GIRL SCOUTS OF NASSAU COUNTY TO HOST SCREENING OF CONSUMING KIDS: THE COMMERCIALIZATION OF CHILDHOOD
Garden City, NY, January 31, 2011- Children spend an estimated $40 billion dollars of their own money and influence another $700 billion in spending annually. That’s a very powerful and lucrative segment of the market place and corporate marketers know that. Girl Scouts of Nassau County will host a screening of “Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood” Wednesday, February 23rd and March 9th at 7:00pm in their Garden City offices. The screening is part of Girl Scouts of Nassau County’s Critical Issues Initiative which seeks to raise awareness about issues affecting girls (and boys) and their healthy social and emotional development.
“We have been addressing lots of the issues raised in this film for the past several years. We know kids bully each other, sometimes simply because of what they have or don’t have,” says Donna Ceravolo, Executive Director of the Girl Scouts of Nassau County. “Both girls and boys may believe that the behaviors and attitudes they’re watching on the screen are how all kids act, or at least the ‘cool’ kids. We want all kids to grow up with healthy media images and become their best authentic self.”
According to a 2010 study by the Kaiser Family Foundation kids are getting an average of almost eight hours of screentime each and every day. When you consider the multi-tasking kids do by layering media on top of media—watching TV, surfing the Web, listening to iPods and streaming media over their smartphones, media consumption increases to almost eleven hours each day. It is estimated kids are bombarded with over 3,000 commercial messages every day urging, coaxing and cajoling kids to have more, want more, eat more, and buy more.
The screenings are free events open to adults and high school students. After the film, there will be an opportunity for discussion among participants. Reservations are recommended due to seating limitations. To reserve a seat, please email speaker@gsnc.org.
Girl Scouts of Nassau County builds girls of courage, confidence and character. Girl Scouting in Nassau County creates an accepting and nurturing environment, which gives girls a chance to build character and receive skills for success in the real world. In partnership with committed adult volunteers, girls develop qualities that will serve them throughout their lives, like leadership, strong values, social conscience, and conviction about their own potential and self-worth. With more than 22,000 girl and 7,000 adult members, Girl Scouts of Nassau County has become the preeminent organization and leading authority for girls. The organization, now in its 99th year, continues to make the world a better place one girl at a time.
For more information on the Girl Scouts of Nassau County call Donna Rivera Downey 516 741-2550 at ext. 260, or visit www.gsnc.org.
