Aug
14
Television and Internet
August 14, 2008 by Giuseppe Martinengo | Filed in Internet & Media, Parenting
It is sad to notice that in many homes (even Mormon homes) parents are not monitoring their TV and Internet appropriately. Some people simply do not monitor their children, others even provide their children with a negative example of parents who spend most of their free time in front of the TV, watching almost verything that is presented. How can they teach their children? Their actions speak louder.
According to LDSMediaTalk
pornography on the Internet is a blight…I believe, however, that in many homes the Internet isn’t the worst portal for inappropriate content. For some, the TV is even worse–and many don’t know it.
Movie channels like HBO have content you’d be horrified to see your kids watching. Nudity, inappropriate language, violence. It’s all there in abundance. Even stations that come with the basic packages (like MTV) have content I’m not comfortable with my kids watching. Pay-per-view channels are awful. If you’re not careful, your kids can order movies which not only ring up your monthly bill but, much worse, bring content into your home that you don’t want there. Commercials can be the worst. I’m embarrassed at some of the commercials I see in prime time.
What can we do?
One solution, perhaps too radical for some, but probably the best solution, is to throw away our television and use our time at home interacting in more positive ways.
If this is too much, and it may not be enough since your children may be watching TV at someone else’s home, here there are a few other suggestions,
Be careful ordering movie channels like HBO and Showtime. We don’t order them at all. Second, block channels you don’t want the kids to see. You can use the parental controls on most cable and satellite services to completely remove certain channels from the list of channels that your family can even see in the channel guide. We do this with MTV and others which have content that we don’t like and we also do it with the channels that allow pay-per-view movies. If you want to allow pay-per-view movies then make sure they’re password-protected. Most importantly, P-A-Y A-T-T-E-N-T-I-O-N. My kids have friends whose parents don’t have any idea when the kids watch TV. I don’t allow my kids to go their houses. And we always try to pay attention when the kids are watching TV. It may sound severe, but if the kids (even the teenagers) want to watch TV, they have to ask permission first. And if they don’t, they lose TV priveleges. This helps us gauge how much TV they’re watching.