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Marc Goodchild ‘Better by Design’ (NMA Live: Children & Digital Media)

In attending the NMA Live on Children’s Digital Media Consuption event today I was mostly looking forward to hearing from Marc Goodchild, Editorial Lead for BBC IPTV (Children’s). He spoke convincingly after an initially cringe opening slide (his deck was entitled ‘Childhood 3.0’; though he apologised for this) around the role of digital in children’s lives and the responsibilities of content producers in delivering better service through design.

He opened by highlighting the polarized approaches we have to digital today. On the one hand, people hold the opinion that technology holds many dangers for children, that children themselves are fickle, and that society cannot be trusted with helping them learn. On the other hand, there is a growing point of view that technology is neutral, that children are sensible and that society can help and support children through digital.

In this way he sees the role of digital media being to enable relationships and keep up communications for both companionship and emotional support. Content producers should allow children to explore virtual worlds safely, developing their understanding of technologies and preparing them for life as a digital citizen. To achieve this, content producers must become “better by design” - taking a socially proactive role in meeting audience needs whilst protecting, moderating, setting rules and driving literacy. This might mean using clever UX design to keep children in the right places rather than locking them in or out of experiences; it might mean equipping parents with the tools and knowledge to make more informed choices. It can manifest in a number of ways.

Further, producers must remove the barriers to content exploration. As a result of multichannel and platform agnostic consumption it is now the TV show brand that is important, not narrative. Brands and characters can be engaged with through narrative content, sure, but also through games, social interaction, discussion…it’s all about flow and interactivity. Being better through design.

Here is the #nmalive stream from the event