By David Crary, National Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --Next fall, when millions of kids tune into Cartoon Network to watch Bugs Bunny, Scooby-Doo and other favorites, they’ll encounter something new — an ambitious campaign to enlist them as foot soldiers in the fight against bullying.
Unlike many bullying programs, this one is geared toward middle school, where experts say bullying is most common. It also targets not bullies nor the bullied, but kids who witness bullying, giving them appropriate techniques to intervene.
“There are specific strategies young people can learn to make a difference in their schools and communities,” said Alice Cahn, Cartoon Network’s vice president of social responsibility. “We decided to focus on those who watch bullying happen — the bystander community — who know they should do something, but are not sure what.”
The anti-bullying campaign includes content in the cartoons themselves, in public service ads, in an online curriculum and on CNN, which will include complementary programming for parents.
Susan Limber, of Clemson University’s Institute on Family and Neighborhood Life, said she was intrigued by the proposed fusion of Cartoon Network and CNN efforts.
“I like the fact we’re bridging the generations,” said Limber, who served on a panel of bullying experts used by Cartoon Network. “Kids alone can’t address bullying. They need adults to take the issue seriously and be there to help.”
In partnership with a federal agency, the network plans to start the campaign Oct. 1, both on the air and on its popular, game-filled website.
The idea for the campaign arose last summer, when Cartoon Network polled children from its audience on their worries. War and the economic woes of their parents topped the list, but the children said they were powerless to resolve those problems. Bullying, in contrast, surfaced as a problem children felt they could help combat.
Cahn noted that PBS, through shows like “Sesame Street”, has been teaching anti-bullying lessons to preschoolers for decades, but that this program is different in targeting viewers in or approaching middle school.
“There’s never been a sustained approach aimed at the audience that’s growing away from teacher/parent involvement in their lives and is beginning to make decisions for themselves,” Cahn said. “We can be that expert source to help them stop a problem we know is really bothering them.”
The campaign plans to make use of “teachable moments” in the cartoons themselves, Cahn said.
“When the show is over, we can very quickly say, ‘Remember this bit? If you want more information, look at our website.'”
Bullying prevention gained prominence and funding following the deadly 1999 shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado. Several recent cases of youth suicides linked to bullying have kept the topic in the spotlight.
Harvard Medical School psychologist Ronald Slaby, who also is serving on Cartoon Network’s advisory panel, said the “bystander strategy” is considered the most promising approach to curtailing bullying.
Studies indicate that about 85 percent of bullying incidents are witnessed by bystanders, yet only about one-fifth of the time do the witnesses intervene on behalf of the target, Slaby said.
“The bystander is almost always there,” Slaby said. “They can be pivotal in allowing the bullying to continue and escalate, or to stopping it.”
The Cartoon Network campaign, still being designed, will offer these bystanders a range of tactics for confronting the bully or alerting adults.
“It’s almost like a game that’s being played,” Slaby said. “If you get a child to think strategically that they have a role to play as a bystander, that’s the key.”
The network’s website will include links to the federal Health Resources and Services Administration’s Stop Bullying Now campaign.
Stephanie Bryn, the agency’s project officer, said Cartoon Network’s campaign appeared to be the most comprehensive anti-bullying effort yet by any of major youth-oriented U.S. networks. But the issue also is being addressed by Cartoon Network’s competitors.
Nickelodeon said the back-to-school “Nick News” episode airing this fall will cover bullying, offering the firsthand perspective of kids.
Disney Channel said its live action and animated series regularly include anti-bullying themes. One of the channel’s stars, Demi Lovato of “Sonny With A Chance” and “Camp Rock,” is a national spokeswoman for Teens Against Bullying.
Cartoon Network, available in 97 million U.S. homes, says it averages more than 1 million viewers at any point between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., including 1.4 million during 8-10 p.m. prime time. The vast majority are 6- to 14-year-olds — more than two-thirds of them boys.
The network says its website, CartoonNetwork.com, is averaging 4.5 million unique visits per month. It features more than 200 free-to-play online games.
Among the highlights of the network’s planned fall schedule is a new 26-episode half-hour series called “The Looney Tunes Show,” featuring Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck as roommates with the other Looney Tunes characters as their neighbors.
Google Opens Its Defense In Antitrust Case Alleging Monopoly Over Online Ad Technology
Google opened its defense against allegations that it holds an illegal monopoly on online advertising technology Friday with witness testimony saying the industry is vastly more complex and competitive than portrayed by the federal government.
"The industry has been exceptionally fluid over the last 18 years," said Scott Sheffer, a vice president for global partnerships at Google, the company's first witness at its antitrust trial in federal court in Alexandria.
The Justice Department and a coalition of states contend that Google built and maintained an illegal monopoly over the technology that facilitates the buying and selling of online ads seen by consumers.
Google counters that the government's case improperly focuses on a narrow type of online ads — essentially the rectangular ones that appear on the top and on the right-hand side of a webpage. In its opening statement, Google's lawyers said the Supreme Court has warned judges against taking action when dealing with rapidly emerging technology like what Sheffer described because of the risk of error or unintended consequences.
Google says defining the market so narrowly ignores the competition it faces from social media companies, Amazon, streaming TV providers and others who offer advertisers the means to reach online consumers.
Justice Department lawyers called witnesses to testify for two weeks before resting their case Friday afternoon, detailing the ways that automated ad exchanges conduct auctions in a matter of milliseconds to determine which ads are placed in front of which consumers and how much they cost.
The department contends the auctions are finessed in subtle ways that benefit Google to the exclusion of would-be competitors and in ways that prevent... Read More