Family Potluck - Family Pipeline

One Click Away from Dora: Stop Marketing Violent and Sexualized Games to Children

via salsa.democracyinaction.org

Here is my letter...click here to quickly send yours. The letter is all ready to go...

salsa.democracyinaction.org

Dear Mr. Youngwood,

Did you know your organization just won the 2010 Toady Award for worst toy of the year? http://www.commercialfreechildhood.org/actions/toady2010winner.html

I was shocked to go to NickJr.com and within one click away from Dora the Explorer were hideous games.

I am writing to express my outrage that Nickelodeon links to AddictingGames.com on Neopets, Nick.com and NickJr.com. AddictingGames.com features violent and sexualized content that is completely inappropriate for children. I am shocked that Nickelodeon would direct kids to a website where they can play games like Bloody Day, which boasts "back alley butchering has never been so fun," or play the role of a leering peeping Tom in Perry the Sneak.

I urge you to immediately remove any and all links to AddictingGames.com from Nick.com, NickJr.com, and any other Nickelodeon websites for children.

Nickelodeon's AddictingGames.com Wins Worst Toy of the Year

via www.commercialfreechildhood.org

Nickelodeon's decision to exploit its reputation as a family-friendly company by linking to the games directly from its popular websites for young children earned AddictingGames.com the award for worst of the worst. TOADY voters were aghast that Nick allows children such easy access to the horrific content on AddictingGames.com, including the Perry the Sneak series, where gamers take the role of a peeping Tom trying to catch revealing glimpses of naked women showering--and successful voyeurs are rewarded by getting in bed with their prey; Stick Dude Killing Arena, the object of which is to "Train to Kill Until You Die"; and Kitty Cannon, where players can "make Fluffy bloody" by shooting a kitten out of a cannon onto a row of metal spikes.

Source: CCFC
http://www.commercialfreechildhood.org/

Parents using smartphones to entertain bored kids - CNN.com

via www.cnn.com

Harried parents for years have relied on glowing electronic screens -- TVs, video games, computers -- to entertain children in the home. Now more and more parents are discovering smartphones' similar ability to engage squirmy kids at restaurants, in the car and anywhere else where youngsters grow bored.

Almost half of the top 100-selling apps in the iTunes App Store were for preschool or elementary-aged children in November 2009, according to a content analysis by the Joan Ganz Cooney Center, which promotes digital media technologies to advance children's learning.

Expert Carly Shuler says the reason for this -- assuming the majority of 3- to 10-year-olds don't own their own phones -- is because adults are taking advantage of the smartphone's ability to act as a mobile learning or entertainment device for their children.

Shuler, a fellow at the Joan Ganz Cooney Center (part of the Sesame Workshop) calls this phenomenon the "pass-back" effect -- as in parents passing their phones back to their bored kids.

Shortly after the iPhone came out, Shuler said she noticed children as young as 3 years old playing with the shiny devices.

read entire articlewww.cnn.com

Source: CNN

Can Emerging Media Help Children Learn? - Joan Ganz Cooney Center

via www.joanganzcooneycenter.org

"Forty years after Joan Ganz Cooney's landmark study stimulated the creation of Sesame Street, Sesame Workshop has established a new center devoted to accelerating children's learning in a rapidly changing world.

The Joan Ganz Cooney Center will focus new attention on the challenges children face today, asking the 21st century equivalent of her original question, "How can emerging media help children learn?""

What do you think???

Source: Joan Ganz Cooney Center

Happy Earth Day! Ditch the plastic snack/sandwich bags with LunchSkins

via www.lunchskins.com

"how we began:

While sitting around a kitchen table in 2008, we heard a staggering statistic - every day, more than 20 million sandwich bags from school lunches go into landfills in the US. We knew that many families were looking for easy, convenient ways to be green and avoid this kind of waste. So we put our passion and energy together and 3greenmoms was born. Our mission - to design a colorful, fresh alternative to the plastic baggie..."

read more here LunchSkins