Quoted: Uh … no, says Joanne Cantor, the director for the Center for Communications Research at University of Wisconsin in Madison. First of all, kids under about 8 years old don’t have the cognitive ability to rely on past information — such as our parental media literacy speeches — when later watching a commercial for a juicy burger meal that comes with a fun toy, she says. Young kids operate in the immediate moment and typically believe everything they’re told. They can’t yet separate fantasy from reality until they’re older, says Cantor.
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