In Edutainment shows and games, they will assume the viewer/player to be a child. In first-person novels, this can go either way — the narrator might assume the reader to be an adult, or might assume the reader to be a child. Or maybe a teenager.
Compare Fake Interactivity. Related to Target Audience.
Examples
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Fan Works
- My Immortal: Ebony assumes the reader to be old enough to be sexually aroused, calling you a "sicko".
Literature
- The teenage protagonist of The Last Of Will assumes the reader is an adult, even saying in the first that chapter the reader probably isn't going to take her seriously because of her young age.
- In The Lightning Thief, the protagonist tells the reader in the first chapter that if they are "a normal kid reading this because they think it's fiction", they are free to keep reading.
Video Games
- Adiboo: Magical Playland: No matter what birth date you put in at the beginning of the game, the title character treats you as a playmate.
- Freddi Fish: In the second game the title character treats the player as a classmate at her school.
- Naturally happens in the Jumpstart games, with the characters assuming the player to be an elementary schooler.
Western Animation
- Blue's Clues: A rather odd example where a fictional version of your voice will chime in just in case you don't respond to Steve's questions. Your fake voice sounds like a toddler or preschooler.
- An episode of Johnny Test did this as well. Johnny and his talking dog Dukey are trapped in an action movie (through the use of VR helmets created by his genius sisters), and when they realize how the movie's supposed to end (think Thelma & Louise) Dukey screams at Johnny "You couldn't have just stayed home and watched cartoons like normal kids!". Johnny and Dukey then pause and look at the viewer before continuing to panic about getting out of the movie.
- Word Party: The babies and narrator address you as the big kid.
