Japan to introduce "fasting camps" to ease "internet addiction" rates in children

I came across an interesting article in the Daily Telegraph about the rise of “internet addiction”.  We often hear from older generations about how being a kid today is so different than it was in a time past.  Kids have mobile digital devices wherever they go and some seem to think that screen time has supplanted the critical physical and social development skills that playing outside with the neighborhood kids used to provide.  Others argue that digital devices have opened a world of possibilities in education, access and reach.  The truth probably lies somewhere in the middle. 

In the meantime, to combat the rise in increased screen time, Japan’s Ministry of Education is introducing “fasting camps” to help “children overcome their addiction to the online world”.  The Ministry estimates that 500,000 of Japanese children (Ages 12-18) are addicted to the internet and to reduce this figure, children will attend the camps to re-learn the basics of outdoor activities and team sports.  The camp will also provide psychotherapists to help ease the emotional burden of disconnecting. 

While the “fasting camps” may marginally reduce “addiction” rates, is it really possible to turn back the clock on the digital revolution?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/10267303/Japan-to-introduce-internet-fasting-camps-for-addicted-kids.html

Marketing and the Psychology of Media

In a “Psychology of Media” class I am also taking we have discussed the influence of advertising on children, specifically relating to advertisements made for children.

It is pretty obvious that advertising attempts to influence our reality in order to get us to purchase a product. If it works well with us, how much more successful is advertising with children, especially as they interact with other form of media beyond television such as the Internet?

In the article by Ali, Blades & Oates (2009), “Young children’s ability to recognize advertisements in web page designs” the authors discuss a research which has been done with children in the U.K. and Indonesia ages 6-12. As the Internet has become a growing medium for advertisers to market to a younger audience, the authors examine how well children can accurately recognize an advertisement on the Internet, and discuss how the results from their study have implications for theories on how children develop an understanding of advertising on the Internet and how they could be made more aware of marketing messages on the Internet given the increasing time and importance it plays in children’s lives.

Also for us as marketers, it is important to know and understand to what extent children actually recognize ads and how they respond to them. The fact that children can identify an advertisement does not mean that they understand the nature of advertising. Investigating the effects of unrecognized advertisements on web pages is an important issue for future research, because children’s increasing use of new media means that they are more likely to be exposed to advertisements that they do not recognize as marketing messages.