Summary
Summary Week 4 - Tweens
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Developing Media Entertainment
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DevMedEnt – Week 4 Reading summaryBlackwell (2014)
The current study uses data collected from a national sample of 442 8- to 12-year-old children to
investigate children’s Internet content preferences during middle childhood. Results indicate
that YouTube and Facebook were the two most favored Web sites.
It is imperative to understand what children do online to help parents and teachers teach media
literacy but also to ensure that children are engaging with safe online content.
Developmental characteristics:
Emotionally, children in this age group develop self-regulation and more self- control (Eccles,
Wigfield, & Schiefele, 1998) as they distance themselves from their parents and develop closer
peer groups (Huston & Rikpe, 2006). They also begin to develop a self-concept and self-esteem
(Feldman, 2009), evaluating self-worth in the context of others (Elkind, 1967). The importance
of “fitting in” with peers also is characteristic of this age group, especially since youth spend a
good portion of their day with peers at school (Huston & Ripke, 2006).
The cognitive shift from middle childhood to adolescence is marked by increased hypothetical
reasoning (Flavell, Miller, & Miller, 2002) and an ability to discriminate between whether
fictional media content is realistic or probable in real life (Dorr, 1983). Children gain the ability
to grasp abstract ideas (Huston & Ripke, 2006). As Rogoff (1998) noted, cognitive development
particularly for children in this age group is a collaborative process, involving adults and peers
in the context of sociocultural activities.
Today, child development is played out in online environments as well as traditional offline
ones. Turkle (1995) described how the Internet allows users to create and test new identities in a
safer place than the offline world as well as how self- presentation online can help users better
understand their offline selves. Livingstone (2009) concluded that social networks afford youth
access to peers with privacy from their parents.
Today, most pre-teens have a social media profile and browse it at least once per day. If
younger children are using social networks in these ways, these activities could shape cognitive,
social, and emotional development, with more opportunities for younger children to engage in
tasks traditionally reserved for adolescents and adults.
In general, girls tend to be more forthcoming with personal information and are more likely to
share their emotions (Buhrmester & Prager, 1995; O’Neill, Fein, Velit, & Frank, 1976), while
boys tend to be more physically aggressive (Eaton & Enns, 1986). Research demonstrates girls
, DevMedEnt – Week 4 Reading summary
favor television programs that deal with friendships and other human relationships, while boys
favor cartoons and action adventure programs (Huston & Wright, 1998; Lemish, 2007)
While Web sites like Facebook have 13 and older age restrictions, many younger children report
using this site and other social networks regularly (Rideout et al., 2010)
Results
Video clip and movie Web sites, especially YouTube, and social networking sites, in particular
Facebook, are among the favored Web sites of 8- to 12-year-old Internet users, particularly for
older children. This is consistent with previous research indicating that tweens are frequent
users of social networking sites (e.g., Livingstone et al., 2011) and that the most popular online
activity for 8- to 18-year- olds is watching movies online (Rideout et al., 2010).
While the 11- to 12-year-olds may be more focused on gaining independence, developing closer
peer ties, and experimenting with identity, the 8- to 10-year-olds still trend towards early
childhood activities focused on children’s television, education, and imaginary play.
Younger children, frequent television network Web sites, virtual world Web sites, toy Web
sites, and educational Web sites, suggesting a distinct developmental difference between the
older and younger children in middle childhood.
we found no differences in gender for social networking sites, suggesting girls and boys in
middle childhood favor social networking sites equally.
Age appropriateness: Older children favored Web sites meant for 13-year-olds while younger
children were split between Web sites for 7- to 9-year-olds and 13-year-olds.
From a developmental perspective, the lack of age-appropriate content for 10- to 12-year-olds
means that children in this age group are either engaging with content that is slightly young or
slightly mature for them without an opportunity to engage with content that meets them at their
social, emotional, and cognitive developmental stage.
Developmental Implications
the current study provides preliminary evidence that the relationship between development and
media use may be bidirectional, such that not only does development influence media use but
media use may also influence development.
Given that younger children favor social networking sites, which are traditionally reserved for
teens and young adults, their interactions on these sites may speed up their social development
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