Fighting Online Marketing to Children

In a live Zoom event in conjunction with the American Museum of Tort Law, we welcome back Claire Nader, author of “You Are Your Own Best Teacher” and Susan Linn, author of “Who’s Raising the Kids?” for a lively panel discussion moderated by child advocacy legal expert, Robert Fellmeth, on the ongoing corporatization of childhood. We also hear from audience members but not just old people talking about “kids today.” A thoughtful seventh grader gives us a young person’s perspective.

Robert Fellmeth is the Price Professor of Public Interest Law at the University of San Diego and the Executive Director of the Center for Public Interest Law. He is also Executive Director of the Children's Advocacy Institute, which authored The Fleecing of Foster Children: How We Confiscate Their Assets and Undermine Their Financial Security

We have one of the worst Supreme Court decisions in the history of the world, which basically equates corporations with individuals. It equates corporate entities with private citizens. And they’re not the same thing…You cannot have the Citizens United-type case that equates the two and still have a democracy.

Robert Fellmeth

Dr. Susan Linn is an author, psychologist, and award-winning ventriloquist. She was the Founding Director of Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (now known as Fairplay), and she is a world-renowned expert on creative play and the impact of media and commercial marketing on children. Her latest book is Who’s Raising The Kids? Big Tech, Big Business and the Lives of Children.

I think what people don’t understand is that these beloved characters are used to sell things to kids. And that there is really almost no place in media—including public media, today— where children can go, where someone is not trying to sell them something.

Dr. Susan Linn, author of Who’s Raising The Kids? Big Tech, Big Business and the Lives of Children

Claire Nader is a political scientist and author recognized for her work on the impact of science on society. She is an advocate for numerous causes at the local, national and international level. As the first social scientist working at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, she joined pioneering initiatives in energy conservation and the multifaceted connections between science, technology and public policy. Her latest book is You Are Your Own Best Teacher! Sparking the Curiosity, Imagination and Intellect of Tweens.

[How children suffer due to corporate predators] scares me to death, as a matter of fact. I want to run away from the lives of children under these conditions. But I can run to a different atmosphere for children—if you will— and that’s what I try to put in my book.

Claire Nader, author of You Are Your Own Best Teacher! Sparking the Curiosity, Imagination and Intellect of Tweens

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