common sense media
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Apple adds curated podcast collections for kids
Four collections vetted by Common Sense Media are available today.
A parent's guide to raising a good digital citizen
"Do you know what you're looking at?" I ask my five-year-old and seven-year-old when we're on the iPad. "Yeah, yeah," they grumble as they swipe and tap during their 10-minute dip into deviceland. While we peruse pictures of dinosaurs or exploding volcanoes on YouTube or whatever it is that piques their interest, I ask a bunch of questions. Not surprisingly, they never know the answer to my favorite internet-safety question, "How do you know this one's not a joke?"
Apple backs news literacy programs in US and Italy
Apple is joining the fight against fake news by teaming up with three groups that offer news literacy training for young people. The company announced that the News Literacy Project and Common Sense, both based in the US, and Osservatorio Permanente Giovani-Editori in Italy would receive support from Apple in their efforts. "We've been impressed by the important work being done by the News Literacy Project, Common Sense and Osservatorio, empowering young people to be active and engaged citizens," said Apple CEO Tim Cook in a press release.
Kaleidescape teases movie download store; brings Rotten Tomatoes, Leonard Maltin to its servers
Last year at CEDIA we were introduced to Kaleidescape's iPad control app, and this year its back and enhanced with the addition of movie ratings from Rotten Tomatoes, and content rating info from Common Sense Media. Rotten Tomatoes can help viewers tell if a particular flick in their collection is any good, while Common Sense Media is built around detailed breakdowns of what potentially objectionable content is in each title so parents can decide what their children are ready to see. Both should reach end users with the free app by the end of this year. Another tweak it's adding to its movie servers is the Leonard Maltin Recommends Collection. It's a pack of movies updated quarterly (the 17-disc Blu-ray collection is available for the low, low price of $445) that the respected film critic feels are unappreciated greats, to which he adds his own thoughts, anecdotes and behind the scenes info. A more ambitious development however, is the Kaleidescape Download Store the company was giving an "early sneak preview" of behind closed doors. While its claim to fame has always been disc servers that store user's movies, making them accessible with as little physical media interaction as possible (and antagonizing the MPAA) its next step is a full digital media distribution service, potentially tied into UltraViolet. There's not a lot in the way of specifics, but it will be interesting to see how Kaleidescape and Hollywood get along when it comes to selling downloadable content compared to the old wars of the past, whenever the new service actually arrives for its high-end customers.
Study: 51 percent of American kids under 8 have played a console game
We're not sure which is more telling, the fact that just over half of all American kids 8 or younger have played a console game, or the fact that our initial reaction to that statistic was, "Wait, that's all?" Seriously though, 51 percent of anything in any statistical analysis is a drastically massive majority, even when it comes to a combination as natural as kids and video games. The study, published by the aptly named group Common Sense Media, claims that 51 percent of American children (8 or under) have played a console game at least once. Break that figure down further, and its research shows that 44 percent of kids aged 2 to 4 and 81 percent of children between 5 and 8 have spent time with a controller, with 36 percent of the latter group gaming at least once a week. There's no denying that we live in a media-rich environment, and that technology is more pervasive now than ever, but we don't think these numbers are anything to worry about. The study claims that most kids are exposed to games before the age of 4, which is certainly true for the Joystiq staff, and we're about as sane and grounded a group of people as you're likely to find.
Common Sense Media: 72 percent of parents support proposed Calif. violent game law
The non-profit, family-centric organization known as Common Sense Media recently published the results of a nationwide poll conducted by Zogby International, which asked 2,100 parents about their stance on the contested California law that would ban the sale of "offensively violent" games to minors. According to a press release from the group, 72 percent of respondents support the ban, while 75 percent would "rate the video game industry negatively when it comes to how they protect kids from violent video games." Said Common Sense Media founder James Steyer: "What we've learned from this poll is that parents want to be the ones who decide which games their kids play, not the video game industry." Of course, the Supreme Court isn't ruling on who decides which games kids play. The court's ruling on whether First Amendment protections can be waived for games deemed by ... someone to be too violent, formalizing a policy already adopted by major retailers into a California state law. Parents, as far as we know, still have the final say over what media their kids are allowed to consume -- not the video game industry, the ESRB, Governor Schwarzenegger or even the Supreme Court. Then again, when you support your position with videos like the one posted after the jump (the link to which was included in Common Sense's press release), we can understand why parents might lose the equanimity required to make that distinction.
