Blog Posts by Common Sense Media

When the first Harry Potter book came out in 1998, my son was 5 1/2. We were up in the mountains with our dear friends whose kids were 7 and 9. All they could talk about was Harry Potter, and my poor son wanted to be like the big kids.

But he couldn't read yet, and I wasn't sure how much of the story would be appropriate. So I read the book first. And as soon as I finished it, I read it again -- aloud, to my now ecstatic child. Indeed, over the last decade (yes, it's been that long!), reading the Harry Potter books (and seeing the movies and playing the video games) has become a rite of passage for kids everywhere.

But as the books go on, their subject matter matures along with the heroes. The scary bits get scarier, the villains viler. Beloved characters die. So it's always a good idea to assess your child's ability to handle fright and peril before you see the movies or read the books.

Here's a quick, age-by-age guide to enjoying Harry Potter (with the big caveat that all

Read More »from What's The Right Age for Kids to Jump on the Hogwarts Train?

Commercials are nothing new. We all grew up with them and can probably sing a dozen or more jingles. What is new is how advertisers have adapted to childrens media. Product placement, online promotions, and viral marketing have taken over their worlds. What's "cool" to wear has a lot more to do with the advertising message behind it than the color.

What is it?

Children are bombarded with advertising messages everywhere they turn. From traditional TV, print, and radio ads to product placements that appear on TV shows and in movies. Interactive ads blaze throughout online and gaming worlds where sponsorships, contests, and product endorsements appear regularly. Ads also come to our kids disguised as "free" cell phone ring tones (in exchange for them receiving text ads), surveys, and pass-along games and quizzes that capture email addresses when kids respond or forward to each other. (This is called viral marketing.) And every time a kid puts on a T-shirt or a hoodie with someone's Read More »from What Are Your Kids Being Sold?

Is this action-driven 3-D sequel is an icy treat for young kids? Find out why Common Sense Media rated this ON for Ages 6 and Up:

Parents need to know that the third installment in the Ice Age franchise is likely to appeal to kids (even the preschool set) as much as the first two. That said, it's the first one in 3-D, so some scenes -- especially the ones featuring dinosaurs -- may be a bit more intense. There's lots of cartoonish violence, mostly involving Scrat and his new female friend (they also flirt and kiss, which is the extent of the movie's romance). Language is mild, but there's some scatological humor *"barf" and "poop"), as well as suspense concerning the main characters' ability to get out of harm's way.

What's the Story? The prehistoric pals from the first two Ice Age movies are back, and now their inter-species herd is about to grow. Wooly mammoth Ellie (voiced by Queen Latifah) is expecting a baby, turning partner Manny (Ray Romano) into an overprotective, nervous

Read More »from Chill Out With Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs This Weekend

In a perfect world, you'd probably never have to talk to your kids about Jon and Kate Gosselin's pending divorce. But since they dragged their eight children into their 15-seconds-of-fame reality show, viewers now face a decision about what to say to their own kids about what happens to families when marriages end. I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume that few will hold the Gosselins up as role models. But this is what our kids are seeing. They see it on TV, online, on magazine covers. While they know that "reality" shows aren't so "real," these shows still have a real impact. So how do we make sure that "reality" shows don't shape our own kids' impressions?

The answer lies in making sure that we have a talk with our kids so that they hear our own messages about life, not just the media's. For example, with Jon and Kate, it's important that we remind our kids that this is just a show, and it only reflects one family's reality. In fact, every family is different, and each

Read More »from Don't Let Jon and Kate Teach Your Kids About Divorce

This is the kind of situation that really puts parents in a bind. Young kids love playing with Transformers toys, but the movie wasn't made for young kids. It's a real PG-13, full of violence and more. Take a look at our suggestions about what to say to your kids.

It doesn't help that all of the merchandising is aimed at young kids, too. Movie-related toys and deals with Burger King kids' meals and M&Ms are all part of the marketing campaign, so it's no wonder your younger kids are clamoring to see it.

So what do you do when there's age-inappropriate marketing surrounding something that's not for kids?

Remember the old saw: "If your friends jumped off a bridge, would you do it, too?" The fact is that rules are different for every family. A movie like Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is full of violence, and the more violence young kids see, the more desensitized they become. Younger kids aren't developmentally mature enough to handle it -- even if they think they

Read More »from Help! My G-rated Kids Want to See PG-13 Transformers

Kids admit they cheat with phones and the Internet

Cheating is as old as the sun. So the dispiriting results of Common Sense Media's June 2009 nationwide poll on cheating that surveyed middle and high school students didn't really shock me. Among the juicier tidbits: A third of students admit they've used their cell phones for something other than phoning home (like taking pictures of answers or tests to share with their friends). And more than half said they've passed off something they found online as their own work. Kids admit to using high-tech ways to get around having to study (never mind that some of these strategies involve far more creativity and time investment than the tests they aim to outfox).

But what really alarmed me were kids' attitudes toward cheating. Call me old fashioned, but isn't cheating a bit like pregnancy? You're either pregnant or you aren't. You're either cheating or you aren't. Not much grey area that I can see. But that's not what the survey

Read More »from Kids Take Cheating High Tech

I realized my oldest son's interest in the original Star Wars movies had grown into a full-blown obsession when he first began incorporating facts about George Lucas' mythology into everyday conversations.

"Mama, it's cold today, like in Hoth.," he said one blustery day in February. Another time he struck a pose, stood very still and said "Look, I'm stuck in carbonite!"

At first, I wanted to yell "Nooooooo, don't do this." We had survived his preschooler infatuation with Clifford the Big Red Dog and Hot Wheels, and then the pirates stage and the prehistoric animals fixation. And now he was all about Star Wars.

I know parents who discourage these intense childhood fixations, thinking it limits their child's interests. But the only sane choice for my family was to give in, to go beyond my junior-high memories of the original trilogy -- that's when I started reading Star Wars Wikis and dictionaries. I had to able to keep up a conversation with my firstborn (and, um, know what

Read More »from Catching Pop Culture

Ferrell's reboot of the '70s classic TV show is rife with gross out laughs. Find out why Common Sense Media rated it IFFY for 14 and under.

What Parents Need to Know:

Parents need to know that this movie contains extensive (yet genial) vulgar language as well as an extended sequence where some of our heroes are clearly stoned on a natural narcotic/hallucinogenic substance. There's also a high degree of body-function humor: at one point a character douses himself in dinosaur urine to mask his scent, an egg is removed from a huge pile of dinosaur feces, and a character is swallowed whole and later excreted by a dinosaur.

Families Can Talk About...
...the phenomenon of '70s TV shows coming to the big-screen; does this represent the way these shows have wormed their way into the public consciousness on the level of their merit, or instead as a constantly repeated exercise in money making and profit taking? Families can also talk about Will Ferrell -- what do all his characters Read More »from Will kids get "Lost" in Will Ferrell's new flick?