Media vs. Parenting

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 man...

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...of game has little if any social benefit, to the contrary it in many ways teaches children that violence and objectifying women is ok, just as long as it looks cool. In the long run if games such as these remain popular among children and young adults, we will see a worsening of our already decaying morals.

As you can plainly see, we as a society cannot place the blame of the problem of today’s children on the media and saying that the media is harmful to children. True the media can be harmful, but if it is carefully monitor and parents use discretion before saying yes to what their children can play, read, or watch then this problem would be greatly lessened. If we blame the media without ourselves taking action then we are just as responsible because we are allowing the media to cause harm to our children with us just standing by and watching. It is true that the media as an industry must ensure that the products and programming that they are putting out is targeted to the proper markets, but in the end it is ultimately up to the parents to decide what is best for their children. It is the parents responsibility to determine what is or is not harmful to their children.