TY - JOUR PY - 2012// TI - Effects of media ratings on children and adolescents: a litmus test of the forbidden fruit effect JO - Journal of communication A1 - Gosselt, Jordy F. A1 - De Jong, Menno D. T. A1 - van Hoof, Joris J. SP - 1084 EP - 1101 VL - 62 IS - 6 N2 - Media ratings serve to inform parents about and protect minors from violent or otherwise harmful media content. Most of these systems use age pictograms and content warning pictograms for entertainment products. An experiment was conducted to investigate whether these pictograms, contrary to their purpose, have an appealing effect on children and adolescents. Compared to prior studies into this forbidden fruit effect concerning DVDs and games, more realistic materials were used. In the experiment, 322 elementary school students (911 years) and 335 high school students (1315 years) were exposed to 10 DVD or game covers and asked to judge the products' attractiveness. The results show that the pictograms did not increase the attractiveness of games and DVDs for children and adolescents.
Language: en
LA - en SN - 0021-9916 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2012.01597.x ID - ref1 ER -