Anti-Older Brother Weaponry
For a while, my oldest son was pretty sheltered child. Just like many parents of first-borns we kept a close eye on his media consumption: his choice of TV shows was heavily monitored, the chosen movies were hotly debated and researched, and the music was child-friendly.
And then he made friends. And the problem with his friends is that some of them have older brothers. And those older brothers love inappropriate movies, video games and music. It was those same older brothers who have taught my sweet young thing how to work an insult, and even about the birds and the bees.
His friends with older siblings go to movies that I don’t think are age appropriate, they have violent video games and cruise You Tube. Because these kids get exposed to a lot of the mainstream media before my kids, they become the arbiter of what is cool or not. So instead of relying on the evil older brothers as a media filter, we turn to: Common Sense Media.
And this is an example of how it helps us:
Typical weekend morning: Aaron: I want to see [insert inappropriate movie from either the movie store or cinema].
Us: Umm… that doesn’t sound like a good idea
Aaron: Oh its fine, so and so and their older brother saw it and said it wasn’t inappropriate at all.
Us: Umm… Let’s check the website. See.. it says 17 and up, sorry.
Aaron: Ok, mum, I’ll just wait 8 years, thanks for thinking about my mental health.
Ok, so the last part was fantasy, but still the first part is often what happens.
The website organizes movies, DVDs, video games, music, websites and TV shows by age and theme. They have easy to understand warnings and age recommendations, so that even my 6-year old can understand when a movie is not for him. They break down the movie into easy flash-card categories so that parents can make up their own mind; including the “good stuff” like educational value,messages and menoring and then also “Things to Watch Out” for: swearing, consumerism, violence, sexy stuff and other bad stuff.
is a not-for-profit, non-partisan organization that promotes media literacy. They state their mission very effectively:
- We believe in media sanity, not censorship.
- We believe that media has truly become "the other parent" in our kids' lives, powerfully affecting their mental, physical, and social development.
- We believe in teaching our kids to be savvy media interpreters -- we can’t cover their eyes but we can teach them to see.
- We believe parents should have a choice and a voice about the media our kids consume. Every family is different but all need information.
See, don't you feel empowered now? They also have a section for parents concerned about media literacy, and a training program for schools.
Even though you are now armed with the website, we will understand when you don’t want your kids to hang out with Sam and Jenna, my younger two. No matter what we do, they will still have the bad influence of an older brother…
Posted by: Hank | 2009-11-16 10:47:19 AM
I really don't think we do our children any favors by sheltering them, it's a big bad world out there and they are generally a lot tougher than we give them credit for. As for 'Common Sense Media', I don't believe in teaching children that some website has all the answers regarding what is or is not appropriate for them to watch. If parents think that something might potentially be inappropriate for their children to watch, then they ought to bloody well take the time to watch it themselves and decide. Their children are individuals, and they should know them best, not some website.
Posted by: Sam | 2009-11-13 9:34:40 AM
I am much more concerned with commercials on cable channels teaching my children the wonderful world of over consumption than any scary movie.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maeXjey_FGA&feature=player_embedded#
Posted by: Jen | 2009-11-13 7:11:53 AM
My five year old watched Spaceballs yesterday, because her older brother and his friend were watching. My oldest child was still watching Sesame Street and Barney at five. Lovely isn't it!!