8 Ways to Help Your Child Be Commercial-Free

1. Build screen-free and commercial-free time into your child’s life.
Nurture creative play. Get children outside in parks, forests and other green spaces. Institute family nights where you play board games, bake or collaborate on art projects.

2. Limit screen time.
Make sure your children’s bedrooms are screen-free. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no screen time for children under age 2 and no more than two hours a day of total screen time for older children.

3. Educate yourself and others.
Host a screening of Susan Linn’s film, entitled Consuming Kids and based on her book of the same name. Invite your state representative, board of education and PTA/PTO president. Read books about commercialism and share them with a book group.

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4. Speak up.
Ask your daughter’s pediatrician not to use Barbie Band-Aids and your son’s teacher not to use Spiderman stickers as rewards. Ask friends and family to adhere to your values when selecting presents. New parents can ask people to avoid electronic toys, licensed characters and screen media as gift choices.

5. Choose commercial-free.
If possible, select preschools, camps and daycare centers that do not depend on screens and media-linked toys to entertain children – or work to change the ones you’re involved with.

6. Reclaim your child’s school.
Form a committee to examine school commercialism. Ask your school or school board to adopt policies that limit advertising on school grounds.

7. Speak out!
Write a letter to your local newspaper and comment on parenting blogs and social networking sites about the commercialization of childhood.

8. Work for local and federal legislation.
Urge your state representative to sponsor legislation that prohibits advertising and marketing in schools. Urge your state’s U.S. senators to support legislation that restores the Federal Trade Commission’s authority to regulate marketing to children.

Reprinted with permission from the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood.

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