Media Vs. Parenting

The Impact On a Childs Behavior

Media vs. Parenting

What impact does sex, violence, drugs, etc. in the media have on children? What can we do about it? How do we balance the tension between freedom of expression and the need to protect children? When you talk about the media and whether or not it is harmful on children, you must examine the whole industry and all aspects of its effects on children. It is that the media as a whole is not as harmful to children as some intense other can, but over exposure to certain aspects of certain types of media can be harmful. To say that all media can be harmful to children is a fallacy that must be avoided when examining this topic. Most people when analyzing this issue tend to focus on drugs, sex, and violence in terms of the television media. Although those are some of the main topics throughout the history of this topic, there are more important issues then just that as said.

This is an argument that should indefinitely point out the major impacts on young children. However this will be examining this topic in a much broader sense that will encompass the media as an entity and not focus only on the negative aspects but also the positive aspects of the media to show that the media is not in all ways bad for children. Media affecting children is increasingly rising, and is becoming a big factor among children's behaviors, but other factors such as parenting will also participate to whether media is harmful to children.

During the formation of our Constitution, our forefathers had enough foresight to know that one of the most sacred freedoms that a society can have is freedom of the press. They, however, could not envision how many different forms of the press there would be in the years after the Constitution was written. During our nation's formative years, the term press was primarily restricted to media in terms of newspapers and books. Over the years with different courts, congresses, and presidents, we have seen an expansion of the term press. This has been made even more so with advancing technology and the global expansion of the media. Therefore when we examine the media we must take a contemporary approach to this issue rather than looking at the issue based on the past.

The media has long been an easy target for the ills of society. If we go back to the times of the beginnings of World War II we can see how many at the time were turning a negative glance towards the media. William Randolph Hearst was widely criticized by his contemporary for focusing on media stories that related to crime and pseudo science. Those who disliked Hearst or competed against him called his brand of media "yellow press". However is can we accuse a person of imposing "bad media" onto society, just because we do not believe in what they wish to talk about? The second amendment assures us that we have the right to voice our opinions, therefore by holding his ground I believe Mr. Hearst was not doing harm to society but just doing what he thought he was entitled to do. I will further discuss other prominent individuals in the media and how they have been perceived.

In a matter of seconds, 80% children can impersonate an action hero in a video action game, A TV show, Reality shows or even a movie/TV character. We see a lot of media as happy, energetic, and exciting. We rarely see the media as depressed, boring, and unattractive. Sadly, as much as happy, exciting, and energetic sounds so great, a great number of that happy media is related to sex, violence, drugs, tobacco and alcohol. Children rely on the television, games, magazines, and the internet to occupy their time. The second a child opens a magazine and sees sexy women striking a pose with a beer in her hand, he/she looks up to that as sexy and cool. The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse released a 145 page study claiming that children drink 25 percent of all alcohol consumed in the United States and that it is mainly because of so much media focusing on alcohol. Essentially, the alcoholic beverage industry is enduring the same kind of attack that the tobacco industry has fought for years. Children younger and younger are starting to smoke. But, although there probably won't be billion-dollar lawsuits against brewers, visual ads are encouraging children to drink. Children as well have very easy access to alcohol. This is a enormous impact on young children. All in all, Children are accessed to a lot of things related to the media, and if they are physically capable they are more likely to mimic what they see. . It really is that easy.

Generally when people talk about the harmful effects of the media on children, they focus on either violence or drugs, rarely if ever is the topic of an unhealthy body image brought up when the topic of harmful effects on children is brought up. Typically we have viewed this phenomenon as an adult one and fail to look at the effects that it may have on our young children. The main focus when it comes to children and their body has generally been on the alarming rate of obesity and eating disorders that we are seeing, but nobody is talking about how many children get an unrealistic body image from television. Furthermore, this phenomenon has even spread into the sports media where recent on Capital Hill; the National Football League was brought in to testify on the issue of steroids. We normally associate the use of steroids as a problem that lies with athletes who are trying to gain an advantage in performance. However at this hearing, there was testimony that stated that many children, some as young as middle school aged children, have begun to use steroids as a way to "look better". This issue is not only limited to boys anymore, as it was stated that some girls have begun to use steroids to improve their physical appearance. Again, to fully understand the effects that the media has on children we must widen our scope.

A typical child in the U.S. watches 28 hours of TV weekly, seeing as many as 8,000 murders by the time he or she finishes elementary school at age 11, and worse, the killers are depicted as getting away with the murders 75% of the time while showing no remorse or accountability (http://www.psychologymatters.org/mediaviolence.html). Such TV violence socialization may make children immune to brutality and aggression, while others become fearful of living in such a dangerous society. Here in lies a major problem, it is true that there are many images of violence on television, but what is this break up of this violence. For example, what percentage of the total violence that children see is attributed to entertainment media and what percentage of it is attributed to the news media? After determining