Tips for Parents
Content provided by: CommonSenseMedia
Social and Emotional Health: Media Role Models
Your child is bombarded with media messages about ethics and values that often run counter to yours. Here is what you can do to counter them.
You want your kids to have a healthy social life and do well in school. You want them to behave morally and have good values. For that, they need hefty doses of self-esteem and a strong sense of right and wrong. That's what leads to respectful, responsible and appropriate relationships. But the media often model and encourage just the opposite. Reality TV shows - which routinely rank in the top 10 for preteen viewing - glamorize people who lie and ruthlessly stab each other in the back to win competitions. Email, IMs and cell phone text messaging have become new ways to cheat and bully. Rampant consumerism helps kids define who they are by what they own. And gender and racial stereotypes abound in video games, movies, TV shows and music, sending kids unhealthy messages about social norms.
http://www.greatschools.org/students/media-kids/512-social-and-emotional-health-media-role-models.gs
http://www.commonsensemedia.org/