Clinton, Brownback and Lieberman Spotlight Media's Impact on Kids' Health

[Moloch]

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--As some of the nation's top media executives gather tonight and tomorrow at the inaugural "Beyond Primetime" conference to discuss kids and the media, three of America's leading policymakers have responded with statements demonstrating bi-partisan support for work to improve the media environment for kids and families.

"Like never before, our children are growing up immersed in interactive, digital and wireless media that is constantly changing," said U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY). "It's no wonder that many parents are struggling to keep up. We need to do everything we can to keep providing parents and policymakers with better, more current facts about the impact of this new media dominating our children's lives."

"America is a media-rich society," said U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman (ID-CT). "But despite the flood of information, we still lack critical knowledge about how the vast media world affects kids. As policymakers -- and as parents -- we have a responsibility to examine the influence of media on our children, and to work to make the media world a healthier place for kids."

"Electronic media is changing rapidly, making it hard for parents and teachers to keep up," said U.S. Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS). "Protecting our nation's children and ensuring that parents have the most accurate and complete information on the effects of media on their children should remain a top priority."

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/070205/20070205005578.html?.v=1

Meanwhile....

British soldier killed is 100th U-K combat death in Iraq

LONDON British officials are reporting their 100th military death from hostile action in Iraq since the U-S-led invasion.
A soldier was killed by a roadside bomb near the U-S consulate in Basra, where about 75-hundred British troops are based.

According to the Ministry of Defense in London, 131 British servicemen and women have died in Iraq since the beginning of the war. Of those, 100 deaths are attributed to injuries suffered in action.

The other 31 deaths were due to road accidents, illness, natural causes or unexplained causes.

http://www.fox21.com/Global/story.asp?S=6038658&nav=menu149_2_7

[WorseBeforeBetter]

1. Wow, what an unholy trinity that is. (n/t)

[John Q. Citizen]

2. Does this mean they want to re-instate the equal time rule?

I didn't think so.

As another poster said, an unholy trinity....

Parents can and should turn off the TV, parents can and should exercise contol over their kids.

I have a feeling the unholy trinity (one of whom takes money from Fox's Murdock) is thinking that perhaps they should be the arbiters of the media, for the parents. For the children.

Uh oh.

[HappyWeasel]

3. Yes, give the parents resources, but don't do their jobs.

[DixieBlue]

4. Blah, blah, blah.

Is this really worth spending time on? Really?

Maybe it's time parents educated themselves about what their kids are watching, playing, doing instead of having lawmakers say "this is bad, this is good".

[noonwitch]

7. Not all parents have the same resources and knowlege about this kind of thing

Their purpose is undoubtedly to raise parental awareness of the things that their children are exposed to. Luckily, there are hundreds of channels on cable and if you don't want to watch it, there are plenty of other options.

Some parents out there get most of their information from television. They don't have computers, are not good readers, and assume that if a show is labelled for kids, it must be appropriate for kids. We all know that is not true. Most anime that they show on cartoon network is very inappropriate for kids under 10, because it's violent and sometimes very sexual (like Sailor Moon-highly entertaining for older kids, but not appropriate for little kids).

[AValdoux]

5. Easy solution to internet porn/kids

DON'T PUT COMPUTERS WITH INTERNET ACCESS IN THEIR ROOMS.

This is such a no-brainer. The computer in our home that had the internet access was kept in the kitchen. I also had timers on it so they couldn't access it after 10:00pm. My kids couldn't get up after we went to bed to use it. I'm amazed at the people I know who have kids 12-yrs and younger with full blown internet access in their rooms. What do you they think they are looking at? Barney videos? Kids are curious and if they can get to it, they will look at it. Would you give your kids cable in their rooms with 100,000's of channels without any control over them? The government doesn't need to control the internet, people need to control their kids.

Kind of funny though. Before I installed timer controls on it my son crashed the family computer. We got a virus that wiped out all of our data. To this day, he gets teased about when his porn crashed the family computer. He thinks twice about what he loads on my computer now. He's 21 now but we are not going to let him forget it.


AValdoux

[donco6]

8. I agree with you.

Keeping the computer in a public space and shareable cuts way down on this stuff. Kids are curious, yes, but they're also terrified of mom and dad finding out about their "extracurricular" activities.

[sakabatou]

6. I feel sick...

[IndianaGreen]

9. Birds of a feather flock together!

The same day that Baker-Hamilton issued its report on Iraq, Hillary and her pal Lieberman thought it more important to talk about violent video games than the violence perpetrated in Iraq on Iraqis and Americans by a criminal foreign policy.