Survey Says 82% of Kids in “Netflix Only” Homes Don’t Know What Commercials Are

As an adult we sometimes find ourselves engaging in conversations about our childhoods and some of the things we cherished.  You know, those nostalgic “when I was a kid” talks.  As parents we tend to follow up with conversations that center around the kind of experiences we had and products we used that our children will never experience or even understand.  Take the rotary phone as an example.  I love rotary phones but there’s no way my child will ever experience one or even know what one is.  How about cassette tapes?  Most children today have no clue what a cassette tape even is.  I mention these things because a recent survey I just read was a total shock.

Last year website exStreamist wrote a story reporting that Netflix saves children from an average of 150 hours of commercials every year. The site then received several emails from readers telling then that not only does Netflix save their own kids from commercials, but that their kids don’t even know what commercials are.  As a follow up the site decided to survey parents of young children (below 10 years old) to see how many kids in “Netflix only” homes knew what commercials are, compared to those homes who watch regular television.  Here are the results:

Kids in “Netflix only” homes are way less likely to know or understand what a television commercial is, especially compared to those in homes with normal television.

• 82% of kids in Netflix only homes don’t know what commercials are
• 38% of kids in regular television homes don’t know what commercials are

Here are a few of the comments the site received from the survey, bracketed by the type of home they’re in:

• [Netflix only home] It’s nice being able to leave the TV on for the kids and know they’re not being overwhelmed by ads.
• [Regular television] We only let the kids watch PBS which doesn’t really have much advertising during children’s programming, but we do also enjoy Netflix and other streaming services with “kids” sections.
• [Netflix only home] Our two young daughters have probably seen fewer than 10 commercials in their lives, we pretty much only stream kids shows on Netflix and Hulu.
• [Regular television] I think my kids like the ads, which I know sounds terrible, but they love watching toy commercials on YouTube on the iPad, go figure.