Watching Out For Unhealthy Effects of TV and Movies (Part 1)

Family policy matters, a weekly radio show and podcast from family designed to veteran today and encourage you to be voices of persuasion, family values in your ring you want to show competent. Thank you for joining us today for family policy matters Tracy to that great director of communications here at NC family sitting in this week for John Rustin summer, many families have more time to relax and have fun kids get to stay up late and since watching movies as a pastime. Some families enjoy together. We thought this would be a good time to get an update on how to choose movies that are truly family-friendly and even perhaps inspiring and beneficial. So it's a good time to bring back Tim Winter, who is president of the parents television Council, a nonpartisan organization that advocates for responsible entertainment. Tim brings a wealth of experience from time spent at NBC, MSNBC, MGM Studios and Mandy many years with parents television Council Tim Winter welcome to family policy matters, horn with you and with what suggestions do you have for parents and how they can make good choices for the films and television shows. They may watch together as a family. The summer will never be in order for parent to be able to monitor what their children are consuming in terms of media content does not just motion produce studios from the living room television or computers ripped from tablet so phones all of which, you know, all of which bring an increasing amount of old age inappropriate material with them.

So it's more important than ever for parents to be involved and there are number words to do that you can be website. The current health website to learn about children programming parental reviews usually wonderful movie resource for you guidelines don't just tell you what the plot is what the reading his book tells you more about the type of specific content that many parents may find noted runs counter to their values and every bit of information helps the parent to be a better parent. She said it is getting harder and harder to police what our kids and grandkids are watching and what they can access social important is it to go to the store so go to talk to our kids and explain to them why it's important for them not to be putting this kind of material in front of their eyes and how helpful is that workgroup quote don't get all that frequently we can we can know where your fingertip you shorted and shouldn't do little context can really help little bit of explanation as to why you are setting rules can be very helpful and obviously depends what you say depend upon the age of the child. Parents instinctively and intuitively know that what our kids consume in terms of energy in the media have an impact on their thinking on their behavior on their cognitive development and medical science confirms up to be true so it's important.

Just as we talk about no towing, Junior you Have a bowl of fruit every day for breakfast get something healthy. Ultimately, shrewdly understand the reasoning why the need to make. Also it makes good media choices for themselves.

They wanted to develop and be the best. Growing up they can possibly be. Starts modules with good sleep and good food, but also with a good diet of healthy entertainment and telling them explaining to them why that's important is I think very helpful step to get them on your side of this issue. Can you give us a few more examples. So what is over sexualized media can change the way you look at that girls or boys are how you think about marriage and how hopeful you are about the world are there are some other things that you would suggest that parents say along those lines will report on how old the child. Are you talking through seven or eight-year-old versus 12 or 14-year-old you're going to have to make sure you put answer that that context into an age-appropriate answer and a lot of times times kids don't think about, sexualizing it was the collision of young girls in a way that we, as adults, completed the harm but if mom tells a young boy you know I was a young girl and you. How should I have been treated. I would you want other boys my age to treat me when I was a kid and put it in the context of most boards worship their moms and dads to. Of course, but there's always one among talk to her son in a way about these values that that really into a young boy's mind the context of girls in my age group part of a group and be mom's up someday.

My sisters will grow up and be moms.

Hopefully someday, and how what I want them to be treated with respect, that's, that's one way to put to the context of color into the conversation with the child listening to a radio show and cast from NC family. You can sign up to receive and to listen to the show online resources in the voice of persuasion website family watching but of course we know that the kids don't always learn a lesson that we want them to. And so we need to do our our best to to shield them from this content. So let's talk a little bit about some of the things that are put into place, such as rating systems for movies and then there's a rating system for television shows to write, could you just kinda give us a synopsis and a comparison of those two systems very active in terms of public policy will start time in Washington DC in Hollywood are going to do so, but I spent a lot of time in Washington as well.

Talking to members of Congress hunters elected, appointed officials and cabinet offices and so forth about the media's impact on kids and how can we help parents become better parent you think of that you just what is to look at the rating system for Curtis. I will what social rated you. You probably okay for my kid of its PG-13 is probably okay for my my 14-year-old child. What we have seen is there's two separate things. One is the rating systems themselves. Parents have a rating system for television have a different rating system for movies a different rating system for video games different rating system for quirks. So that's how can a parent possibly never get all of those different systems are number one is the complexity of the different systems we think we are advocating for one system that would cover all media. So parents can understand in depth one rating system that covers all forms of media. The second part is the accuracy and transparency in the consistency of the rating system we have seen that intelligent routing systems.

Each TV network decides for himself how to read a program supposed to be some sort of continuity, but we seem seen that not happen a lot manage every single show on primetime broadcast television is rated for a child, even the most totalizing most profane, most violent, all rated as appropriate for children that's done because the networks make more money from others. If the rate them as appropriate for children as opposed to adults only.

So there are problems with the systems accuracy and problems with the transparency and problems with the consistency with seniors and social science reports actually academic reports that show there are more more gun violence in PG-13 movies and R-rated movies. There are no words multiple efforts are allowed in the PG-13 movie know a single parent in America thinks that the that that type of profanity is appropriate for a 13-year-old child, but the motion picture Association has said that well if you want to it's okay with three or more than it's not okay that seems so silly to me.

There needs to be a better transparency of what the learning system stand for right now it's locking that terribly and so we are advocating for unified rating system and a better accuracy across all rating systems so course more and more families are cutting the cord and they're just going to a lot of the streaming services to these rating systems apply to any of those things like Netflix and then what about YouTube whose word gets even more complex). When you start using some restring platforms YouTube, Netflix, Amazon prime who Apple TV, you have some of these streaming platforms use the TV system.

Some of them use the movie system. Some of them use both. Some of them use their own system and some of the seminal and so what's a parent to do it. It's like going into a supermarket and only having some of the boxes having on the back. The nutritional ingredients in the nutritional value and some will never let oneself the wrong one phone don't have any of this. A mess so the system is to be of the issue is even more problematic for parents who are trying to navigate through the cord cutting a lot of parents think that well if I can get rid of TV and cable that I don't have the sucker punch where show comes on that. I'm not expecting the problem is when you open up a Pandora's box. Really you open up Netflix and there's some really good content for children, but you also have some of the most disturbing twisted sick content available anywhere in entertainment, much of it is featuring and targeted at children. So it really parents can just turn on the device and leave the room. It is so troubling troubling right now and the issue of distributed platforms to get on the on board with the more consistent macro system as well.

You mentioned targeting children in that brings up the efforts of some to slip storylines into movies and TV shows that are specifically designed to influence our kids hearts and minds on certain issues.

So is this a real thing and how worried she parents be about that.

Oh, absolutely real thing. Matter fact I was recently on Fox News to discuss show on Netflix called 13 reasons why most adults in America have never heard of a show called 13 reasons why, but I assure you, most children have heard of it. Many of them have watched in the some of the consequences are tragic.

The show on Netflix that features children and it's targeted at children. This is a junior high scores and high scores showed about a high school young high school girl who is sexually assaulted in high school bullied in and brutalized and she ends up taking her own life. It was the single most explicit suicide scene with everything produced in any form of any media covered by Hollywood, very graphic suicide scene of this young girl who felt such despair and no hope. She took her own life and the show was about 13 reasons why she killed herself. This show is watched by millions of children and what works on the National Institutes of Health are confirmed for/just in last couple of weeks is that after the show premiered the number, the number of children ages 10 to 17 who committed suicide after watching the show after the show is released. I should site after she was released, the number of children ages 10 to 17 who committed suicide spiked up by 30%. This follows a another concerning statistic after the show was released to the Google search template. How do I kill myself up 26%. So you have no evidence that that there is a link between this show targeting teenagers targeting children that basically romanticize his team suicide in a number of teenagers and children were actually killing themselves. This deeply troubling. What could be more concerned with parents and a child who is contemplating ending their own life because I feel such despair where the redemption was the positive. The positive result will Netflix and while the Hollywood creative community thinks it's edgier and and better to produce it to despair as opposed to the redemption Netflix seems to be one of the biggest in terms of perpetrators in terms of explicit content marketing towards children so the question is about is this really a thing work. Some of these programs are slipping content in that most parents would think is volatile.

The answer is yes and they have a constitutional First Amendment right to produce this type of content, but I think it is outrageous that the public. Corporation would market and profit. They would profit from children who watch a show and is now being linked to increased risk of suicidal children and listening family show online and more resources on persuasion. I found the last time and