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LONDON Sitting on a sofa in a glass walled room a 2 year old in a blue T shirt is riveted by an episode of CoComelon an animated cartoon series full of vivid colors cherubic children and earworm songs like Miss Polly Had a Dolly and Ten Little Duckies. Three adults stand outside a closed door watching the toddler watch the television. One studies a computer screen that shows a live feed from a camera pointed at the tyke. Its audience research day at Moonbug Entertainment the London company that produces 29 of the most popular online kids shows in the world found on more than 150 platforms in 32 languages and with 7.8 billion views on YouTube in March alone. Once a month children are brought here one at a time and shown a handful of episodes to figure out exactly which parts of the shows are engaging and which are tuned out.
For anyone older than 2 years old the team deploys a whimsically named tool: the Distractatron. Its a small TV screen placed a few feet from the larger one that plays a continuous loop of banal real world scenes a guy pouring a cup of coffee someone getting a haircut each lasting about 20 seconds. Whenever a youngster looks away from the Moonbug show to glimpse the Distractatron a note is jotted down.
Its not mega interesting whats on the Distractatron said Maurice Wheeler who runs the research group. But if they are not fully focused they might go Oh whats that? and kind of drift over. We can see what they are looking at and the exact moment when they got distracted.
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