30 Ways in 30 Days to Save Your Family by Rebecca Hagelin

Author:Rebecca Hagelin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Regnery Publishing
Published: 2010-06-10T16:00:00+00:00

THE CHALLENGE

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, the average child views television for approximately four hours a day. This astounding fact should be enough to give every parent cause for alarm.

Aside from the fact that every hour spent watching television is usually an hour wasted, it is also an hour that takes the place of doing something good or healthy—like reading, exercising, interacting with family and peers, and enjoying the outdoors. To make matters worse, many of those wasted hours are saturated with violence, sexual activity, drug use, crafty advertisements, and other pernicious media material that your child—and probably you in many cases—should simply not be watching.

An article by Time-Scout Monitor writes that, “Television has become so entrenched in family life that it needs to be considered a socializing agent comparable to parents and educators. 98 percent of the 75 million households in the United States own a television set, and these sets are turned on an average of 7 hours a day.”

The standards for what is permissible in primetime are at an all-time low on both broadcast and cable stations. Steaming sex-laden shows geared toward young people are now airing at the peak of the viewing hour, accessible to children of any age. To make matters worse, most digital or satellite television contracts come with scores of channels airing pornography and countless variations of MTV, VH1, and the like. Without limitations, TV is simply not safe for anyone—especially those with developing minds.

And, of course, as every parent knows by now, it’s not just the programming you have to worry about—it’s often the commercials, too. How many of us have frantically tried to grab the remote control in the middle of an ad on erectile dysfunction? How many pre-teen and teen girls have been embarrassed when an ad on feminine hygiene comes on while boys are in the room? And how many of us are sick and tired of adult males being portrayed in commercials as lazy, ignorant, and stupid?

The fact is, in today’s television world, you can never be certain that your family is safe from values that run counter to yours or that your kids are protected from information far above their level of maturity to understand.

The psychological damage done to children and teens by exposure to harmful television has been proven and documented by countless scientific and social studies. Research also shows how television programming can affect behavior.

A 2008 study by the RAND Corporation reveals what many parents have known in our guts for a long time: kids who watch sex on television are more likely to engage in sexual activity. The study followed the viewing habits of teenagers over a four-year period and found, specifically, that teens who watch high levels of sexual activity are also twice as likely to be involved in a pregnancy as kids who have limited exposure. The report also revealed that such consumers are also more likely to engage in sex at younger ages than their peers.

The University of Michigan’s Health System, as compiled by Kyla Boyse, R.

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