To quote Bill Hicks, "If you're in marketing or advertising, kill yourself."

Media of all forms cause all different kinds of reactions to children.

The important factor, which seems to be ignored, is that the parents are STILL just plopping Jr. down in front of the TV and going about their daily lives. They are obviously not taking part in their children's TV watching experiences, which is very sad, and is PROVEN when they have to specifically go and monitor what they're watching.

If you don't already know what your kids are watching on TV, then YOU are already the problem, not the TV. People need to be more mindful of their children's habits in general, not just TV viewing.

I don't understand how parents can drop their kids in front of the TV for hours on end and suddenly wonder HOW the TV could POSSIBLY have had so much influence on them. These parents, like many, are complete idiots.

TV and advertising in general when it started out was seen as something 'good and wholesome', along with the attitudes of the time. It's been a subtle transformation over the period since it's birth and unless you've been shown or come to this realisation yourself, why question it?

I would submit that it is IMPOSSIBLE to monitor your kid's cultural intake 24/7/365 x oh, say, 16 years or so. Further, how does one quantify exactly how long it takes for a kid to form a permanent impression? 30 seconds? 5 minutes? 8.5 minutes? 37.25 minutes? We're talking about young children with blank slates for minds - children who at this stage of life simply are not psychologically sophisticated enough to distinguish between fantasy and reality.

What reinforces these notions for me is witnessing the behavior of children after they've watched something constructive and positive. They will surprise you with an intelligent question seemingly beyond their years, or draw a picture filled with extreme detail, or have a remarkably enlightened conversation with one of their peers.

Someone here once made the metaphor along the lines of 'swimming in a cultural pool', or otherwise total and complete psychological immersion. The more I think about it the more I agree. It seems illogical for one to be able to make decisions in a vacuum.

There definitely needs to be a major re-think on the part of industries responsible for creating the intellectual/cultural landscape inhabited by the foundation of any society: Children.

Television sets have no moral guidelines in the way they operate, watching it is not compulsary. Parents do not have to sit idly by and watch in horror as their children watch whatever they choose, BE parents - if you think a show is warping your kids fragile little mind stop them from watching it. Advertising is evil?? no, people are stupid - you don't like coke, don't buy it, all marketing and advertising can ever do is to associate values to their product- they cannot manipulate you in the ways suggested in this thread they cannot MAKE you do something, people in marketing are normal everyday people not evil corporate tools hell bent on world destruction

Bad TV = Bad children? GTF outta here. Television doesn't make the child bad, acceptance of bad behavior does. I grew up watching tv in my spare time, and still do. I used to do homework while my father watched his soaps. Perhaps a child reacts bad because of a show he watched - it's up to the parent to set him (or her) straight. Our society is becoming too reliant on others setting the standards for our children, and then getting pissed off for setting them. Bottom line - if you think tv is too much for your kids, shut it off. But even better, get more involved in wtf your kids are doing.

Bolding mine

This is the same point the article is trying to make. Parents are seeing children misbehaving as a result of imitating what they see on tv, and they have to intervene to correct the behavior. One of the interventions is restricting their viewing habits.

It is easy beyond belief to tell someone else what to do. These parental responsibility statements would be more sensible and convincing if there were some acknowledgement of the high degree of difficulty involved in parenting - especially as it concerns remapping the social and cultural conditioning that affect children, the actual life pressure and predicament of parenting in an isolated home, the situation that no one is adequately prepared for the task of parenting, and the fact that media literacy is not a required subject in our educational systems.

gilda,

thank you for making that connection.

When I first posted this article, the headline I was going to use was Parents Monitor Kids TV Habits, See Difference. I even was going to put in a paragraph stating that people who put in the knee jerk reaction of "Parents should be more involved with their kids," did not read nor comprehend the article.

I decided to see just how many people were going to just respond with that response, and it's quite telling about people's character.

Well then let us hear about it. Elaborate for us will you, please

[QUOTE]Yes and likewise, telling someone what not to do depending on the motive. The question thought is, how many listen to what they are supposed to do, and how many don't? And of those who listen, how many do what they are told to do?

just an example...

The article addresses this issue head on, and even proves the end sentence.

I don't believe anything I read. I do enjoy cold beer though.