Media and its effect on children. Should parents be worried?

I am Peggy Spillane and being the mother of 4 teenage daughters, media...TV, movies, magazines, books, internet, and video games are something that we, as parents, have monitored over the course of our children's lives.  Media can either have a positive or negative effect, depending on what it is and what it portrays.  When our children were younger, we monitored what they watched and read a lot more closely than we do now that they are teenagers.  

We always had a policy that we needed to know and approve of what they were watching before they viewed it.  TV, movies, etc. can be harmless in many cases, but often, shows and movies contained violence, sexual content, or inappropriate language or behavior that we did not want our children exposed to.  I think children can often model or repeat behaviors they have been exposed to and seeing too much of these negative things seem to desensitize them and they start seeing these behaviors as "normal." We try to keep a loving, supportive atmosphere in our home and so many families portrayed on TV or in movies seem extremely dysfunctional.  When things were on TV, a movie, etc. that we considered inappropriate, we would tell our children why we saw it as inappropriate and help them understand why we did not want them viewing certain things.  

Before we went to a movie in the theater, we would check out the comments on a family friendly website to check out the reasons for the movie rating and then decide if it was something we wanted to see.  As our children have gotten older and have more freedom to make their own choices of what they see and hear, we hope we have equipped them with tools to choose wisely.   The internet is an area where children are easily exposed to things that are inappropriate.  Even an innocent web search can quickly lead to sites that no one would want their child to see.  Installing filters can be helpful, but children need to be taught to notify a parent if inappropriate sites come up.  Keeping the home computer in a public area of the house and periodically checking on what your child is viewing or playing can help avoid problems.  

A great deal of what is available on TV in informative, educational and entertaining.  However, with all types of media, I think using it in moderation is the best idea.  Setting a time limit for TV, video games and other forms of media will help insure that children have a more balanced life.  Media is causing our children to become more sedentary, so limiting the time they spend with these things will encourage more physical activity and time to seek out activities that require more thought and creativity.