- Target:
- United States Senate and United States Congress
- Region:
- United States of America
As most of you know I am currently in the Early Childhood Education Master's Program at Oakland University. I am currently taking an advocacy class and I chose to be an advocate for the "Quality of Children's Television Programming." According to Nielsen Media Research, the average American (they included children in this average), watches an average of 3 hours and 43 minutes of television every day. That's 56 days of nonstop television watching each year!
The Parent's Television Council found that "foul language during the family hour (8-9 p.m.) increased by 94.8% between 1998 and 2002, and by 109.1% during the 9-10 p.m. airtime. I currently teach elementary age children English as a Second Language in the suburbs in the Metro Detroit area, and they are repeating inappropriate language they hear on television before they can carry on a conversation in English!
Some changes must be made. One of those changes starts with the parents themselves. They need to pay attention to how much quality time they are spending with their children, and how much time their children spend watching television, rather than having valuable interactions with their families. The other changes, are governmental, and I am proposing the following changes be brought to our government's attention:
We the undersigned support legislation to reinstate FCC standards for children's television, establishing limits on violent depictions during hours that children are likely to watch television (8 a.m.-9 p.m.).
2. Legislation needs to allow FCC standards to control the degree to which violence is depicted, so that children would see what would be considered "normal and acceptable" responses to problems, as equated with power, as a leading reward, or a glorification of the perpetrator.
3. The FCC should be allowed to prescreen television programming for content when the show would be see during hours that children are likely to watch television (8 a.m.-9 p.m.).
4. A number of child professionals should be part of the FCC group that makes decisions on behalf of children's television programming.
You can further help this campaign by sponsoring it
The Legislation for Quality Children's Programming petition to United States Senate and United States Congress was written by Julie Farmer and is in the category Children's Rights at GoPetition.