Parenting and Media
Take Home Points
- Media Effects on Children
- Heavy media use is associated with lower attention and academic achievement
- Educational media is associated with increased academic achievement and literacy
- Prosocial media is associated with more sympathy and prosocial behavior
- Disney movies have very high amounts of prosocial behavior
- Violent media is associated with aggression, long and short-term
- Advertising of cigarettes and drugs is associated with smoking/drinking
- Sexual media is associated with permissive sexual attitudes and earlier sexual debut
- Media Content
- Superhero movies have prosocial violence - it's violence with a moral means
- For little kids they don't understand what is the difference between what is real and not real and they don't know when they should and shouldn't use that violence
- Vast majority of programs contain violence in which the perpetrator neither displayed remorse nor received any penalty, and violence is often couched in humor
- Leads to less amount of empathy
- Alter Your Own Media Habits
- The strongest predictor of children's television use is parents' screen time
- Media use is higher for children whose mothers have lower relationship satisfaction with partner, and for mothers who have lower quality parent-child relationships
- Parents spend over 9 hours a day using media but 78% of parents believe they are a good example of media habits
- Start Talking About Media
- There is no way to keep our kids from seeing things in the media - so we need to empower them with "when" instead of "if"
- Parents need to be media literate to talk about it with their children
- Active Monitoring - helping children become critical consumers of media
- Ask yourself: "What is my goal in talking to my children about media?"
- Opinion based statements - "That was violent, and it is not nice to hit others"
- Do it before they watch the program
- Critical thinking skills - "Do you think that toy in the commercial is really as fun as it looks?" "Do you think that picture is photoshopped?"
- Proactive - "What are you going to do when you come across pornography?"
- Establish Media Rules the Right Way
- Media rules work better for children than teens
- Psychological reactance - the feeling that an individual experiences when they sense their freedom to choose is being threatened
- Rules about media use for teens are associated with less favorable views of parents, more positive views and viewing of televised violence and sex
- Autonomy-supportive rule-setting - rule-setting accompanied by explanation
- No phone/devices in the bedroom at or after bedtime
- No TVs in the bedroom
- No social media until 13, and parents are first friends
- No PG-13 movies until you're 13
- Restrict video game consoles (Wii) and games (E10+)
- Participate in Media with your Child
- Co-viewing is only positive if the content is appropriate
- That being said, engaging in media together as a family can be one of many wholesome recreational activities
- When you engage in media together, be present, don't be multitasking (i.e. playing on phone or working on a laptop, etc...)
- To do:
- Keep media in a shared space
- Find media activities that your child enjoys and engage in them with him/her
- Remember co-viewing alone is not enough you also need to talk
- Invite your children to be involved in media experiences
- When you do use media as a babysitter, be in the same room
- Positive Family Media Use
- Positive family media has a statistically significant correlation for girls and boys in parental involvement
- Family social networking is related to less delinquency
- More correlated with feeling more connected which leads to less delinquency, more prosocial behavior, less relational aggression, and more internalizing
- If they are doing it on their own it leads to more delinquent behavior
- Media 101 for Parents
- Family media can strengthen, individual media can detract - all things in moderation.
- NO media in the bedroom, have a media curfew
- Turn off the TV (background media)
- It is OK to say no to media, set the rules early (with explanations) and stick with them
- Check ratings on media (effects of video games rated T and above are more negative)
- All media can have an effect: music, books, social networking - stay on top of it!
- Monitor, monitor, monitor
- Help you children be active consumers of media - discuss media and its effects with them before and after media expose
- Limit restrictions as children get older, they need to learn to make good choices
- Heavy media use is associated with lower attention and academic achievement
- Educational media is associated with increased academic achievement and literacy
- Prosocial media is associated with more sympathy and prosocial behavior
- Disney movies have very high amounts of prosocial behavior
- Violent media is associated with aggression, long and short-term
- Advertising of cigarettes and drugs is associated with smoking/drinking
- Sexual media is associated with permissive sexual attitudes and earlier sexual debut
- Superhero movies have prosocial violence - it's violence with a moral means
- For little kids they don't understand what is the difference between what is real and not real and they don't know when they should and shouldn't use that violence
- Vast majority of programs contain violence in which the perpetrator neither displayed remorse nor received any penalty, and violence is often couched in humor
- Leads to less amount of empathy
- The strongest predictor of children's television use is parents' screen time
- Media use is higher for children whose mothers have lower relationship satisfaction with partner, and for mothers who have lower quality parent-child relationships
- Parents spend over 9 hours a day using media but 78% of parents believe they are a good example of media habits
- There is no way to keep our kids from seeing things in the media - so we need to empower them with "when" instead of "if"
- Parents need to be media literate to talk about it with their children
- Active Monitoring - helping children become critical consumers of media
- Ask yourself: "What is my goal in talking to my children about media?"
- Opinion based statements - "That was violent, and it is not nice to hit others"
- Do it before they watch the program
- Critical thinking skills - "Do you think that toy in the commercial is really as fun as it looks?" "Do you think that picture is photoshopped?"
- Proactive - "What are you going to do when you come across pornography?"
- Media rules work better for children than teens
- Psychological reactance - the feeling that an individual experiences when they sense their freedom to choose is being threatened
- Rules about media use for teens are associated with less favorable views of parents, more positive views and viewing of televised violence and sex
- Autonomy-supportive rule-setting - rule-setting accompanied by explanation
- No phone/devices in the bedroom at or after bedtime
- No TVs in the bedroom
- No social media until 13, and parents are first friends
- No PG-13 movies until you're 13
- Restrict video game consoles (Wii) and games (E10+)
- Co-viewing is only positive if the content is appropriate
- That being said, engaging in media together as a family can be one of many wholesome recreational activities
- When you engage in media together, be present, don't be multitasking (i.e. playing on phone or working on a laptop, etc...)
- To do:
- Keep media in a shared space
- Find media activities that your child enjoys and engage in them with him/her
- Remember co-viewing alone is not enough you also need to talk
- Invite your children to be involved in media experiences
- When you do use media as a babysitter, be in the same room
- Positive family media has a statistically significant correlation for girls and boys in parental involvement
- Family social networking is related to less delinquency
- More correlated with feeling more connected which leads to less delinquency, more prosocial behavior, less relational aggression, and more internalizing
- If they are doing it on their own it leads to more delinquent behavior
- Family media can strengthen, individual media can detract - all things in moderation.
- NO media in the bedroom, have a media curfew
- Turn off the TV (background media)
- It is OK to say no to media, set the rules early (with explanations) and stick with them
- Check ratings on media (effects of video games rated T and above are more negative)
- All media can have an effect: music, books, social networking - stay on top of it!
- Monitor, monitor, monitor
- Help you children be active consumers of media - discuss media and its effects with them before and after media expose
- Limit restrictions as children get older, they need to learn to make good choices
Concerns
- Violent Media
- Violent media is associated with aggression, long and short-term
- Solutions:
- In active monitoring help you children become critical consumers of media
- Point out things that were violent and help your children understand that it isn't acceptable to be violent like that
- Come up with a compromise together with your child as they start to get older (teenagers) about what kinds of violent media they can consume and how often
- Once a year on their birthday
- Only certain types of violent media (i.e. no first-person shooting games, etc...)
- Pornography
- The book Media Maze suggests that it's not a matter of "if" our children see pornography but "when" they see it so it's a matter of talking with them beforehand in order to help them be critical and ready
- Solutions:
- Pre-arming - talking to your children about what they are going to do when they see something
- Help children understand WHY pornography is dangerous and why they should avoid it
- Media as a Babysitter
- It is important to keep all things in moderation - it is okay to occasionally use media as a babysitter if there is something you really need to get done, however, if you are consistently using media to entertain your children while you do something else that is not good for your child
- Solutions
- Play with your kids instead of watching the news
- Turn the TV off during dinner
- Refrain from checking social media or your phone after work
- Read to your child before bed
- Don't take your phone with you to bed at night
- Watch educational TV more and cable TV less
- Look at your child, not your phone, when having a conversation
- Violent media is associated with aggression, long and short-term
- Solutions:
- In active monitoring help you children become critical consumers of media
- Point out things that were violent and help your children understand that it isn't acceptable to be violent like that
- Come up with a compromise together with your child as they start to get older (teenagers) about what kinds of violent media they can consume and how often
- Once a year on their birthday
- Only certain types of violent media (i.e. no first-person shooting games, etc...)
- The book Media Maze suggests that it's not a matter of "if" our children see pornography but "when" they see it so it's a matter of talking with them beforehand in order to help them be critical and ready
- Solutions:
- Pre-arming - talking to your children about what they are going to do when they see something
- Help children understand WHY pornography is dangerous and why they should avoid it
- It is important to keep all things in moderation - it is okay to occasionally use media as a babysitter if there is something you really need to get done, however, if you are consistently using media to entertain your children while you do something else that is not good for your child
- Solutions
- Play with your kids instead of watching the news
- Turn the TV off during dinner
- Refrain from checking social media or your phone after work
- Read to your child before bed
- Don't take your phone with you to bed at night
- Watch educational TV more and cable TV less
- Look at your child, not your phone, when having a conversation
Supplemental Resources
- "Too often young people find themselves in the same room with family and friends but they are busy communicating with someone not present, thereby missing an opportunity to visit with those nearby. When this happens, maybe you need to leave the room and send a text message back to them to get their attention!" - Elder Ballard
- commonsensemedia.org
- A resource to look at the ratings of media and what they mean
References: All material in this post came from in-class lectures and the book Media Maze.
(Rasmussen, E. E. (2017). Media maze: unconventional wisdom for guiding children through media. Springville, UT: Plain Sight Publishing, an imprint of Cedar Fort, Inc.)
(L. Walker, Parenting and Media lecture, SFL 240, Fall 2019)
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