In economic terms, children and young people are an important and influential consumer group. With the rise in manufacturing industries and the mass production of goods after the Second World War, young people came to be seen in marketing terms as a specific group with a disposable income. The ‘teenager’ was part of a generation with a distinct style, expressed by spending lots of money on records, clothes and entertainment.

More recently, we’ve heard about the ‘child market’ and the commercial practices used to reach the under twelve age group. Market researchers follow the social trends that affect the buying habits of children and young people. Their findings directly influence manufacturers and advertisers.

An example of market research in action is the recent use of the term ‘tweenage’, or ‘tweens’, to refer to older children or young teenagers between the ages of nine and thirteen. Market researchers Datamonitor indicate that the spending power of tweens in the UK is rising faster than that of any other group.

You can tell that tweens are big spenders because large stores such as Boots and Woolworths have ranges of products such as cosmetics, CDs and magazines specifically targeted at them. Datamonitor, however, assert that the spending power of tweens goes further, to more expensive purchases such as cosmetic surgery, laptops, hand-held computers and mobile phones.

The importance of children and young people as consumers increases dramatically if account is taken of their influence on their parents’ spending. You may have heard of ‘pester power’, when children skilfully wear down parental resistance!

Manufacturers and advertisers see children and teenagers as:

• a primary market in their own right
• an influential market, given their influence on parental household purchases
• a market for the future of all nations
• a particular demographic segment
• a specific life-style segment according to the same criteria as their parents

Media savvy minors
Media is seen by some as a driving force for children’s liberation. For example, rap music, talk shows and cable television – along with the internet – could be seen as one of the great creative explosions of modern culture. It could be argued that this explosion represents a growing challenge to centralized adult control. Computer games, for example, are primarily aimed at the youth market.

Popular music (particularly dance music) is increasingly generated by digital technology, via sampling, editing and other software. The increasing accessibility of this technology is enabling young people to play a more active role as cultural producers. More and more teenagers have home computers in their bedrooms that can be used to create music, manipulate images or edit video to a relatively professional standard.

Children’s growing access to media is generating concern about their exposure to material hitherto confined to adults. Video, satellite TV and the internet are technologies frequently used by young people. However they are difficult for governments to control centrally.

The advent of video technology made it possible to copy and circulate moving images to a much greater extent than had ever previously been the case. It also made it possible to view it, not in a public space to which access can be controlled, but in the private space of the home. Most children have seen material on video which they’re not legally allowed to obtain.

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