanville College in New York for a conversation about the role of devices in young people’s lives and what it takes to be well in a hyperconnected world.
With students’ personal experiences as a jumping off point, we’ll discuss:
- How Professor Siani got hundreds of college students to go a week without their phones or social media platforms.
- The emotional and physical changes students felt after their week-long challenge.
- The most common mental health challenges among college students, and how we can address them.
- Strategies that actually help teens change their digital habits.
- How to approach device and screen time issues with young people collaboratively, instead of imposing top-down rules.
Whether you’re dealing with some device anxiety yourself, or you’re a parent or teacher who wants to help young people navigate the challenges of a digital social world, this fun and engaging conversation will be extremely helpful!
Screens in Schools Action Kit
Practical tools to use as you communicate with neighbors, school decision-makers, politicians, and anyone else you believe needs to be educated on the issue of over-reliance on screens in schools; this Action Kit has been created by the Screens in Schools work group of the Children’s Screen Time Action Network. The Action Network, formed in 2017, is a coalition of practitioners, educators, and advocates working to promote a healthy childhood by reducing the amount of time kids spend with digital devices.