Janet, a mum of three, is a busy paralegal with very long days. To make her life easier, she trusts her oldest Matthew to care for his younger siblings Kyle and Jada after school. Once home, she resumes her duties such as checking homework and ensuring that school socks match and that teeth are properly brushed before bed. Being a typical teenager, Matthew’s idea of ‘babysitting’ is putting them in front of the television or on the computer while he goes outside to play basketball or hang out with friends.
While this may work well for Matthew and though his siblings do not seem to mind as they can do whatever they want, who checks the suitability of the content they are exposed to and are they seeing too much too soon? Buzzz examines how social media and television content affects children.
Today, technology has become our new best friend because we have information at our fingertips. It is a useful aid for children’s research for school projects and also a big source of entertainment.The internet provides children with wonderful social and developmental opportunities, but it can also be saturated with nasty surprises. Cyber-criminals, scammers and paedophiles are very active and are serious threats as they prowl social networking sites and instant messaging and prey on unsuspecting children who may innocently divulge information such as their home address, phone number, photos, school and other schedules they often cannot recognize that the person on the other end has a hidden agenda.
The use of cable comes with its own set of challenges for parents because X-rated music videos, adult movies and content are available with just the click of a button. Most parents do not take the time to screen what is kid-friendly. Some do not even realize that not all cartoons are appropriate viewing for children.
Nowadays, children are ‘tuned in’ to television long before they start school. Indeed at months old, many are propped in front of the ‘tube’ to distract them so that their parents can complete chores around the home. But really how safe is this? In the United States the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) found that two-thirds of infants and toddlers watch TV an average of 2 hours a day; children and teens 8 to 18 years spend nearly 4 hours a day before the TV screen and almost 2 additional hours on the computer (excluding school work), playing video games.
The first 2 years of life are considered a critical time for brain development hence TV and other electronic devices can get in the way of exploring, playing and interacting which encourage healthy learning and healthy physical and social development.Some paediatricians recommend that kids under 2 should not be introduced to television; that those a little older have very little viewing time to prevent TV addiction at this early stage. This addiction interferes with family time, play, reading and homework. Those exposed to endless hours of television are more likely to be overweight; those who view violent acts may become aggressive or paranoid about the world around them and others, exposed to behaviours such as drinking and smoking, may develop the view that this is ‘cool’.
This is not to demonize television in its entirety: there are several educational programmes that help pre-schoolers to count, learn their shapes and colours as well as introduce them to the animal/natural environment. Parents have to strike a balance and make TV a bonus form of education, not a replacement.
While they do not regulate the internet, Jamaica’s Broadcasting Commission emphasizes the need for vigilance as a lot of material on cable and social media is unsuitable for children. The Commission has no role in the creation of content that is viewed on television or cable. However as a regulator, their primary role is to monitor all licencees to ensure that they adhere to the terms of their licence and comply with the relevant legislation/regulations. According to the Commission’s Information Officer Don Dobson, children lack the life experience and maturity to critically process and understand certain content, recognize potentially harmful programming and in some cases differentiate fiction from reality. “Constant exposure to programming with explicitly sexual or violent content and/or mature themes or language could adversely affect the development of a child or negatively influence his or her attitude, behaviour or lifestyle choices. If they think it necessary, parents should engage their children in dialogue about why certain content is inappropriate a means of empowering with knowledge and understanding.”
Knowing your rights and current regulations so that you can ensure cable operators act responsibly, is very important. The Broadcasting and Radio Re-diffusion Act, Television and Sound Broadcasting Regulations and the Children’s Code for Programming, guide station and cable operators regarding rating programmes and channels. Cable customers should expect the following from their cable provider:
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- At least one package of channel options that excludes Adult and X-rated channels.
- Information showing the ratings of all channels.
- A cable box that you can use to block unsuitable channels.
- The provision of Adult and X-rated channels only if they are specifically requested by you the adult.
To limit what children are exposed to in the home, Dobson said parents must exercise caution when selecting cable channels/packages. If they select ‘Adult’ or X-rated channels, they should ensure that they know how to programme the cable box to bar such content from their children. With the aid of the parental control feature, parents can use their remote control to lock specific channels or programmes based on their ratings. With broadcast TV (free-to-air channels), it is important that they pay particular attention to programme ratings and advisories, and also the watershed, the time of day when programmes with mature/adult content are allowed. The watershed begins at 9:00 p.m. and programming after that time is suitable for viewing only by audiences aged 14 or older.
Stay ahead of all the unwanted elements that may be bombarding your children with information they do not need to be exposed to. There are many ways to filtre out the bad without removing the fun of socializing:
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- Explain to your child/children the importance of not divulging personal or household information to strangers over the internet.
- Make sure you know enough about the internet to ensure that your child, especially teenagers, are not hiding their internet activities. Learn the internet language/lingo, as less than 10% of parents really know internet acronyms such as POS (parent over shoulder) or WTGP (want to go private).
- Keep computers in a public space such as the den or living room. Children under 16 do not need to have a computer in their room as socializing and homework research do not require privacy.
- Enable the ‘Safe Search’ option on your computer. This filters out websites containing questionable content from search results.
- Work within the guidelines of the social media site that you are most comfortable with. For example, Facebook has a section for parents that sets out the key guidelines for customizing a child’s account and it also clearly states that no child under age 13 may register for an account on Facebook.
- Install security features that track a child’s correspondence and activity on social networks and IM/chat.
- On your television remote, activate the parental bar that restricts adult channels deemed inappropriate by securing a 4-digit password.
- Do not put television sets in the bedrooms of small children. Under no circumstance should the TV become a babysitter or surrogate parent.
- Pre-plan TV viewing by recording their favourite shows, then allow him/her to watch at designated times.Open TV viewing leads to channel ‘surfing’ and delete shows that are inappropriate.
- Block channels with movies and shows that have violent themes and profane language.
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Janet, a mum of three, is a busy paralegal with very long days. To make her life easier, she trusts her oldest Matthew to care for his younger siblings Kyle and Jada after school. Once home, she resumes her duties such as checking homework and ensuring that school socks match and that teeth are properly brushed before bed. Being a typical teenager, Matthew’s idea of ‘babysitting’ is putting them in front of the television or on the computer while he goes outside to play basketball or hang out with friends.
While this may work well for Matthew and though his siblings do not seem to mind as they can do whatever they want, who checks the suitability of the content they are exposed to and are they seeing too much too soon? Buzzz examines how social media and television content affects children.
Today, technology has become our new best friend because we have information at our fingertips. It is a useful aid for children’s research for school projects and also a big source of entertainment.The internet provides children with wonderful social and developmental opportunities, but it can also be saturated with nasty surprises. Cyber-criminals, scammers and paedophiles are very active and are serious threats as they prowl social networking sites and instant messaging and prey on unsuspecting children who may innocently divulge information such as their home address, phone number, photos, school and other schedules they often cannot recognize that the person on the other end has a hidden agenda.
The use of cable comes with its own set of challenges for parents because X-rated music videos, adult movies and content are available with just the click of a button. Most parents do not take the time to screen what is kid-friendly. Some do not even realize that not all cartoons are appropriate viewing for children.
Nowadays, children are ‘tuned in’ to television long before they start school. Indeed at months old, many are propped in front of the ‘tube’ to distract them so that their parents can complete chores around the home. But really how safe is this? In the United States the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) found that two-thirds of infants and toddlers watch TV an average of 2 hours a day; children and teens 8 to 18 years spend nearly 4 hours a day before the TV screen and almost 2 additional hours on the computer (excluding school work), playing video games.
The first 2 years of life are considered a critical time for brain development hence TV and other electronic devices can get in the way of exploring, playing and interacting which encourage healthy learning and healthy physical and social development.Some paediatricians recommend that kids under 2 should not be introduced to television; that those a little older have very little viewing time to prevent TV addiction at this early stage. This addiction interferes with family time, play, reading and homework. Those exposed to endless hours of television are more likely to be overweight; those who view violent acts may become aggressive or paranoid about the world around them and others, exposed to behaviours such as drinking and smoking, may develop the view that this is ‘cool’.
This is not to demonize television in its entirety: there are several educational programmes that help pre-schoolers to count, learn their shapes and colours as well as introduce them to the animal/natural environment. Parents have to strike a balance and make TV a bonus form of education, not a replacement.
While they do not regulate the internet, Jamaica’s Broadcasting Commission emphasizes the need for vigilance as a lot of material on cable and social media is unsuitable for children. The Commission has no role in the creation of content that is viewed on television or cable. However as a regulator, their primary role is to monitor all licencees to ensure that they adhere to the terms of their licence and comply with the relevant legislation/regulations. According to the Commission’s Information Officer Don Dobson, children lack the life experience and maturity to critically process and understand certain content, recognize potentially harmful programming and in some cases differentiate fiction from reality. “Constant exposure to programming with explicitly sexual or violent content and/or mature themes or language could adversely affect the development of a child or negatively influence his or her attitude, behaviour or lifestyle choices. If they think it necessary, parents should engage their children in dialogue about why certain content is inappropriate a means of empowering with knowledge and understanding.”
Knowing your rights and current regulations so that you can ensure cable operators act responsibly, is very important. The Broadcasting and Radio Re-diffusion Act, Television and Sound Broadcasting Regulations and the Children’s Code for Programming, guide station and cable operators regarding rating programmes and channels. Cable customers should expect the following from their cable provider:
To limit what children are exposed to in the home, Dobson said parents must exercise caution when selecting cable channels/packages. If they select ‘Adult’ or X-rated channels, they should ensure that they know how to programme the cable box to bar such content from their children. With the aid of the parental control feature, parents can use their remote control to lock specific channels or programmes based on their ratings. With broadcast TV (free-to-air channels), it is important that they pay particular attention to programme ratings and advisories, and also the watershed, the time of day when programmes with mature/adult content are allowed. The watershed begins at 9:00 p.m. and programming after that time is suitable for viewing only by audiences aged 14 or older.
Stay ahead of all the unwanted elements that may be bombarding your children with information they do not need to be exposed to. There are many ways to filtre out the bad without removing the fun of socializing:
Share this post: