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Letting Children be Children

As the assessment by Professor David Buckingham and colleagues found (DCSF/DCMS, 2009), it is not possible to say unequivocally that children are, in all circumstances, either 'vulnerable' or 'savvy': how children respond to commercial messages depends on the context. The assessment concluded that children's consumer socialisation should be considered in terms of social as well as cognitive capabilities:

"Research on 'consumer socialisation' suggests that children gradually develop a range of skills and knowledge to do with the commercial world that help prepare them for adult life. They are neither the helpless victims imagined by some campaigners nor the autonomous 'media sawy' consumers celebrated by some marketing people. Their engagement with the commercial world is part of their everyday social experience and is very much mediated by other social relationships with family and friends."DCSF/DCMS, 2009

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