The World Summit on Media for Children and Youth
Towards a New Global Vision for Children, Youth and Media
The World Summit on Media for Children and Youth, towards a New Global Vision for Children, Youth and Media, in Karlstad, Sweden, began on 14th June 2010 in the evening with a presentation of rain dance by children followed by a stunning musical performance by the teenagers. This was followed by a welcome speech by the Mayor of Karlstad and the official opening by the Swedish minster for Culture, MS. Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth by signing in her facebook page. The important personalities who spoke at the opening ceremony of the 6th World Summit were Patricia Edgar, the founder of World Summit on Media for Children Foundation http://www.wsmcf.com/foundation/foundation.htm , Melbourne Australia; Alton Grizzle, Program Section specialist for Media and Civic Participation, Communication Development Division UNESCO HQ Paris, France; Mr. Per Lundgren, Director, World Summit on Media for Children and Youth Karlstad Sweden; Ms Ellen Wartella Chicago, USA and Mr. Hans Rosling, professor of International Health, Karolinska Institutet who gave a very lively and informative presentation in which he pointed that China and India have more important plans and questions for the future than United States and the other developed countries. He challenged the audience with the question, “Are we ready for the future?” They were only few among the many prominent presenters of the evening.
The World Summits
World Summits are held every three years and provide a forum for producers, broadcasters and regulators of media for children and other professionals and community leaders committed to the improvement of quality media for children.
The Summit has travelled around world cities since 1995 when it started in Melbourne, Australia. Since then it has been in London, Thessaloniki, Rio de Janeiro and Johannesburg and now in Karlstad, Sweden.
The Objectives of the World Summit
The objectives of World Summit on Media for Children and Youth were the following:
- To achieve a greater understanding of developments in children’s media around the world.
- To raise the status of children’s media.
- To draw to the attention of key players in broadcasting the importance of issues relating to children.
- To promote a charter of guiding principles in children’s media.
- To ensure the provision of programs for children will be guaranteed as the communication revolution proceeds.
- To assist in the developing world to provide opportunities for quality children’s media in the future.
The Summit 2010
Media plays a great role in the lives of children and youth. But what are children doing with the media? And what are the media doing with the children? At World Summit Karlstad the experts accepted the challenges that are ahead of the educators, researchers, journalists, producers and distributors. A vision of a better world for children and youth were discussed. During the conference, the participants had an opportunity to take part in and to contribute to new international recommendations to translate words into deeds – towards a new global vision for children, youth and media.
The program of the Summit was tightly scheduled. 220 sessions in four days! The participants had to rush from one place to another if he/she wanted to take part in as many sessions as he/she wanted, more over there was no time given between the sessions for one to move from one conference hall to another and as a result many reached the designated place late. As more than one session took place at one time the participants could not attend all the sessions but had to pick and choose the one that is more interesting to the participant. The keynote speeches were truly enlightening. There were two per day. The issues presented in the key note were:
- On 15th: Linking Media Education with Health Education”, Presented by Alberto Pellai, Department of Public Health at Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy.
- ”So Sexy So Soon: The New Sexualized Childhood”, “Creating change through activism”. Presented by Julie Gale, Kids Free 2B Kids, Australia and Jean Kilbourne, Wellesley Centers for Women, USA.
- On 16th: “Children, Ethics and the News: A practical approach to resolving ethical dilemmas involving children”, Presented by William Bird, Media Monitoring Africa, South Africa.
- ”Growing up in a digital world” Presented by David Buckingham, Centre for the Study of Children, Youth and Media - Institute of Education, University of London, UK.
- On 17th: “The Role of Public Broadcasting In The New Media Environment. Presented by Lúcia Araújo, GLOBO Organizations, Brazil.
- ”The New Advertising: Digital Marketing Strategies Targeting Children” Presented by Kathryn Montgomery, School of Communication American University, USA and Jeffrey Chester, Center for Digital Democracy, USA.
- On 18th the last day: “We Are the People We’ve Been Waiting For” Presented by Lord David Puttnam, Future Labs, House of Lords, UK.
- ”Bolibompa – The introduction to Internet for many Swedish children”, Presented by Erik Wahlgren, Swedish Television, Sweden.
All these presentations were followed by international panels. Some of the morning sessions were repeated in the afternoon for those who missed it in the morning due to overlapping of the sessions.
There were many case studies from various countries around the world. Many doctrinal theses were presented and many research forums and creative workshops were part of the Summit. The representation of Africa was very little and the case studies from this emerging continent were not present and it was like an opportunity missed. The presence of a group of youth from around the world added a special meaning to the whole Summit. Every day they produced newsletters and video clips which were presented the following day.
The final recommendations by the Global Youth
During the Summit The Global Youth Council worked hard to bring out few proposals and recommendations for the future. They have all been cooperating and worked really hard to get the six global issues and recommendations ready. These are the recommendations proposed by The Global Youth Council:
- Limited access to the internet
- Making sure children are safe using the internet
- Children and young people are not involved in making decisions
- Negative representation of children and young people in the media
- Lack of media literacy and commercial interest versus social responsibility.
- Commercial interest versus social responsibility
- The Youth Council proposed these recommendations on the final day with the hope of making a change by 2013.
At the closing ceremony the Youth council gave an emotional presentation titled “Are you with us?” through which they made the participants respond “yes we are with you.”
Now is up to the participants at the Summit and the rest of the adult world to put the recommendations into practice and to create an environment in which the children and youth can grow up healthy and responsible users of the media.
The next World Summit on Media for Children and Youth will held in Bali in May 2013.