Large companies have found a new source of profit: our children. Joel Bakan reveals the extent to which these companies exploit the vulnerability and suggestibility of children, how they manipulate the fears of their parents, and act without regard for the interests and health of children. The number of children using psychotropic drugs has sharply increased after pharmaceutical manufacturers began employing insidious and often illegal practices to ensure that mental disorders are diagnosed in children much more frequently than before, and to convince parents that their offspring must necessarily take medication. Sophisticated marketing develops increasingly refined and effective tactics that play on children's desires and emotions, luring them into the nets of compulsive consumerism. Video game creators present children with games full of sex and violence, and social media owners infiltrate the social and emotional world of children, influencing them to spend more and more time online. Chronic health issues in children, from asthma to cancer, autism, and congenital defects, are becoming an increasingly serious problem as our environment is contaminated with thousands of industrial chemicals. The book is a manifesto calling for immediate change. Perhaps we will find the strength to protect our children from predators...
