DETERMINING QUALITY IN CHILDREN’S MEDIA

Today, children spend a considerable amount of time using media on a variety of platforms (Rideout and Robb, 2019, 2020). There has always been an interest in evaluating and labeling children’s media content to communicate its quality and appropriateness for children, however, with the recent deluge of content and platforms available, our ability to determine quality media for young children has become increasingly challenging. This chapter discusses the historical context of evaluating media and argues for the importance of considering multiple factors - including the child, content, context, and security and privacy - when evaluating quality in an increasingly diverse children’s media environment. We conclude by highlighting two approaches that take into account these varied factors in their evaluation of quality children’s media.