Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Media Rules?

I'm curious about FSP families media rules. As the days are darker and temperatures drop, I find it is tempting to cozy up with more tv. For me. (I am despairing the end of Mad Men, but that is for another post). On the other hand, we've ended up with a no tv on school days rule for the kids, because our afternoons together seem so short as it is. I was relatively shocked by the newest Neilson report that suggests that most kids are consuming more media than ever. They claim:
The amount of television usage by children reached an eight-year high, with kids ages 2 to 5 watching the screen for more than 32 hours a week on average and those ages 6 to 11 watching more than 28 hours
Where do they find the time?
The Campaign for a Commerical Free Childhood argues that kids should have less media, and particularly less commerical media in their lives. Momsrising advocates better tv and more after school offerings for young people, while commonsense media tries to help parents choose the best possible media out there. The National Association for Media Literacy and MITs new project on Media Literacies offer resource for parents and teachers and young people to engage critically with all this tv, and to begin to be authors of their own media productions. .. where do you stand -- less, better, or back-off and give kids some space?