The niche market of newborns to three-year-olds is booming, with toys and educational materials developed for this sector now a $20 billion global industry. (…)

We now spend an average of $1000 a year on toys and nursery products for the up-to-three-year-olds, according to market research company GFK Oztoys. The Australian market topped $1 billion this year - a 10 per cent growth in the past 10 months alone.

Young Media Australia has watched the “deliberate and aggressive” marketing to young children take off in this country in the past five years and believes it is inherently wrong because the youngsters don’t have the cognitive ability to grasp it.

But with everyone else shelling out on the latest and best brands and with toddlers demanding an ever more expensive array of toys, what parent doesn’t feel the pressure?

In her book Buy Buy Baby, US investigative journalist Susan Gregory Thomas exposes the lengths to which marketers are going to exploit the newborn-to-three market. By 18 months, she says, toddlers can discern brands and by the age of two they ask for products by name.

Much of this brand recognition is derived from children’s TV, she says. There’s good research indicating that children of this age don’t have the cognitive ability to learn from television programs, to discern their underlying moral message or even to follow the plot. At the end of the day, the only thing young children take away from television is the recognition of a character - or a brand. (…)

The health implications of young children watching too much TV are well documented - Gregory Thomas quotes experts linking television consumption to rising rates of autism and ADHD, with one hypothesis that the brains of small children enter a state of low-level seizure when they’re watching television. There also has been debate in Australia about using popular children’s characters to market junk food.

But what parents do not fully understand is the more insidious consequences of marketing to young children in this way.

Gregory Thomas expresses concern that the continuous thrust of advertising means children are unable to develop an inner voice to distinguish right from wrong. (…)

What’s important to little girls everywhere is no longer the moral stories of the popular fairy tales - it’s to be a princess. (…)

Originally designed for preschoolers, brands such as the Disney princesses, Sesame Street and others are now seen as babyish by the four-year-olds, while they’re being lapped up by young toddlers. This phenomenon of “kids getting older younger” opens massive inroads into the newborn-to-three market, Gregory Thomas says.

It’s not just the babies that are a soft target for the burgeoning industry. Unlike the Baby Boomers, generation X women want to be seen as “good” rather than “super” mums; they want to be happy and involved with their families; they are looking for enrichment. They also have a high level of their own brand consciousness, which makes them a fertile market.

Gregory Thomas describes the “acceptability halo” surrounding toys that are marketed as “educational” - electronics, software and videos that are designed to help babies to learn. However, there is no research to show these products actually work, she says. (…)

Nicola Yelland, professor of education at Victoria University, says the most important thing parents can do is ensure their children have a range of sources from which to learn.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with electronic toys, software or brands that range across different categories, she says, but parents have to provide the scaffolding for learning by engaging in their children’s play and asking them questions.

Since she wrote the book, Gregory Thomas says, she has spent more time trying to explain the intent of advertising to her own children. She’s also learnt to say “no” more often - it’s important that parents are the gatekeepers when the children are too young to distinguish truth from advertising themselves.

Remember one thing, Oberklaid says: “You’re not a better parent if you buy your child a $50 electronic toy than if you sit on the floor with them emptying plastic bottle tops from one container to another.”

Source: Sydney Morning Herald, Australia
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