Consumer Kids by Agnes Nairn and Ed Mayo, published today (29 January),claims that almost 60 per cent of children have a television in theirroom when they start school and that children spend more time in frontof a screen than they do with their parents or in class. The book saysthat children are being targeted more by advertisers, and that themarket for child-orientated products has grown by 33 per cent in fiveyears.
It also claims that companies such as Mattel, Nike and Coca-Cola arerecruiting young children to market products to their peers.
It cites the case of a seven-year-old girl called Sarah, recruitedthrough a children's internet chatroom to work as a sales agent forMattel. Sarah has to take Mattel's Barbie Girl MP3 player with herwherever she goes and try to persuade her friends to buy one. She alsohas to take photos of her sales missions and e-mail them back toMattel.
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