Parents and Media

Today's children live in a media environment with choices unlike anything their parents ever experienced. Parents' responses range from deep concern about the possible harmful eff ects of media to embracing the creativity and potential of the new media world. Some closely monitor their family's media habits and set limits for their children, while others simply surrender to their children's desires. There is evidence that parents' choices do matter: parental mediation makes a real diff erence in the role media play in their children's lives.

Parent Concerns

• According to a recent survey by Common Sense Media, approximately 9 out of 10 American parents believe today's media contribute to children becoming too materialistic (90%), using more coarse and vulgar language (90%), engaging in sexual activity at younger ages (89%), experiencing a loss of innocence too early (88%), and behaving in violent or anti-social ways (85%).¹ The majority of parents believe that media negatively aff ect their own children in these ways.²
• More parents cite television (37%) as having the most negative impact and rank video games (19%) and music (17%) second and third.³ Almost half of all parents believe that viewing violence and sex on TV contributes "a lot" to children adopting violent behavior (47%) or becoming involved in sexual situations (48%) before they are ready.⁴
• At the same time, parents do not perceive media as monolithically bad: almost as many parents think that media can have a positive eff ect (58%) on their children as they do a negative eff ect (61%).⁵
• What generally concerns parents about their children's media use is the content rather than the amount of time: more parents are concerned about TV content than time spent watching, video game content than time spent playing, Internet sites than time spent online, and music lyrics than time spent listening.⁶
• The medium that evokes the most mixed response from parents is the Internet. An Annenberg Public Policy study on the Internet and the family identifi ed two main types of parents: parents who recognize the benefi ts of the Internet but are concerned about its harmful social eff ects, and parents who only see the positive qualities.⁷
• A recent study by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting found that more than 8 in 10 parents (83%) are pleased with their children's online activities, including more than half (54%) who are "very" satisfi ed. Parents overwhelmingly cite the Internet's educational value for their children (81%).⁸
• At the same time, the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that a majority of parents are worried that young people will displace more important activities by spending time online (72%), see and read inappropriate content online (62%), encounter advertisers who will exploit them (58%), and meet strangers who will contact them (57%).⁹ Parents who are more Web savvy are less concerned about their children's online experience.¹⁰

Key Sources

Several groups off er guidance to parents about the appropriateness of various media products for children. The following groups represent a range of ideological perspectives:

• Coalition for Quality Children's media, www.cqcm.org
• Common Sense Media, www.commonsensemedia.org
• The Lion & Lamb Project, www.lionlamb.org
• National Institute on Media and the Family, www.mediafamily.org
• Parents Television Council, www.parentstv.org

The Federal Communications Commission has a Web site to help parents monitor their children's media use at www.fcc.gov/parents.

Parent Actions

Despite concerns about media's infl uence, most parents provide a media-rich environment for their children, often with little supervision. In a recent poll, the majority of parents (65%) say they could do a better job supervising their children's media use.¹¹