Children and Media

Years ago the media was a neutral source of information for the public however today, between the citizens using their freedom of speech and acting without using rationale, media has been corrupted to be negative, creating a bad influence on children. The media is the most influential factor in everyday life; children interact with some form of media everyday. The chart in Figure 1 shows the percentage of media use by teenagers on a daily basis.

The reality of the deep connection with the media would not be such a problem if the media itself was not so destructive and harmful. From the 12 year-old girls wearing mini skirts, anorexia increasing in teens, and rising juvenile crime rates, children have suffered the repercussions of this negative influence. Whether it is from the music, television, magazines, video games, or Internet, the constant flow of fictitious and damaging information through the media has and will continue to change the youth of our society.

First, music today showcases inappropriate themes, including the lyrics and the videos. The lyrics of modern day music are no longer about love and happiness as they were in pre modern culture. If a person were to listen to the songs played on most contemporary radio stations, the lyrics consist of involvement with drugs, consuming alcohol, having promiscuous sex, making money (sometimes in illegal ways), using horrible language, and committing violent crimes; even the titles of songs are crude, including songs with titles such as "Cigarettes and Beer," "Smack That," "Promiscuous Girl," and "Copenhagen," just to name a few. Is it the artist's responsibility to make music with good moral judgment? Maybe, maybe not, but they are trying to make money, it appears they sometimes put good ethics aside. As far as music videos, a significant amount of them feature half-naked women dancing in a very sexual way, celebrities smoking or drinking alcohol, wearing bulletproof vests and holding guns, or throwing money up in the air; these videos seem to be barely legal. An example of this negativity affecting the youth would be a personal observation I made a few years ago. My then nine-year-old next-door neighbor was outside of her house singing a song by an artist named Tweet. The song was about having sexual relations, and consisted of a chorus that sang "Ooh, there goes my shirt up over my head, Ooh my, Ooh there goes my skirt down off of my legs, Ooh my". As I listened to her sing this AND dance the video, I was extremely dismayed to the point where I asked her why she was doing that and ordered her to stop. Between the explicit lyrics and crude dancing, the modern day music is a harmful exposure to children.

Then, another potentially harmful form of media is video games. The violence and illegal activity in video games is outstanding. A video game named "Scarface" is full of murder and hitting on females. A video game titled "Grand Theft Auto," not only includes murder, but drugs, sex, and theft also. I could name at least a hundred violent games that are being sold. These games let children act improperly, and get rewarded for it. There are however parental ratings on video games which describe the age range the game is suitable for, however, it is not required the parent is present when the child buys the game. Does this rating system truly work then? Additionally, violent video games may put the thought of crime into heads. Although it depends on the mental stability of that child or person, acting illegally in the game and having fun doing it does not help the situation, especially if a person is psychologically troubled to begin with. On a more literal note, video games are bad for a person's physical health. Playing video games too often not only promotes unhealthy eating habits, but sitting down all day causes a lack of important everyday exercise. Games may captivate some people because it is an escape from the outside world, a form of relaxation, or simply entertainment, nonetheless, they can be harmful to today's generation because of the children's susceptibility to the world.

Furthermore, another unethical form of media is the magazines that are printed today. Magazines are a complete intrusion on the private lives of celebrities, and give off negative portrayals of individuals, and society as a whole. Magazines print several articles about the private lives, even sexual relations and drug use, of celebrities. Media sometimes portrays this as being "cool." An example of intrusion on celebrity private life would be the affairs of President Clinton. Supposedly, President Clinton cheated on his wife while in office. If it had been any other individual cheating on his or her spouse, would it have been all over the news? Infidelity happens everyday and is nothing new to the world. However, when President Clinton supposedly was unfaithful to his wife, it was plastered across the newspapers, and all his private business was exposed. Does a good President who may or may not have cheated on his wife now become a horrible President? A celebrity in rehab is an everyday experience and is no longer a shock to the public. DUI charges, drug overdoses and assault are nothing new either. Children look up to the celebrities that they idolize, and this is what they see: Lindsay Lohan in rehab for the fifth time, Paris Hilton finally in jail for an abundant amount of DUI charges, and Britney Spears doing drugs, shaving her head, and loosing her children. Is this what the children have to look up to? Is this what is cool? On a further note, magazines show women dressed in skimpy clothes wearing massive amounts of makeup; this affects the young girls who read these magazines and look up to these women. Perhaps the girls seeing these women will wear skimpy clothes and too much makeup, which can lead to underage sex and teenage pregnancy. Magazines also model skinny women and over-embellish on how beautiful they are, leading society (especially women) to believe that they have to be skinny to be gorgeous. Teenagers often buy in to the things they read, especially when it deals with being beautiful. Every young teen girl wants to be beautiful. The negative influence from the media and how it depicts women is now starting from very young ages. This idea that is being given off promotes several health risks including bulimia and anorexia. Not often are plus-sized models showcased on teen or entertainment magazines. The unrealistic idealism that the media has given society is incredibly false, and harmful as well.

Next, a more serious danger to children are the television shows broadcasted; the shows are getting extremely pessimistic, and do not have a beneficial impact on anyone. On average, Americans watch over eight hours of television a day (Sipe, 2007); for a child to have 8 hours of violence, crude humor, and sexual behavior put into their mind can definitely be damaging. First of all, several sitcoms, reality shows and series, no matter if they are comedy, drama, science fiction, or action and adventure, display several scenes of crude humor, adult situations, violence, and sex. Not only does TV display badly chosen themes, they make them out to be funny. For example, a TV series shows a single mother with about six children, all with different fathers; this show is a comedy! How can producers create this character and allow it to be funny, not only to the audience, but the character herself? Do the producers not realize they are unintentionally making a mockery of someone in her situation by making it humorous? It is highly doubtful that a real life woman in this character's shoes would find herself funny. Is it admirable to have several children, limited income, and no fathers for the children? These shows are increasing in popularity however, and it is often wondered why.

Furthermore, the violence, drugs, and alcohol in television are in abundance, and cannot be helpful to the youth. Children do not have to open to the elements of what society, as a whole seems to find entertaining. The violence on television has been proven to have increased the number of juvenile crimes over the past 10 years. Additionally, reality TV is often scripted, but people do not always realize that which gives them a distorted version of what is real, and what is not. Parental controls are now available on some televisions, but try being the parent of a 13-year-old child, and telling them not to watch prime time TV. It is a parents responsibility to monitor everything their child does and watches, but where is the corporate responsibility and standards to what they put on television in the first place? When it comes to the real life broadcasting, the news, there is so much spotlighting on the crimes, drug busts, and murders; it turns very pessimistic. Detailed information of crimes, including vulgar facts, could be kept private and does not need to be known by the public but it is. A good example of giving out too much information would be the videotape of death threats from Cho, which were broadcasted across the news after the Virginia Tech. Shooting. This video tape was crucial to police only, and did not have to be exposed on television, but overall, corporations now own television stations and they can present information however they want. Again I say, where are the corporate values and standards to what they allow to be televised, and how it is presented? In pre modern culture, it was the select few members of society which executed the criminal acts, which created the televised media; it seems now it is the media which provokes people to do crazy things just to get publicity. Although there is no stop to crime, it does not have to be broadcasted to everyone, and if it is, it does not have to be so blunt. The world in general is given a horrible label by the things that are being televised, and it is not fair that children have to see it.

Finally, the worst form of media for society, the window to the world, is the Internet. According to Murk (2005), " The Internet poses a serious danger for children because it is uncensored and unregulated". Absolutely anything can be researched on the Internet, including dangerous activities; not much is held back. A person can research in any basic search engine how to build homemade weapons such as bombs, knives, or guns. On the Internet, there are websites all about different kinds of drugs, how good they are, where to get them, how to make them, what can be substituted for the real thing, even how to make homemade paraphernalia to use the drugs with. A scary thought is, along with all that dangerous information on the Internet, there are also records of the public citizens names, addresses, phone numbers, and sometimes even more various personal information. Another huge danger on the Internet is that it is an easy place for a child to come in to harms way. Chat rooms and instant messengers are easily accessible to anyone. Anybody can be in a teenage chat room and portray them self to be a certain person and a certain age, but it does not mean he or she is. For example, the show on Dateline NBC titled "To Catch a Predator" does exactly that, sets up meetings in chat rooms between young children and adults, and when the adult goes to meet the child, the adult gets arrested. Many times, young children do not know any better than to give out personal information, even the name of their school is enough for a predator to find them. Is this actually the Internet's fault? Some may say that the police should be responsible for stopping this however as Grapes (2001) notes, "most local law-enforcement offices lack even the equipment to detect cybercrime". So before a person wants to defend this cyberspace and place blame on parents and law enforcement, remember that the police can not do everything, the Internet does hold some responsibility for what is happening. Moreover, the Internet has immense amounts of sexual and unacceptable content for young children. Pop-ups providing links to pornography sites often show up on the computer screen. If a child can click a mouse, they can access hundreds and thousands of pornography websites, all they have to do is click a button that says yes, they are over 18. Nudity is all over the Internet in disgusting ways. Sexual acts, positions, and degrading pictures and videos are easily accessible to anyone. A child should learn about sex from parents, not from sickening photographs of women demeaning themselves. The young generation is fascinated by technology and loves the Internet access.

Parental blocks are available for the Internet sights, but with all the technology in the world and children getting smarter by the day, it is easy to get past those blocks. Additionally, pedophilia which many times may occur because of the Internet, is another issue The Internet is constantly growing and hopefully it can be cleaned up a bit, therefore becoming less of a danger.

With the steady advances in technology, media will become more out in the open and freely available to children. The media was once just a way to pass and receive important news and information through the public, but now has emerged into immoral acts, violence, fallacious stories, fictitious advertisements, and hearsay. The media has an enormous power over young and impressionable children; unfortunately, media is mostly negative setting an overall pessimistic tone for the public, and giving out the wrong idea of the community. Young children frequently use music, television, magazines, video games, and the Internet; they are exposed to the cynical image of the public in which society has created. Hopefully in the future the over exposure of the negative media will lessen and clean up in order to provide the young generations with encouragement and a positive outlook on life.

REFERENCES:

Bissell, K. (2002). The Media Influences Women In Many Ways, One By Creating an "Ideal" Beauty for Women. The University at Albany. Retrieved October 26, 2007 from http://www.albany.edu/~cs1461/Negmedia.html

Bridge Gerdes, L. (1999). Media Violence Leads to Youth Violence. Opposing ViewpointsCenter. Retrieved December 14, 2007 from http://find.galegroup.com/ovrc/retrieve.do?subjectParam=Locale%2528en%252C%252C%2529%253AFQE%253D%2528su%252CNone%252C18%2529media%2Band%2Bchildren%2524&contentSet=GSRC&sort=Relevance&tabID=T010&sgCurrentPosition=0&subjectAction=DISPLAY_SUBJECTS&prodId=OVRC&searchId=R4¤tPosition=4&userGroupName=uphoenixcustom&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&sgHitCountType=None&qrySerId=Locale%28en%2C%2C%29%3AFQE%3D%28SU%2CNone%2C18%29media+and+children%24&inPS=true&searchType=BasicSearchForm&displaySubject=&docId=EJ3010153233&docType=GSRC

Grapes, B. (2001). Pedophiles are gaining easier access to children via the internet. Opposing ViewpointsCenter. Retrieved December 14, 2007 from http://find.galegroup.com/ovrc/retrieve.do?subjectParam=Locale%252528en%25252C%25252C%252529%25253AFQE%25253D%252528su%25252CNone%25252C10%252529pedophilia%252524%257E%2529_1&contentSet=GSRC&sort=Relevance&tabID=T010&sgCurrentPosition=0&subjectAction=VIEW_TOPIC_TREE&prodId=OVRC&searchId=R2¤tPosition=5&userGroupName=uphoenixcustom&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&sgHitCountType=None&qrySerId=Locale%28en%2C%2C%29%3AFQE%3D%28SU%2CNone%2C12%29%22pedophilia%22%24&inPS=true&searchType=BasicSearchForm&displaySubject=&docId=EJ3010197205&docType=GSRC

Media use Statistics (n.d.). Media Use Statistics. Retrieved October 26, 2007 fromhttp://images.google.com/imgres? Imgurl=http://media.gallup.com/GPTB/educaYouth/20041026_1.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.frankwbaker.com/mediause.htm&h=310&w=440&sz=7&hl=en&start=66&tbnid=VCT80YDH7aTElM: &tbnh=89&tbnw=127&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmedia%2Band%2Bsociety%2Bstatistics%26start%3D60%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D20%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN

Mur, C. (2005). The Internet Can Be Dangerous for Children. Opposing ViewpointsCenter. Retrieved December 14, 2007 from http://find.galegroup.com/ovrc/retrieve.do?subjectParam=Locale%252528en%25252C%25252C%252529%25253AFQE%25253D%252528su%25252CNone%25252C8%252529internet%252524%257E%2529_1&contentSet=GSRC&sort=Relevance&tabID=T010&sgCurrentPosition=0&subjectAction=VIEW_TOPIC_TREE&prodId=OVRC&searchId=R1¤tPosition=4&userGroupName=uphoenixcustom&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&sgHitCountType=None&qrySerId=Locale%28en%2C%2C%29%3AFQE%3D%28SU%2CNone%2C10%29%22internet%22%24&inPS=true&searchType=BasicSearchForm&displaySubject=&docId=EJ3010400214&docType=GSRC Seder

Sipe, C. (2006). How Media Effects Society. Associated Content. Retrieved October 26, 2007 from http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/56035/how_media_affects_society.html

Summers, M. (2007). Talking to our kids about the news in 8 easy steps (fig.3). Babble. Retrieved October 26, 2007 from http://images.google.com/imgres? Imgurl=http://www.babble.com/CS/photos/apr2007/images/14426/350x240.aspx&imgrefurl=http://www.babble.com/CS/blogs/strollerderby/archive/tags/media/default.aspx&h=240&w=350&sz=58&hl=en&start=19&um=1&tbnid=V0M8WKKAHxjXgM: &tbnh=82&tbnw=120&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dslutty%2Bteens%26ndsp%3D20%26svnum%3D10%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN