The FCC currently regulates television, radio, and other media outlets. FCC Work within the system.

Right now, today you have a clear and relevant example of a problem and a solution. The tabacco industry and how they are marketing their products. The key is convincing enough people that the fast food diets, etc., are bad for them and require regulation. Right now that point of view is not pervasive. It isn't getting the attention of the agencies that can create change.

This is the aspect that I believe is largely overlooked by the masses. Someone may say that "You make your own decisions and are responsible for them" and that is true to a large extent. When we say these things, we are rationalizing that we have all been raised with a fair and balanced idea of good/bad, right/wrong, etc.

The single largest cultural influence on a childs life is television. In many/most cases, children see things and situations on TV before they experience them themselves and so TV has molded an impression of correctness upon their psyche. When children are bombarded by constant commercials showing all the cool people doing 'X' or eating 'Y', they are being taught that these things are not only correct, but required for them to 'fit in' with their peers. These children now, do not get to the part of the logic chain where Healthy/skinny choices come into play because they have been superceded by societal 'peer' influence.

Example:
My two sons have never drank a soda in their lives until recently and they are 5 and 8 years old. This was a very conscious choice on the part of my wife and myself. They were recently given soda at their daycare center for the first time and that night I was told, "Dad, I want to start taking a Coke to drink instead of my juice. All of my friends have Coke for snack time and I want to drink it too. I tried it and I liked it, so can I take Coke tomorrow?" I explained to him that Cokes weren't as healthy as the juice/water drink that we send with them and so they couldn't take sodas. He (the 8 yr old) CRIED because everyone else would have sodas and he wanted them too. He doesn't care about the health reasons behind not drinking the colas, he wants to fit in!

Regulations on advertising would NOT prevent this from happening, but it WOULD go a long way towards minimizing the effects on children who do not have developed decision-making skills. I try to teach my children the reasons behind advertising at every opportunity and they are starting to become a little more aware that the commercials are just designed to get their money.

And money makes the world go 'round...

dood!!! part of why i liked being a kid so much was because i could park a few candy bars and rootbeers away without reprucussion to my body. i would be out catching frogs, riding my bike, building forts, and burning about a billion calories an hour. let your kid have some damned coke and candy for christ sake!!! let him/her chase the ice cream truck for an astropop or creamcicle!!! i cry for the youth of america!!! so many parents these days are fucking fascists about raising thier kids, that it makes me want to puke. instead of telling your kid that he/she cant eat super frosted cocoa flakes, get them off the damned internet and out of the house for a few hours a day. i hated being in my house...and my parents encouraged me to be outdoors getting freshair. as a result, i am an active outdoorsman, and lover of sports and activities. this has helped keep me healthy and somewhat slim.

nevermind...keep raising your kids in communist households. its none of my business. but dont try to take away my right to see advertisements for the newest tastiest cheeseburger because you dont know how to raise your kids. thanks!

Bigoldaphamale: No matter how much excersize your kids get, some just have slower metabolisms then others and cant take that kind of food no matter what. When I was growing up, I had afew friends who had slower metabolisms and despite eating better then the rest of us and getting just as much, if not more, activity (one of my friends had a swimming pool that he was constantly in if he wasn't playing sports with us), they still remained overweight.

Peoples bodys react differently to EVERYTHING. Just because your young, or the rest of your family is in great shape, DOESN'T mean you can eat whatever you want. People need to learn their OWN limits. Kids, in general, can't do this and don't really understand the nutritional value of things and how they impact their body. Thus, it's important for parents to at least somewhat monitor what their kids take in.

I never said my kids don't get outdoors, get candy, or ice cream - that was YOU jumping to conclusions. I just gave an example of my kids not having-and previously not WANTING sodas until someone influenced them. If you want to criticize me or the way anyone else wants to live and raise their kids, do us all a favor and try to get the facts first.

Jumping to close-minded conclusions about things you don't know about does nothing to further the discussion here.

It wouldn't limit your "Right" to view brainwashing if they only regulated how often and what type of commercials are shown on the juvenile channels. I really don't want my daughter watching 10-15 commercials just to view a half hour of Dora the Exporer. I realize there is such a thing as free enterprise and all but Heck I pay for my television channels and there is enough advertizing on there daily that the stations are making quite a profit.

I also would prefer they didn't advertize condoms (as I mentioned before) on the cartoon channels where my daughter likes to watch. It was mentioned that a parent might want their child educated about safe sex or something of the sort. HA! As a parent I would like to educate her myself or have an impartial party in school educate her in a classroom setting. The junk commercials shown on TV ARE NOT for educational purposes in the least. There is no reason to be showing those types of commercials between juvenile programs.

If we are what we eat.....Then I'm fuckin delicious!

Asta!!

Interesting. I'm not 100% sure about the condom commercial on Nickelodeon, because cable ops do get a percentage of local programming that they can "overlay" as an affiliate. When you do find inappropriate commercials like that you should contact the Nickolodeon offices and your local cable affiliate and let them know that it was a poor choice in commerical placement. If you cannot locate a phone number for Nick please PM me and I'll find one for you.

Im not reading this thread...

but I would like to add the note that there are regulations on food that can be produced