The Children‘s Media Conference

Children’s media use has recently been associated with a direct link to children’s mental health. Do the benefits of social media and gaming outweigh the negative? The children’s media landscape attracts many headlines and has recently been associated with direct causal links to children’s mental health and well-being. But are there benefits? And if so, do these outweigh the negative side of children using social media and gaming? What do children gain from using social networking and gaming sites? What are the effects on children’s mental health through their engagement with online media? For the last 6 months Family Kids & Youth (FK&Y) have carried out on-going peer-to-peer focus groups and friendships groups, and with partner Panelbase a survey with 1,000 young people aged 7-16. The findings challenge some of the scare-headlines, as the research explores how children and young people really use social media and games sites, the benefits, and the drawbacks, the risks they face online and how they manage these. Presented by Dr Barbie Clarke, Family Kids & Youth

The UK component of a worldwide research project into gender and diversity in children’s television. How does UK fiction content fare? IZI (International Central Institute for Youth and Educational Television) recently published research into gender and diversity representation in children’s TV worldwide – 10 years on from their original study and now also incorporating statistics as to gender make-up of production teams. Dr Lynn Whitaker carried out the UK leg of the 2018 research, analysing a 300-hour sample of UK free-to–air children’s TV including CBeebies, CBBC, CiTV and Milkshake. As well as considering both on-screen and off-screen gender representation in both fiction and non-fiction programmes, the fiction programmes were analysed for diversity aspects through nuanced genre-, narrative- and character-focused analysis. For example, questions such as, ‘What skills or resources are used to solve problems?’ and, ‘What groups or settings do main characters operate in?’ were asked, in combination with more representational aspects of characters’ appearance (age, race, ethnicity, body type, hair colour etc.). Lynn will discuss the findings from the UK sample, contextualising them within the bigger international picture and in comparison to the 2008 study, using examples of specific fiction programmes to illustrate the main trends and to reflect on what we are doing well and what we might do better. Presented by Dr Lynn Whitaker, University of Glasgow

Shedding light on the ways co-consumption of content really happens within families. With more content available than ever, and with families leading very busy lives (true for both parents and children!), brands and content owners feel the pressure to create shared experiences to facilitate family time together. They don’t have a lot of time, so they must want to do things together, right? Well… it’s not that simple. There is more to these experiences than meets the eye, and they might be moments of delight or, at times, just unrealistic desires of the industry. Kids Industries surveyed UK children and parents, observed their play and viewing experiences and will share – for the first time – new data around multigenerational content, toys and experiences. Presented by Josh Brocklehurst and Maurice Wheeler, Kids Industries

Connecting grandparents and grandchildren through digital games. This session will explore what is required to make a digital game appealing and accessible for grandparents and grandchildren, combining previous research with new evidence focusing on smart toys. Presented by Amanda Gummer and Anna Taylor, Fundamentally Children

With contestable funding and a free kids’ streaming service, this session discusses how New Zealand has introduced innovative ways of supporting local kids’ content. The focus of this research presentation is New Zealand on Air’s system of contestable funding and HEIHEI, the country’s new ad-free streaming service for kids content. Launched in 2018, HEIHEI offers New Zealand children local media content on demand including games. HEIHEI’s local focus provides a welcome disruption to existing children’s media offerings, including those from US-based streaming services like Netflix and YouTube. HEIHEI also eliminates linear broadcasters from the commissioning of local children’s content for the first time, removing previous limits on the distribution of domestically produced children’s content in New Zealand. Working in a small country of only 5 million people, with no dedicated public service media, New Zealand producers of children’s media content are accustomed to having to compete for limited funding, and limited platforms for their children’s content. The analytical research presented here (co-authored by New Zealand on Air Head of Funding) reveals how HEIHEI’s offerings have resonated with New Zealand children and their parents, and what the innovative streaming service has meant for the children’s independent production sector in New Zealand. Presented by Anna Potter, School of Creative Industries, University of the Sunshine Coast

Investigating kids’ choices in screen entertainment – and what they mean for providers. Understanding what drives children’s choices of screen entertainment is essential for predicting how media habits will change in the future. Using interview data, Ofcom findings and insight from major content providers, d.fferentology examine the viewing habits of 5–15 years old across the UK and the implications of what, where and how they are accessing content for commercial and academic organisations. Presented by Paul Marshall, d.fferentology

Examining the kids content strategies used by online video incumbents and encroaching tech-giants to claim a slice of the growing online video sector. Ampere Analysis present analysis of Video-on-Demand (VoD) platforms’ children’s TV show catalogues and announced up-coming titles. This research examines the children’s TV content available via Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google’s YouTube (the FAANG group). Ampere show how the importance and types of children’s content available from Netflix and Amazon has changed as subscriber acquisition strategies have evolved. They also explore the current children’s catalogues of the emergent VoD platforms Facebook, Apple, and Google. Ampere will provide data and analysis of the announced up-coming slate of TV titles from these operators, including children’s titles, to shed light on the type of shows that the FAANG group are interested in, and what opportunities may exist to work with these key players. Presented by Fred Black and Natasha Rugg, Ampere Analysis

16 year old Singer-songwriter, Sapphire, has caught the hearts of audiences all over the world with international fans in the USA, Germany, Poland, Indonesia, Russia, Australia and more, plus a large and rapidly growing following across the UK. Sapphire’s YouTube channel now counts in excess of 530K subscribers and over 120 Million video views, and is rising by the day.  Having started on YouTube as a 7 year old, Sapphire has literally grown up in the social media industry and gives a unique perspective of this rapidly expanding world of opportunity.

Not one to limit her talents to the camera lens, Sapphire’s recent live performances have included; Berlin Arena, legendary New York club Bitter End, London’s Wembley Arena, London’s 02 Indigo, Birmingham’s National Indoor Arena and shows at Colognes 17,000 capacity Lanxess Arena.

Sapphire has recently completed a 6 month school performance tour seeing over 10,000 children across the UK to talk about Cyber-Bullying, Staying Safe Online and Mental Health. Sapphire has supported Bars and Melody on their UK & Ireland Academy tour and Union J on their 2018 headline shows. Sapphire is regularly commissioned by Dreamworks Animation, NBCUniversal, Disney, Warner Studios, Warner Music, Sony Music, DKNY, LEGO, Shout magazine and has performed on BBC, CITV and ITV.

Noga Levy-Rapoport, 17, is a youth climate activist who led the London climate strike march on 15 February 2019 and has since become heavily involved with the U.K. Student Climate Network. Her work primarily involves the Green New Deal campaign and school outreach, having travelled to Berlin as a national representative. Her work with the press includes the Guardian and BBC Radio 4. She confronted corporate leaders directly at International Petroleum Week in February, and has spoken at several rallies and events to demand urgent climate action. Noga is one of the founders of T.E.A., an amateur youth-led theatre group based in West London, dedicated to improving teenagers’ wellbeing through free performing arts training. Currently an A level student at Arts Educational School in Chiswick, Noga also trains as a classical singer.

Ahead of the cinema release of ‘Horrible Histories The Movie’, key creatives behind one of the most popular franchises in family entertainment take to the CMC stage on Wednesday 3rd July for this year’s Creative Keynote.

First ‘Horrible Histories’ conquered children’s books, with global sales topping 32 million. Then it revolutionised children’s TV comedy, with a multiple BAFTA, RTS, and British Comedy Award winning BBC series. This summer it storms the big screen in a major new family feature film, with a cast including newcomers Sebastian Croft and Emilia Jones, alongside Nick Frost, Kim Cattrall, Kate Nash, Sir Derek Jacobi and many more.

In a very special Creative Keynote, producer/writers Caroline Norris and Giles Pilbrow, director Dominic Brigstocke, and original series author Terry Deary will reveal the secrets to creating kids’ comedy that parents love, how they made learning such a laugh, and the challenges they faced taking the funniest franchise in history on its biggest outing to date.