The genius of Bluey isn’t just in its characters and stories of family life. The hit show’s soundtrack sets the mood, plays with the narrative and draws on classical scores.
Designer Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen teaching an art class as part of the BBC’s lockdown education programming.
BBC/Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen
Bright, kinetic and celebrity-studded, the BBC’s schools output has got the tone right for teaching a generation of screen-addicted youth.
At critical developmental periods when young children are learning about themselves, others and the world, they are frequently seeing pain portrayed unrealistically in kids’ TV shows and movies.
(Shutterstock)
In children’s media, pain is depicted alarmingly frequently, usually unrealistically and often violently, but without empathy or help. These images of pain send all the wrong messages.
The complex user-generated nature of YouTube content for kids is proving difficult to control for the online giant, who have been issued with a US$170 million fine for breaching children’s privacy.
Amid endless reviews into the future of local screen content, uncertainty reigns on issues such as the impact of Netflix, the fate of local content quotas and funding for original children’s TV.
It’s not just how characters look. How they talk and the role they play have a profound impact on kids, who are quick to categorize characters as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ based on superficial qualities.
Scenes from the early days of pop music, Horrible Histories-style.
CBBC
More than 300 hours of content are uploaded to YouTube every minute - and many children’s clips are unauthorised, sneaky or even disturbing. Being aware is the first step.
My Little Pony fan, Michael Anderson, a Brony, at the Dragon Con science fiction and fantasy convention in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, in 2014.
EPA/ERIK S. LESSER
For decades, parents have fretted over ‘screen time,’ limiting the hours their children spend looking at a screen. But as times change, so does media… and how parents should (or shouldn’t) regulate it.