- When several of the possibilities different media have to offer are made available on most platforms, it becomes even more challenging for parents to guide and set limits for children's use of digital media, says Kids and Media director Oystein Samnoen.

by Sigrun Landro Thomassen

A safe and conscious use of media makes greater demands on the user's selection and judgement.

"The possibilities in different media are greater, closer and more fantastic. But at the same time media life has become more complex. For this reason I think the tasks parents are facing will be more important and difficult in the future," says director Oystein Samnoen in Kids and Media.

Industry paradox
Electronics Fair Consumer Electronic Show 2010 (CES) in Las Vegas gathered about 100,000 people in the entertainment business in the beginning of January. At the same time the city arranged one of the world's biggest porn conventions, where about 40,000 people attended.

"The combination of the two conventions was not random, and in my view this stresses the industry's fascination for adventure while many moral choices are left to the user," says Samnoen.

New tools for parents
At CES LG demonstrated new parental tools that allow you to control the use of TV screens at home.

"With LG’s new tools parents can control the screen via a mobile phone. You can turn the screen off, open for gaming, watching TV or using the web," said LG representative Pete Mathew to Kids and Media. "Most homes have several TV screens, and this tool makes it easy for parents to define what the screens can be used for even if they’re not at home."

Microsoft is also developing tools that will make it easier for parents to set limits regarding children's use of PC’s and the game console Xbox 360 Live.

"This is an area Microsoft is embracing," says Jason Ing of the Xbox team at Microsoft. "We are developing parental tools that will allow parents to control who your children play with on the Internet, follow up the age limits and which games their children are playing."

"We need good tools"
Oystein Samnoen calls for greater coordination of the different tools:

"We parents need tools that will give us a simple way to control the different media our children are using. It is too complex to enable individual parent features on every game console, TV screen, computer and mobile phone."

"The challenge is to create tools that are both safe and easy to use, while still ensuring that children aren’t robbed of any of the positive experiences the media have to offer."

Photo:

LG’s representative Pete Mathew demonstrates new parental tools that make it possible to control the use of TV screens at home.

Related articles on Kidsandmedia.co.uk:

3-Dimentional TV Future

New TV era for families