By AMY JORDAN and JOSEPH TUROWWith the selection of Joe Lieberman as the democratic nominee for Vice President, an issue that has been off the political radar for a while has come back in to play. What can we do
By AMY JORDAN and JOSEPH TUROWWith the selection of Joe Lieberman as the
democratic nominee for Vice President, an issue that has been off the political
radar for a while has come back in to play. What can we do about the level of
violence and sex in the media? It would be easy, as some have done, to solely
blame the industries that produce these media for the problem. They should take
responsibility for the product they produce. But research at the Annenberg
Public Policy Center suggests that asking the industry to be more accountable
may be only part of the solution to what has become a major cause of concern
for parents.
While the movie, television, video game and Internet
industries have not toned down the violence and sex in the products they
create, they have agreed to provide parents with tools to help them know what
is in these products and steer children away from them. But the question
remains, are these tools adequate and do parents know they are
available?
Our research reveals that even in the face of these new tools,
many U.S. parents feel powerless to stem the tide of violence and sex that
flows into their homes through the media. It may be that they are overwhelmed
by all that they have to supervise. Consider this: Vvirtually all homes have
television sets and the majority have VCRs, video game systems and Web
connections. What’s more, much of the 4 1/2 hours a day that children spend in
front of a screen can be accomplished in the privacy of the child’s own
well-stocked bedroom – 57 percent have a television, 30 percent have a VCR, 36
percent have a cable hook-up, 20 percent have a computer, and 39 percent have
video game equipment.
With so many choices, so many channels and so many
technological complexities, many parents have simply thrown up their hands and
left decisions surrounding media up to the children themselves. This is despite
the existence of tools that allow parents to be better consumers of media for
their children. There are devices that can filter content parents deem
inappropriate on the Internet, TV blocking technology, age and content ratings
for television shows and new policies to bring more enriching TV shows to
children.
Why aren’t parents using these tools to make the home a more
media-friendly environment for children? Parents lack basic knowledge about
both the policies and the technologies designed to empower them. Very few
parents understand the TV ratings system or the V-chip built into new TV sets;
almost no one knows that commercial broadcasters are supposed to provide three
hours a week of educational television for children, and a significant number
feel less competent than their children when it comes to the Internet.
The
problem is that parents haven’t gotten that message. For parents to use
computer tools to enforce their on-line rules, they must understand how the
filters work and whether they are suitable for blockiing the content they’re
concerned about. For parents to guide their children to educational
programming, they need to know that it exists and when it is on. There have
been some efforts by the industry and advocacy groups to inform parents about
the information and programming, but they have been half-hearted or
underhanded. They are particularly ineffective when one considers the efforts
and dollars that are used to advertise the very video games, television shows
and Internet sites parents worry about.
Many parents we’ve spoken to feel
they’re fighting an uphill battle. They complain that the industry is putting
out bad product and they need to act more responsibly. The retort from the
industry: They’re doing their part by producing tools to help parents do a
better job and that content that is more adult oriented still needs to be
produced.
Of course there is no one sector to blame and there are no simple
answers. Parents and the industry can do their part, but there must be a way to
bridge the two worlds that most often have very different notions of what’s
best for the child. This is where organized, community-based efforts can
help.
At a recent Rutgers University meeting, advocates and scholars
concerned about “media literacy” bemoaned the lack of programs to help parents
and children cope with what is an increasingly complicated and potentially
dangerous media environment for kids. They argued that while so much of the
school curriculum is devoted to teaching children how to read, write and
understand the print media (like books and newspapers), virtually no attention
is paid to the media they spend the most time with (television, radio, the
Internet). Their point is well-taken. Children need to learn- in a deliberate
and organized way — to be wise in how they allocate their time with media and
critical of the kinds of things they see, hear and read. This can happen in the
schools (and does it other industrialized countries like England, Australia and
Canada). This can happen around the schools — with parent/teacher
associations, after-school centers, and youth centers. And this can happen in
other places where families congregate YMCAs, places of worship, or libraries.
What is important is that parents and children have the space and guidance to
explore how to use the media (and the tools provided by the industry to use it
wisely). With this kind of support, families will not have to navigate the
Information Age alone.
Amy Jordan directs research on Children and
Media for the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania.
Joseph Turow is the Robert Lewis Shayon Professor at the University of
Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication.