Everyday Systems

Hi,

I was watching TV last night between 7:00 and 8. Not sure what station but Smallville was on. More than likely a show that kids would be watching. The show seemed clean but the commercials were terrible....previews of up coming movies with plently of sex and such and certainly rated R or PG 13. If they are rated such, how can they show scenes like this during prime time? I'm not a prude but I am an elementary teacher and I hear and see what is going on at school believe me it would make the hair on the back of your neck stand up. Enough is enough! Kids are watching junk and even if they are not choosing to watch this junk , they are subjected to this junk and smut any way. Kids already know more than they should and parents can't always control what is going on! Anyone out there know who to contact?

Caroleann,

Sorry, I can't help you about who to contact but I sure do agree with you. The commericals should match the shows content. I used to be a night owl and would watch I Love Lucy at 2am. The commericals were unbelieveable. I Love Lucy, for Pete's sake! When my children want to watch a tv program, I tape it first and then they watch it with the fast forwarded commericals and me at the controls. But anymore there is so little they can watch that's decent so I joined Neflix and make the choice myself.

I could not agree more. And in fact, I could go on a DIATRIBE about this and about pernicious media influences in general.

I try to be a good parent, but at times I am so frustrated that my lone voice is expected to counteract millions of dollars in advertising and the army of brilliant minds all bent toward making my child want an awful array of junk food, expensive and useless toys, and goodness knows what else. It used to be that society helped to socialize a child. Now, I feel that I have to guard against it. It's so wrong that as a society we prey on our children for profit, and don't concern ourselves with how it affects their development.

We chose not to have tv "with channels" (as my son calls it) for that very reason - even if we approved of the shows, the ads were SO inappropriate! But if it's not TV, it's computer ads on kid sites, or other kids at school who are exposed to more media. It's endless.

Aside - on the food front, which is particularly irritating to me, I turned the media against itself by telling my son that ANY product with a cartoon character on it was something he could not have - that the cartoon character meant that it was too unhealthy for parents to approve of, so they were trying to get kids to buy it because they didn't know better. That worked when he was little. I would also read the labels of cereals that he was really interested in, telling him that I would check on it. Usually my response was that he could have it if he really wanted it, but it had so much sugar in it that it had to count as dessert. He lost interest then, b/c he'd rather have a real dessert. (I do allow sweets, but strive for moderation...at least where I have control.)

I'm glad there are other's out there. I wish there was away to get all the voices of people who are offended by this together. I wonder if there is some political group that voices this concern to the government?

There are a bunch, with varying agendas, some of which I personally find more offensive than the Viagra ads . Parents' Telivision Council is one: http://www.parentstv.org/

Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood doesn't address adult-oriented ad content so much as aggressive or deceptive marketing aimed at kids: http://www.commercialexploitation.org/

Thanks for the links!