Company type | Nonprofit organization |
---|---|
Genre | Lobbying Advocacy Research Entertainment Reviews Parenting Education |
Founded | 2003 |
Founder | James P. Steyer (CEO) |
Headquarters | , United States |
Revenue | US$25,452,329 (2018) |
Total assets | 40,776,663 United States dollar (2022) |
Website | commonsensemedia |
Common Sense Media (CSM) is an American nonprofit organization that reviews and provides ratings for media and technology with the goal of providing information on their suitability for children.[1][2][3][4] It also funds research on the role of media in the lives of children[5] and advocates publicly for child-friendly policies and laws regarding media.[2][6]
Founded by Jim Steyer in 2003, Common Sense Media reviews and allows users to review also, divided into adult and child sections. It has reviews of books, films, television shows, video games, apps, websites, podcasts, and YouTube channels and rates them in terms of age-appropriate educational content, such as "positive role models", "positive messages", diverse representation, "violence and scariness", "sexual content", "language", "consumerism" and more, for families and caregivers making media choices for their children. They have also developed a set of ratings to evaluate apps, games, and websites used in a learning environment.
Donations from foundations and individuals and fees from media partners finance Common Sense Media. Today, the organization distributes its content to more than 100 million US homes via partnerships with a variety of media and tech companies. Common Sense Media describes itself as "the nation's largest membership organization dedicated to improving kids' media lives".[1] By 2016, the organization had over 65 million unique users and worked with more than 275,000 educators across the United States.[7] Common Sense serves over 100 million users a year.[8] In 2016, Charlie Rose reported that Common Sense Media was the United States' largest non-profit dedicated to children's issues.[9]
In August 2020, CSM announced the formation of a for-profit subsidiary, Common Sense Networks, to create and distribute original media targeted at children.[10] Common Sense Networks then announced an OTT platform named Sensical, which launched June 29, 2021.[11]