TOTAL LICENSING
Around the World A Children’s Survey
We asked kids (and their parents) around the globe about their viewing preferences, how they access content and how they pick the toys they want to play with. The answers provide fascinating insights into entertainment, social awareness and technological preferences around the world....
Italy Alice, 5 and Niccolò, 2 Alice likes to play with LEGO, the IKEA kids kitchen, PlayDoh and she is crazy about drawing all the time with pencils. Niccolò plays with everything Alice has! He also loves small cars like Hot Wheels or similar... and then he is crazy for his motorbike. In terms of TV they watch SKY and Netflix, cartoons like Masha and Bear, Peppa Pig, Bing, Hey Duggee, etc. Fortunately Alice is still not aware about social media... only with her school friends they talk about a Youtube channel called “Me contro te”, but at home we are not showing this to her. They talk about the gadgets that they see on the show. We don’t find it that good as it is definitely ‘built to sell’! About actual issues, Alice for the moment does not show particular signs of discrimination... I think, school, books, tv, movies made kids “open” and truly equal... let’s see if this will changes when she will grow older a bit more.
Canada Lily, 10 and Ollie, 7 Oliver loves Lego the most and puzzles. Lily loves all things horsey and arts and crafts. Fave shows on TV: Ollie loves Lego movies/shows (Ninjago), Lily likes “Free Rein” and Heartland. Our TV sources are regular cable, Netflix, movies. Lily is aware of social media, but only has access to Messenger Kids and this was mostly due to the pandemic – so she could connect with her friends while in lockdown. She does not have a cellphone or access to other social media sites. I think Lily is quite aware of social issues as she is a very sensitive soul, inclusivity is important to her as she hates to see people being left out. I love how neither child sees skin colour or any other difference visible or otherwise. I would say their shows don’t address social issues outright, but they contain diversity in a more subtle way (inclusivity). Influence of outside sources on toy choices: Ollie seems to be much more susceptible to TV ads in regards to toys he wants, though he rarely gets them. TV would be the most obvious influence, though school book fairs etc may also have an impact on their game/toy choices.
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