MEDIA INFLUANCE IN CHILDREN

The biggest motivator and educator today is electronic media.  I would like to that for many ordinary child today, spend four hours of the day in class learning and  ten hours on different types of media either social or entertainment.  There is a serious need for he family to introduce the traditional mode of interaction between family members and the community at large.

More and more children programmes encourage violence or one form of aggression or another.  Parental controls do not yield the desired results.  I was discussing with a group of young parents and I realised that it is a serious problem that we need to address.  Programmes for children now have more swear words that I would like to repeat and you have the characters use all forms of weapons and indulge in any form of violence. 

Since the reality of the matter is as a mother I am at work from 6am - 5pm, when I get home I have more things to attend to that I really do not pay that much attention to what the kids are doing.  My son is technologically savvy, I do not think there is a control I can put in place that he can not remove.  I thank God that he is well behaved and has a good dispassion, however this is not always the case with all the kids as I learnt from another encounter.  As parents we need lobby for better materials for our children.

There is an increase in accidents were kids have hurt or killed one another from trying to copy an act or behaviour they saw on the internet or on television.  The boy who is a bully is popular and gets to attend the most important functions, everyone likes to be like them.  Cartoons are now about this team versus this team, shooting guns, flying kicks and body slams are not entertainment for kids.

Let us re-introduce sharing meals as a family, having "family time" were we do activities that encourage interactions between family members and friends or introducing activities that require creativity and having fun.

Let us say no the negative media, let us fight for our children.  Our children are our future.