What Parents Can Do About TV
Here are some ways to help keep your child's
TV viewing in balance:
- Set limits on the amount of TV your child watches. Be firm. Limit
children's TV viewing to an hour or two daily. Before children watch television, they
should do their homework and chores, but TV should not be used as a reward. Helping
children find things to do instead of watching TV, such as sports, hobbies, or family
activities, can make setting limits easier.
- Help your child plan TV viewing in advance. Choose programs from TV
listings at the beginning of each week. Keep copies of the family viewing schedule where
everyone can see them (by the TV, in her bedroom, or on the refrigerator) as reminders.
- Know what television shows your child watches. Watch TV with your
child. When programs show sex, alcohol or drug abuse, or violence, talk about what you
see. Help your child understand what he is watching. This is a good time to reinforce your
own family values.
- Do not permit TV watching during dinner. Dinner is often the only time
that families are able to get together during the day. If the TV set is on at the same
time, it will get in the way of talking to each other.
- Do not allow your child to have a TV set in his bedroom. Not only will
he tend to watch more TV, but he will probably stay in his room away from other family
members. When a child watches TV in his own bedroom, it is harder for parents to guide his
program choices. He may get less sleep, causing him to be tired at school the next day.
- Keep books, magazines and board games in the TV room. Visit the library
often with your children. Help them select books to read instead of always watching TV.
- Set an example of behavior you wish to instill. If you want your child
to read more, that is what you should do. If you would like him to go outdoors for
physical activity, make it a part of an enjoyable family exercise program.
- Ask local television stations to schedule educational programs for children.
Tell station managers not only what you do not like, but what you enjoy. Good programs
often don't get the best ratings, but letters of praise can help keep them on the air.
Groups like Action for Children's Television (20 University Road, Cambridge, MA 02138) are
working hard to improve TV programming for children.
- If TV causes arguments or fights, simply unplug it for a while.
Children can be creative when TV is not taking up all their time and attention.
Adapted from Caring for Your School-age Child: Ages 5 to 12. Copyright American Academy
of Pediatrics (Bantam, 1995)
Educational Television
This past summer the FCC required
broadcasters to provide at least three hours a week of "educational" programs.
That is a real win for our children. But it is important not to lose sight of the fact
that all of what is offered on television educates and influences our children in
thousands of subtle ways. Why else would companies spend millions of dollars to get a few
seconds of air time for their products? Television is a powerful teaching medium.
All of television is "educational";
the questions are, "Who is being educated?" and "What are they being
educated to do?" From what the characters in a show look like...Are they fat or
skinny? What is their ethnic background? What does a typical TV family look and act like?
All these factors are "educating" our kids.
We could do an entire year's course in the
"education" in advertisement. But here are a few simple things you can do around
advertisements at home:
- In one evening of TV watching, keep a tally of what is advertised and what those items
would cost. Add the cost up and discuss that figure in terms of your family's expendable
income.
- Look at what commercials are shown with which program and discuss why that is.
- Discuss: What is the effect of having a celebrity advertise a product? Why is that
celebrity taking his/her time to do that? How does it it make you feel about the product?
- Commercials increasingly use an emotional need to sell their products. For example, the
product will make you happy or successful, popular or secure. Discuss this with your kids
and examine ways that commercials do this.
Media Education
There is a movement on the horizon in
education and that is media literacy. Essentially media literacy is the learned ability to
interpret, analyze, understand and create media messages. There is a complimentary media
literacy curriculum that is available to teachers in Washington State from the National
Association of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS). Let your kids' teachers know they can
get copies of this curriculum by calling (206) 682-3576. Kids really deserve to have the
skills that empower them to recognize and work with media messages. They are skills which
will help reduce media's powerful influence over them.
Take Charge of Your TV: A workshop for parents and/or teens
- This workshop is available to PTA members across Washington State. It offers a hands-on
environment to deal with questions and problems raised by television in today's busy
families. You will go away with ideas and tools for a continued relationship with your TV
that reflects what YOU want from TV, not what IT wants from you.
- For those of you who want to be trained to become a "Take Charge" workshop
leader, please contact the Washington State PTA. There will likely be a day-long training
sometime in late January or early February, 1997.
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Video Game Rating System
RSAC, the Recreational Software Advisory
Council, informs consumers about the content of software games using the symbols shown
below. These symbols appear along with more specific information about each category as
labels on software packaging.
Violence
All -- Suitable for all audiences
Contents may include:
- Harmless conflict; some damage to objects
Level 1
Contents may include:
- Creatures injured or killed; damage to objects; fighting
Level 2
Contents may include:
- Humans injured or killed with small amount of blood
Level 3
Contents may include:
- Humans injured or killed; blood and gore
Level 4
Contents may include:
- Wanton and gratuitous violence; torture; rape
Nudity/Sex
All -- Suitable for all audiences
Contents may include:
- No nudity or revealing attire. Romance; no sex
Level 1
Contents may include:
- Revealing attire. Passionate kissing
Level 2
Contents may include:
- Partial nudity. Clothed sexual touching
Level 3
Contents may include:
- Non-sexual frontal nudity. Non-explicit sexual activity
Level 4
Contents may include:
- Provocative frontal nudity. Explicit sexual activity; sex crimes
Language
All -- Suitable for all audiences
Contents may include:
- Inoffensive slang; no profanity
Level 1
Level 2
Contents may include:
- Expletives; non-sexual anatomical references
Level 3
Contents may include:
- Strong, vulgar language; obscene gestures
Level 4
Contents may include:
- Crude or explicit sexual references
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Violent Images Reach Children
American TV programs and movies are the most
violent in the world, and more than 1,000 studies tell us that our children are affected
by what they see. Seeing a lot of violence on TV, in movies and in video games can lead
children to behave aggressively. But parents can do something about the violence our
children see in the media.
Here are a few tips to help us place solutions
before problems.
- Talk to your children about the violence they see. Explain that despite what they
sometimes see on TV, in movies and in video games, violence is not an acceptable way to
resolve problems.
- Teach children to be "media literate." Children who are "media
literate" are more resistant to harmful media effects. Teach them about the
difference between fantasy and reality. Explain what commercials are really about.
- Talk to your pediatrician.
For a free brochure, send a stamped, self-addressed envelope to: TV and The Family,
Dept. C, American Academy of Pediatrics, PO Box 927 Elk Grove Village, IL 60009. |