Online Commerce
Kids don’t just see ads in media: more and more, they buy things right on their screens. This section looks at the ways that young people shop online and how they can be manipulated into spending.
Tobacco, alcohol and cannabis
“Advertising has always sold anxiety, and it certainly sells anxiety to the young. It’s always telling them they’re losers unless they’re cool.” (Mark Crispin Miller, The Merchants of Cool, 2000)
Children and advertising
Kids are a highly desirable market for advertising: they control almost 150 billion dollars of spending in the U.S. alone and have a lifetime of spending ahead of them.
The Family Group Chat
Recently, my youngest got a new phone that has data and the ability to text anyone. We’ve been texting with my eldest for some time now too. But after years of communicating this way, it finally happened: We, the parents, were invited into a family group chat.
Data Privacy Week: New research shows youth are more concerned about their online privacy than ever
January 24, 2023 - MediaSmarts is releasing new research today, during Data Privacy Week, which shows that youth are more aware than ever of privacy concerns online and want to take steps to protect their own privacy, but they don’t always know how.
Young Canadians in a Wireless World, Phase IV: Online Meanness and Cruelty
Young Canadians in a Wireless World (YCWW) is Canada’s longest running and most comprehensive research study on young people’s attitudes, behaviours and opinions regarding the internet, technology and digital media. This report is the first of two reports focusing on relationships and technology. This report highlights how often and where youth experience, witness, and engage in online cruelty as well as the reasons or motivations for their engagement. In the report, we also summarize findings related to how young people respond to online meanness and cruelty and from whom they seek support in navigating these harmful experiences.
New research on youth and cyberbullying released for Pink Shirt Day
Ottawa, ON (Feb. 21, 2023) - New research conducted during the pandemic by MediaSmarts found 32% of young Canadians ages nine to 17 have experienced online meanness and cruelty, 49% have witnessed it, and 17% have engaged in this behaviour.
Fact Checker
To find out if a story has already been fact-checked, use the search bar below. It’s a custom search engine that lets you search several fact-checkers at once, including: Snopes.com, Agence France Presse Canada, FactCheck.org, Politifact, Washington Post Fact Checker, Associated Press Fact Check, HoaxEye and Les Decrypteurs.
Young Canadians in a Wireless World, Phase IV: Relationships and technology: Sexting
Young Canadians in a Wireless World (YCWW) is Canada’s longest running and most comprehensive research study on young people’s attitudes, behaviours and opinions regarding the internet, technology and digital media. This report is the second of two reports focusing on relationships and technology. In it, we share findings related to sending, receiving, and forwarding sexts and highlight what the YCWW Phase IV survey data tells us about young Canadians’ motivations and attitudes for engaging in sexting. We also speak to the role of trust and support in sexting behaviours among youth, focusing specifically on the impact of adult involvement and supervision and the desire for further educational support on this topic. Finally, we share resources that are currently available on the MediaSmarts website regarding sexting and highlight current research in the field that expands upon what we offer in this report.
Within the Phase IV YCWW survey, questions related to sexting were only available to participants in grades 7 to 11 (n=659). Overall, the sample size for youth who indicated they engaged in sexting was very small; in most cases, n=110 or less.