Hamid Jafari, the secretary of the Children's and Adolescents' Festival, emphasized in a speech that online platforms, despite the fact that approximately 40 to 50 percent of their content consumption is dedicated to children, do not spend any money on producing children's and adolescents' content. He described this action as an undesirable trend in the media industry that has severely affected this segment of the audience.
Profitability Without Responsibility
Jafari further pointed out that platforms only rely on content produced by others and exploit it as a source of income. According to him, the managers of these platforms believe that the revenue ceiling from the children's sector is only 50 percent, and therefore, they do not consider producing exclusive content in this area to be worthwhile. Meanwhile, this trend means ignoring the cultural and educational needs of children and adolescents.
State of Children's Content Production
Looking at the history of home entertainment networks, we find that the works produced in the field of children and adolescents do not even reach the number of ten. While productions in this area, apart from animation, have been very limited in other formats such as reality shows and series, and do not adequately meet the needs of young audiences. Currently, platforms generate about 5 trillion tomans from traffic and content consumption, of which about 2.5 trillion tomans is related to children's and adolescents' content.
This issue clearly shows that despite the high consumption of children's content, there are very few appropriate and quality productions in this field. Jafari pointed out that this lack of investment could have serious consequences for the culture and identity of children and adolescents. In other words, this lack of suitable content could lead to the institutionalization of inappropriate and harmful cultures for children.
Hamid Jafari expressed concern about this situation and called for more attention to the production of suitable content for children and adolescents. He believes that this issue is not solely the responsibility of platform managers, and all stakeholders, including producers, experts, and even parents, should pay attention to this important matter. In this regard, creating financial and moral support for children's content producers and establishing suitable spaces for showcasing these works is considered essential.
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