Kids’ constant companions

Most mornings, Hattie Marshall, a fourth-grader who lives in Costa Mesa, wakes up at 7 a.m. to a kiss from her mom and a show from Nickelodeon or Disney in her room. When she’s not at school, playing sports or hanging out with friends, television is a nearly constant companion.

“I eat dinner when I watch TV with my family,” she says. “Most of the time I watch TV when I’m doing my homework.” When she’s taking a bath, she watches movies on her hand-held DVD player balanced on the toilet.

None of this will surprise parents or teachers who are familiar with the media sea in which children swim daily. Despite the lure of computers, Internet and video game-capable cellphones, television still rules most children’s media lives. In fact, according to a report on children’s media use, released on Wednesday, the most avid young consumers of computers and video games still watch more TV in any given day than their peers.

How they watch television, however, is changing. Many (40%) say that “most” of the time they’re doing something else while watching TV, and more young people typically watch cable than broadcast.

The Kaiser Family Foundation report, “Generation M: Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-Year-Olds,” found that on a typical day, two-thirds (69%) watch cable, which is unregulated by the federal government, while less than half (49%) watch broadcast, which is. The figures represent a reversal of the situation since 1999, the last time Kaiser reported on children’s media use, and could be significant for those concerned about the indecency debate.

“Kids are packing more and more media into the same amount of time,” about 44 hours a week, said Kaiser’s Vicky Rideout, who directed the study. “That means they’re exposed to more and more mass media messages from the outside world.

“For parents, policymakers and children’s advocates, we all need to be thinking about cable and factoring that into the equation,” she said.

The results were based on a survey of 2,032 students from public and private schools, conducted from October 2003 to March 2004. The questionnaires about media use, filled out voluntarily in classrooms, were anonymous and analyzed by staff at the Kaiser Family Foundation and researchers at Stanford University. The margin of error was plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.

The report did not draw any conclusions on how media “multi-tasking” or cable use affects children. Although they spend, on average, three hours and 51 minutes a day watching TV and videos, the study found no correlation between TV viewing and physical activity or their reported grades in school.

Even the 20% who watch TV more than five hours a day read as much as the others.

In fact, the young people who spent the most time with all types of media also reported spending more time being physically active, with hobbies and with their parents.

There is one activity that appears to lose attention because of television: homework. Young people who watch the most television spend 19 minutes less per day on it, the study said.

While cable premium service and VCRs and DVD players are now available to most children, there are distinct differences among children of different ethnicities and races when it comes to television use and computers. Latinos and blacks spend more time watching TV than white children do, the study found. But they have less Internet access. Though 4 out of 5 white children can tap into the Web at home, 61% of black children and 67% of Latino children can.

One reason for the increasing appeal of cable is that its producers seem to know what kids, particularly tweens, want, said Kathryn Montgomery communications professor at American University in Washington, D.C. “Cable has created a market clearly targeted at kids, and broadcasters haven’t.”

As cable evolved, family-type shows like “The Brady Bunch” were replaced by shows targeting specific market segments like tweens, said Sean McNamara, co-founder of Brookwell McNamara Entertainment, which produces “That’s So Raven.”

“Disney is devoted to audience testing and retesting, and discovering what this market is,” he said. “Our shows revolve around what’s going on in kids’ lives. Parents are secondary characters.”

Paralleling the growing popularity of cable with children, the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), earlier this month told an approving crowd at a National Assn. of Broadcasters conference that he aimed to put the same indecency restrictions on cable that have caused broadcast networks to tone down their content since Janet Jackson’s bare breast appeared on CBS last year.

Meanwhile, the cable industry has vowed to protect its 1st Amendment rights and claims parental controls are already sufficient to protect children from racy content. “We will oppose any efforts to impose regulations on cable programming,” stated Paul Rodriguez, director of communications at the National Cable and Telecommunications Assn.

Ten-year-old Hattie describes herself as “sporty, yet what I wear is girly.” She wants to be a singer and an actress and has memorized many lines from movies and lyrics from songs.

Her favorite shows are “That’s So Raven,” “Zoey 101” and “SpongeBob SquarePants” -- all available on her parents’ basic cable subscription and some on other platforms.

“That’s So Raven” follows a young girl with psychic abilities. “If she has a vision of going out with a boy she likes, she tries her hardest to make it happen,” the girl explained. Disney also has a video game version and an interactive website, which Hattie logs on to when her computer is working.

Although those hoping to regulate cable want to protect children from cable’s racier content, others see cable as a haven from inappropriate commercialism widespread on the networks and creeping into public television under the banner of “enhanced underwritings.”

“You need to inform parents, kids, educators and pediatricians so they can be more sophisticated consumers,” said James Steyer, chief executive and founder of Common Sense Media, an online media guide for parents. “Parents and educators need to be much more critical thinkers about content, look at what’s in it rather than limit the sheer volume. You can’t censor everything.”

Indeed, the media sea appears to be rising. Some cellphones already include video gaming, e-mail capability, digital cameras, Internet connections and pay-per-call voice services that might contain X-rated content.

Hattie said that most of her friends already have a cellphone, particularly if they need to keep in touch with parents in different households. She has asked her parents for one.

“They said if I’m responsible, I could get one in a little while,” she said.

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A generation of multi-taskers

Youths spend the equivalent of a full-time job -- about 44.5 hours every seven days -- consuming media. And they are handling the increase in media options by using more than one at a time. These are the findings of a nationwide poll of 2,032 youths, ages 8 to 18, conducted from October 2003 to March 2004.

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Time spent by 8- to 18-year-olds (daily average): Hours:minutes

Using one or more media: 6:21

Hanging out with parents: 2:17

Doing physical activity: 1:25

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Use of individual media (daily average): Hours:minutes

TV and videos: 3:51

Listening to music: 1:44

Using computers: 1:02

Playing video games: 0:49

Reading: 0:43

Watching movies: 0:25

Note: Time spent cannot be summed, due to some simultaneous use.

*--* Changes in media use 1999 2003-04 Watch cable TV 50% 69% Watch broadcast TV 69% 49% Have cable or satellite TV in their homes 74% 82% Homes have subscriptions to premium TV channels 45% 55% Homes have Internet access 47% 74% Use instant messaging* -- 66% Number of DVD players sold in the U.S., in millions 5.5 60** Have VCR or DVD players in their rooms 36% 54% Have cable or satellite TV in their rooms 29% 37% Have Internet access in their rooms 10% 20%

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Source: Kaiser Family Foundation

* Average time spent text messaging was 17 minutes a day.

** Data are for 2003 only.