Television Tips for Parents of Young Children

                        Joanne Cantor,   Ph.D.

Understanding Your Child:

Seeing is Believing: Young children are often frightened by things that parents would not expect to be scary. Here are some of the most common media sources of young children's fears:

· grotesque visual images: scary-looking characters (whether they are real or make-believe; and whether they are kindly or villainous), vicious animals, monsters, mutilated or deformed characters
· natural disasters, accidents, and violence shown vividly
· stories involving the death of a parent or harm to children
· transformations of characters from one form to another (especially when a nice-looking character becomes grotesque)

What To Do When Your Young Child is Frightened:

· Get them out of the scary situation
· Accept their fear as a normal reaction - don't belittle them
· Don't expect logical explanations to work
· Be there for them, both physically and emotionally
· Do something fun together
· Draw pictures or build a castle together
· Read a calming, soothing book together
· Develop reasonable bedtime rituals

Avoiding Future Fright Reactions:

· Don't place a TV or computer in your child's bedroom.
· Make sure you know what your child is watching, playing, or accessing on-line
· Be there and ready to change the channel, distract your child, or soothe the fear if something scary comes on
· Get to know the programs, movies, and video games your child is likely to use
· Take special care when watching the news
· Read reviews, plot summaries, and alternative rating systems:

o www.screenit.com
o www.moviereports.com
o www.moviemom.com
o psvratings.com

· Get to know filtering systems that allow you to block TV programs, parts of movies, the Internet

Speaking Out:

· Talk to your kids in a tactful way about the consequences of watching the wrong things
· Complain to the media about inappropriate content aimed at children
· Write letters to newspapers, legislators, etc.
· Join together with other parents to help make your child's media environment safe
e.g., Center for Successful Parenting (www.sosparents.org)

Resources:

Teddy's TV Troubles (A children's picture book for coping with the media).
Goblin Fern Press, 2004. $16.95

"Mommy, I'm Scared" (A parenting book for understanding children's reactions and helping them cope.)
Harcourt, 1998. $14.00

Books are available at www.tvtroubles.com, amazon.com and bookstores.