What's the Story 8. Advertising and Your Child has been prepared for the parents of the 43 million U.S. youngsters between two and 12 years old. It is estimated that children in this nation watch an average of 3.5 hours of television every day, the equivalent on an annual basis of a 50-day marathon of TV viewing. Instead, children are most likely to settle down in front of the television to take in the exploits of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or the Ghostbusters. Much of this viewing by children takes place on weekday afternoons and Saturday mornings, when parents are at work or even asleep.
Most parents remain unaware that their small children now qualify as big business for advertisers.
This may be due to the fact that much of the television viewing by children goes largely unmonitored by their elders. CARU was founded in 1974 and has as its mission the promotion of truthful, accurate advertising to children under the age of 12. We recognize that the special nature and needs of this youthful audience require particular care and diligence on our part and that of advertisers. To this end, we recently revised the CARU Self-Regulatory Guidelines for Children's Advertising , which are discussed at the end of Advertising and Your Child . CARU is primarily devoted to encouraging advertising that is truthful and sensitive to the uniquely impressionable child audience.