Thursday, July 5, 2007

Parents Getting Control Of Their Children's Exposure To Sex And Violence In Media

Even as the media environment continues to change, parents say they are getting control of their own children's exposure to sex and violence in the media, but they remain concerned about inappropriate content in the media more broadly.

Sixty-five percent of parents say they "closely" monitor their children's media use, while just 18% say they "should do more." This may help to explain why since 1998 the proportion of parents who say they are "very" concerned that their own children are exposed to inappropriate content – while still high – has dropped, from 67% to 51% for sexual content, from 62% to 46% for violence, and from 59% to 41% for adult language.

Parents are particularly confident in monitoring their children's online activities. Nearly three out of four parents (73%) say they know "a lot" about what their kids are doing online (among all parents with children 9 or older who use the Internet at home). Most parents whose children engage in these activities say they check their children's Instant Messaging (IM) "buddy lists" (87%), review their children's profiles on social networking sites (82%), and look to see what websites they've visited (76%) after they've gone online.

At the same time, parents continue to express significant concerns about children's exposure to inappropriate media content in general. Two-thirds (65%) of parents say they are "very" concerned that children in this country are exposed to too much inappropriate content in the media and a similar proportion (66%) favor government regulations to limit TV content during early evening hours. Minority parents express the most concern: African American and Hispanic parents are more likely than Whites to say they are "very concerned" about their children's exposure to sex, violence and adult language in the media (67% for African Americans and 57% for Hispanics vs. 45% for Whites for sexual content; 64% and 55% vs. 39% for violence; and 60% and 51% vs. 34% for coarse language).

"While parents are still concerned about a lot of what they see in the media, most are surprisingly confident that they've got a handle on what their own kids are seeing and doing - even when it comes to the Internet," said Vicky Rideout, vice president and director of Kaiser's Program for the Study of Entertainment Media and Health.

The report, Parents, Children & Media: A Kaiser Family Foundation Survey, is a national survey of 1,008 parents of children ages 2-17. It was released today at a forum that included a presentation of key findings by Kaiser vice president and lead researcher, Vicky Rideout, followed by a roundtable discussion.

source:www.emaxhealth.com

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