New Study To Provide Fodder For FCC Censorship
from the making-the-world-child-safe dept
If the FCC is looking for yet another reason to regulate broadcast content, a new study claims a link between sexual content on TV and teen sexual promiscuity. The study also notes a rise in sexual activity when parents don't talk to their kids about such topics. Here's where the study fails to make the logical leap, that parents who don't talk to their kids are more likely to let them watch hours and hours of TV as well. Considering this, the relationship between sex on TV and sex in real life is at least as likely to be correlative as it is causal. If there is an underlying cause, it's probably bad parenting. Almost certainly, the researchers are hoping their work leads to further regulation as similar studies about alcohol and fast-food advertising have led to proposed law changes and lawsuits. Now instead of suing McDonald's because your daughter is obese, you can sue MTV to recoup the cost of your daughter getting pregnant.
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parenting
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Re: parenting
OR... violent video games causing about abusive behaviour. That's why they invented ESRB ratings for such things.
And the best parental control out there is to keep tabs on your kids, whether it's watching TV/movies, playing video games or just talking.
Good post Bob.
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parenting....
I'd say the problem lies within advertising moreso than pornography.
Besides, which parent left the porn out for the kids to find anyway? This just takes us back to: bad parenting
Promiscuity isn't the problem, pregnancy and disease are. More than anything what the people need is education to see past the brainwashing the tv has in store for all. Not another scapegoat like videogames and porn.
BTW, hot coffee is what's making all the kids screw around - of course!
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http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/04/03/health/webmd/main1464262.shtml
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I agree the real issue here is poor parenting. Bob, however, seems to miss the point that this isn't actual pornography; I think everyone agrees children ought not to be seeing that.
It's the prevalence of sexual content in things like movies, magazines and on non-adult television that this study is dealing with. Parents can, and should, limit their children's consumption of all media in my opinion. If you allow a child to watch television without parental involvement, then any values inherent to the programming will generally be accepted without question by the child. It's a parent's job to help their child learn how to filter, so to speak, this content.
I suspect you could also find a corelation in this study to the fact that children wearing clothing that comes "stock" with holes are more sexually active.
The trick in evaluating such studys is what were the parameters of the study, who paid for it and, probably most critical, has it passed peer review. Just because a study supposedly exposes a corelation between 2 things doesn't mean that those 2 things are actual related in fact, just that there may be a coorelation for some reason. It's the reason for said corelation we need to identify before we can claim to have found a cause.
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It's more than parenting
Sorry guys, but as a person who tries to help teenagers with self identity and other major problems, the world at large is a very influential place for teens, good parents or not.
Pornography really isn't as damaging in some ways like the constant ads/shows/channels telling a teenager that they must become X or Y to be accepted.
Everyone focuses on the pregnancies and diseases as the bar to measure by, but has anyone really looked at the mental and emotional cost of teens dealing with this imagery?
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Peer Pressure - Emotional Imagery
How many teens commit suicide each year due to emotional issues of peer pressure??
Not fitting into the "in" crowd becuase you too fat, too thin, don't wear Nike/Guess/Calvin, bad hair, acne, etc., just common REAL issues.
Come on - we as adults can relate to this, as we were teens once too. Granted, the advertising and social structure back then IS NOT as powerful as today, but it still EXISTS!
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I agree with Tim!
Seriously though, why do people try to overprotect their kids? It only compounds the problem(s)!
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oh rly
Well I dont think adults ought to be seeing that. What now huh! You treat younger people like they are totaly difrent from adults. Teens are just less experienced and educated. And its these teens that dont know any better and fall victim to these images set by the media.
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Re: oh rly
"Bob, however, seems to miss the point that this isn't actual pornography; I think everyone agrees children ought not to be seeing that."
Well I dont think adults ought to be seeing that. What now huh! You treat younger people like they are totaly difrent from adults. Teens are just less experienced and educated. And its these teens that dont know any better and fall victim to these images set by the media.
Granted teens are less educated than many adults. This is why it's a parent's responsibility to monitor their intake, as I stated. It's not just sex and violence we need to do this with, of course. We also need to teach our kids how to recognize lies in advertising as well, among other things. Children need to be taught how to think critically about what they're told, not just repeat whatever they're told.
To speak to the original point of my comment again, though, I don't see what thi shas to do with pornography, though. Aside from the fact that the defenition of pornography seems to be different depending on one's own political views, there was nothing in the original articel regarding porn being harmful to children. Bob jumped to that conclusion, leading me to believe it's a kneejerk reaction on his part that sex=porn.
Pornography has nothing to do with this article was my main point. The other point is you can't rely solely on a synopsis of the study if you want to determine whether it's accurate. You need to know several things about it before making that decision as I laid out originally. Finally, to evaluate why the conclusions reached by the study may be so, you need to do yet another study. For example, they drew the conclusion that black children somehow pay more attention to their parents. Why this is so they don't seem to know. Therefore, it is entirely possible it's something else which is insignificant affecting the data. Perhaps the white kids were less embarrassed about their sexual activity. I have no idea but you just can't have a study like this all by itself be your sole source.
To be honest, I get tired of all the sex they push in media myself. It's, unfortunately, the case that I seem to be a minority as sex does appear to sell still.
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Boobies never killed anyone
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ah, the wonder of the FCC
The FCC is not there to be some idiot mom's personal cencor! These people need to be better parents, not just get the FCC to do it for them and mess it up for the people actually mature enough to handle the content.
Literally, i'm 15 and exposed to more porn and sexual content than almost anyone and I'm not phased by it at all. I was taught not to be. These people need to grow up. (and so do a the kids too)
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TV violence and sexual content
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If you massage the numbers enough you can make a case for water being dangerous..see www.dhmo.org for proof. The site in question is a joke, but LOTS of stupid people have fallen for it. The point of my liitle rant is simple. You can blame whatever you want, but the root cause of ALL problems is ....YOU.
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You mean I have to watch my kid?
Ok I'm done complaining.
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Agree with most of ya'll
Totally agree with that statement and with most of the comments here. Seems like when you talk to most (rational) people who have kids they will spout off similar ideas.
We know what we need to be doing differently but there is a lot more talk than action going on. And of course, it's also a lot easier said than done.
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