CHILDREN as young as five should be taught to critically analyse advertising, media and popular culture "messages"
at school, says a visiting New South Wales academic.

Southern Cross University Associate Professor Karen Brooks will today tell educators at the National Primary School Conference
in Adelaide that they are leaving it too late to teach children the skills to deal with the bombardment of sexualised images and
persuasive advertising they are subjected to daily.

Associate Professor Brooks said today's children aged five to 18 – who are referred to as "screenagers" or "mediavores" –
spend up to eight hours a day using televisions, computers and mobile phones but these technologies were not used enough in classrooms.

Giving students the "tools" to decode media messages could help address issues with body image, eating disorders and perceptions of reality, she said.

Associate Professor Brooks has called for popular culture and the use of new technologies in schools to be addressed as part of the new national curriculum.

"If kids are having advertising targeted at them then it is incumbent on us to be intervening in those messages in school and in the home," she said.

"It's important that we . . . start to teach kids about how these messages are constructed, how to put together what their
purpose is, that they are to sell products. The way to do it is to use popular culture (in the classroom) from a very, very young age.

"We should be using these messages and teaching (children) how to construct them themselves.

"It's absolutely shocking that they have to wait until university to learn about something that bombards them every day."

SA Primary Principals Association president Steve Portlock agreed it was important for students to understand the effects of
media but argued this was already covered in schools.

"We look at the internet and bias in relation to advertising," he said.

"We teach the kids that just because it's on the internet or on TV or in ads doesn't mean it's good and they actually need to have a bit
more knowledge and find out what the purpose is."

Associate Professor Brooks' comments come as Flinders University research has found including "media literacy" education in curriculums can
reduce the risk of students developing problems with body image.

About 540 Year 8 boys and girls participated in the study in which some received eight lessons in media literacy and others did not.