Many health care professionals and consumer activists are calling for greater government oversight of food advertising to kids. On January 5, 2005, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) released new Guidelines for Responsible Food Marketing to Children—aimed at food manufacturers, broadcasters, restaurants, movie studios, and schools. Unlike the food industry's self-imposed guidelines, CSPI proposes basic nutritional thresholds to determine which foods should be marketed to kids.

The fall 2004 issue of "The Evaluation Exchange" explores the contribution of technology to evaluation practice, including a special feature on how youth programs are using media and video production to engage youth in participatory evaluation, and the challenges and benefits of using technology in youth programming and other settings.

While most games for girls focus on fashion and beauty, Girls Inc., says its TeamUp game is a fun and educational game that encourages teamwork, exploration and spatial logic.

What's cool in teen reading and why? That's the topic of a July 21, 2004 CFK online chat aimed at encouraging more tweens and teens to read. Research shows this hard-to-reach age group is falling behind in reading skills. And a recent survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau indicates a dramatic decrease in literary reading over the past 20 years by America's youngest citizens.

How can you give illiterate or limited-English parents the information they need on children's health and development? Julieta Santana reports on how local radio fills a critical informational need in immigrant communities. This article originally appeared in the May-June 2004 issue of the Children's Advocate, published by Action Alliance for Children.

CFK reports from: Digital Television: Sharpening the Focus on Children
Event: Release of report, panel discussions
Organized by: Children Now, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Psychological Association
Where/When: Washington, D.C., June 9, 2004

This event looked at the emerging technologies in digital and interactive TV, and their effect on children...

Lynne Bernay-Roman's students work hard to put together visual elements and text in ways that explore their feelings about the world around them. How are they doing? You be the judge -- we've gathered some more images from the Finding Focus Through Photography classes into this slide show.

This article in Pediatrics, "Early Television Exposure and Subsequent Attentional Problems in Children," examines the first-ever study linking early television watching with later attention and concentration problems. Researchers from the University of Washington found that, for children age 3 and younger, every hour of television they watched led to a 10-percent increase in the likelihood of attention problems at age 7. Even before their first birthday, kids watch more than 2 hours of television a day.

On March 24, Connect for Kids hosted its second interactive Talktime on-line discussion, fielding questions from non-profits around the country about how to generate good publicity for their good works. Here’s a summary and a transcript.