Children’s Engagement Study
The Lowdown
Hi there,
Thank you for your time and interest in what we hope to be a groundbreaking study about young children’s engagement with television programme making!
The following will outline the study details further and answer your questions, however if you’re left with any queries then please feel free to email me and the team on research@6sense.co.uk.
To those of you who wish to participate and complete the survey, I will be in contact soon.
Warm wishes,
Catherine
Researcher – Sixth Sense Media
What is this study about?
Sixth Sense Media has been making television programmes for children for over 17 years and at the heart of all of our programmes is the audience. We make shows about children, for children with the latest being the CBeebies hit documentary series Our Family. If you haven’t watched it before then do check it out: http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/shows/our-family
Here at Sixth Sense we care about educating, entertaining and inspiring children. Our MD, Sallyann Keizer, studied child development and we are passionate about understanding how children’s brains really work. We were very excited to meet our current partners Affectiva Inc., who we are collaborating with on this project.
With the use of the latest facial recognition software, provided by Affectiva, we are able to analyse the expressions and emotions that cross a child’s face when watching videos about other children.
Questions we may explore include:
Do younger children enjoy different content than those older?
How do boys engage with programming in comparison with girls?
Are children drawn to other children on our screens that are similar to them or those who are different?
Once the results are in, we hope to share what we learn with other children’s programme makers so that more shows are made for children informed by children.
We don’t know what the results will show but we look forward to finding out!
How does the study work?
To analyse children’s faces whilst watching programming, study participants are asked to watch three videos made by Sixth Sense Media. These videos will consist of exclusive Our Family content: some that is a re-edit of shows which have previously been broadcast and some content that has never been aired. Each video lasts 8 minutes.
While your child is watching, your webcam will record their face and with the use of Affectiva’s software, we are able to analyse their expressions. This helps us to understand how engaged they are with the programmes and in what way.
Please, visit here for a demo showing how the video analysis works:
https://labs-portal.affectiva.com/portal/web-demo
A Quick Survey
Before the children watch the videos we ask you, their parent or carer, to complete a quick survey. This is to help us build a broader understanding of our audience and ensure that our study is truly representative of the diversity of children in the UK today.
The survey will take approximately 10 minutes to complete.
Please be assured that Sixth Sense Media adheres to the Data Protection Act 1998. The identification of you and your child or children will not be shared with anyone at Affectiva, the videos are strictly confidential and all of your data can be deleted any time at your request.
Once you complete this form, one of the members of our team will give you a call within a few days to welcome you to the project and talk over the experience a little further. This is the perfect opportunity for you to ask any outstanding questions.
If you are happy to proceed, please do complete the survey now: Children’s Engagement Study
Who are Affectiva?
Affectiva is a tech company that specialises in developing ways to recognise facial expressions and to map those expressions to emotions. Its software is being used by companies around the world to improve product and service design, by understanding how people are responding to media and technology. For example, film-makers are using these analytics to understand whether characters successfully build rapport with viewers, to improve audience enjoyment.
See here how one educational company has designed a learning program that responds to children’s emotions, keeping them engaged in the learning process: http://www.affectiva.com/success-story/little-dragon/
Who can participate in this study?
With permission from their parent or carer, any child that lives in the UK aged between 3 and 7 can take part in this study. However, for the software to work its magic your child must have access to a desktop computer or laptop with a webcam and a good connection to the internet.
If you have multiple siblings within the age bracket whom would like to take part they are all welcome to be involved. Please fill out the relevant questions on the survey for each child and ensure that they watch the films separately.
When is this happening?
The study launched in April 2017 and is currently open for at least a few more weeks, so please complete the survey as soon as possible. Once we receive your completed survey one of the team will be in contact. Following this contact, we will send you a unique user identification number in addition to links to the three films for your child to watch, ideally over three consecutive days.
Why me?
Sixth Sense Media is passionate about enhancing the lives of future generations through television content. Using research garnered from the work of our sister company, the Happynesshub, we are currently making programming that has the wellbeing of children at the forefront.
Like us, you may want to take part in this study to help further the development of future content; or maybe you’re a fan of CBeebies and would enjoy being involved; or perhaps your child simply loves Our Family!
For whatever the reason, as a thank you for your time we will donate £2 to Child Bereavement UK for every participant who completes the study. This charity is close to our hearts and is currently helping us with our new series.
Furthermore, when you sign up to participate we welcome you as a member of the Sixth Sense family! With your permission, we would be honoured to add you to our database and whenever we have news or are searching for participants for new projects you’ll be the first to hear about it.
If you are happy to proceed, please do complete the survey now: Children’s Engagement Study