• Features of Media Offers Suitable for Children

    Parents bear the main responsibility for selecting suitable media content, especially for younger children up to six years of age.

    In order to protect children from content that they cannot understand or process, it is necessary to support and accompany them in their use of film, television and the Internet. In addition, a sound pre-selection of developmental and age-appropriate media content is of great importance, especially for children between the ages of three and six.

    Whether a media offer is suitable for children cannot usually be assessed immediately.


    However, a few factors can help you to orientate yourself in order to make a good choice with the extensive range of media available:

    • You can sort out media content thematically based on children's content.
    • You can encourage them to discover by doing it themselves and thus stimulate their imagination.
    • Children have a great need for information and knowledge and are excited when they can satisfy this need through media offers.
    • The media content does not necessarily have to include learning opportunities in order to be suitable for children.

    It is essential that media offers for small children contain nothing that could frighten or overtax them. Unsuitable content such as violence against humans and/or animals, threatening and loud noise or frightening characters should be avoided. The tension of the story should also be clear and concise. The stage of the children’s development should be taken into account, as a media offer overtaxes some children while at the same time bores other children of the same age.

    In Germany, the release of films, music and computer games for children and young people is regulated by law. The FSK - Freiwillige Selbstkontrolle der Filmwirtschaft is responsible for the age rating of cinema films as well as films on DVD or Blu-Ray. The age rating of video and computer games is carried out by USK - Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle. The USK and the FSK assign the classification "released from 0", "released from 6", "released from 12", "released from 16" and "released from 18". For the age group under six years, only media offers with a release "from 0" should be selected. These releases do not represent general age recommendations. Here, too, it is important to take into account the individual developmental status of each child.

    Further information on the classification standards of FSK and USK is provided in Module 1.


    Comprehension Questions

    1. Can you state a few criteria that can help you make a good choice of suitable media for children?

    2. Why is it important to accompany children even when they use various children's apps?

    3. Why should you avoid selecting media offers for children aged 3-6 that contain advertising?