Surprise, surprise...
Children are spending half as much time
in class as they do looking at computer or TV screens, according to new
research.
The report Consumer Kids, written by Ed Mayo, head of Consumer Focus
said that children are a captive audience for sophisticated and energetic
marketing techniques because they spend so much of their day online or in front
of the television. British kids spend five hours and 18 minutes watching
television, playing computer games or online each day.
This 2,000 hours a year
compares with 900 hours in class and 1,270 hours with their parents. It says
that while parents are paranoid about sex pests getting hold of their precious
snowflakes they have no concept of how business grooms their children for
profit. Kids are recruited through membership schemes or special offers to
peddle products to their mates.
Personal information is routinely sought, often
as a condition of getting access to a site, the report said More than a third
of children have their own laptop or PC and two thirds have a games console.