Kaiser Preps Media Use Study, Will Give To FCC

Study will focus attention on shift to mobile, other digital platforms

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 1/6/2010 5:04:00 PM

The Kaiser Family Foundation says it will unveil its latest study on kids' media usage Jan. 20. It will then submit it to the FCC as way of comment in the commission's omnibus Notice of Inquiry (NOI) into that very subject.

If past is prologue, the FCC will pay close attention to the study.

The FCC's NOI cited findings the previous two versions of the same study (issued in 1999 and 2004) in teeing up the question of how it should modify its regulation of children's programming in response to the rise of digital media.

According to a source, the Kaiser report focuses heavily on mobile media.

The study, Generation M2: Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-Year-Olds, looks at media use in 2009 by a "representative sample" of a couple thousand kids/youth ages 8-18, including on their use of TV, video games, the Internet and cell phones, according to Kaiser.

"The data we have are on what kids are doing now," says Kaiser Foundation VP Vicky Rideout, who will present the study findings at Kaiser's Washington offices.

She confirmed the FCC would be getting a copy, but said the timing of the study's release and the FCC's deadline for comment in its inquiry was coincidental. "We have been in the field for a year," she said.

Rideout would not comment on the findings, but at the Washington event, one of the topics for a panel in conjunction with the study's release is the question: "How do current levels of media use and multitasking affect children's healthy development?"