It was fantastic training and so fun as well. Here are some new friends I met…

They are the new chapter directors I met in New Orleans. We all learned so much from Gavin, the national Grassroots Director. Here’s me with Gavin, and the PR Specialist, Kelly.

And here’s a final gathering of the whole group at the training before we headed back to the airport. The entire trip including travel time was less than 48 hours!

We’ll all reconvene in February 2009 for the annual conference in CA. Until then we’ll be busy building our local chapter and educating parents on media!

Garbage In, Garbage Out

In the 1970s a popular poem taught us that children “learn what they live,” and in recent years, we’ve seen the truth of that maxim played out in schools and playgrounds across the country. An entire genre of music, popularized and pushed into the mainstream by greedy corporations, has taught a generation of children that the road to success is paved with drugs, violence and sex.

The Parents Television Council, in cooperation with Reverend Delman Coates’ Enough is Enough Campaign for Corporate Responsibility in Entertainment recently released an analysis of adult content appearing on Rap City and 106 & Park on BET and MTV’s Sucker Free on MTV — music video programs popular with young audiences — and found that offensive/adult content appeared at an alarming rate: one instance every 38 seconds.

That means every 38 seconds, children watching these programs are exposed to sexually charged images, explicit language, violence, drug use or sales, or other illegal activity.

They were exposed to depictions of strippers and the “n” word, which was used 136 times in just one week. They were exposed to depictions of weapons, deaths, explosions, and rioting, drug use and other illegal activity.

The V-Chip will protect kids right? It could, except that almost every episode in PTC’s study carried only a TV-PG rating with no content descriptors. MTV’s Sucker Free carried only a TV-14 rating. Would you consider this PG content?

It doesn’t take a PHD to see the impact of this level of explicit content have on the minds and worldview of children? How do these powerful impressions alter the values, goals and beliefs youth and children will formulate about the world, their neighborhoods, their communities and most importantly, themselves?

Many a researcher has shown that listening to music with degrading sexual lyrics is related to advances in a range of sexual activities among adolescents, because it communicates cultural messages about expected and normative sexual behavior. Researchers believe that reducing the amount of degrading sexual content in popular music or reducing young people’s exposure to music with this type of content could help delay the onset of sexual behavior.

Likewise, a recent analysis by Dr. Michael Rich, Director of the Center on Media and Child Health at Children’s Hospital of Boston found attractive role models as aggressors in more than 80% of music video violence. According to Dr. Rich, music videos may be reinforcing false stereotypes of aggressive black males and victimized white females, giving rise to concerns about the effect of music videos on adolescents’ normative expectations about conflict resolution, race, and male/female relationships. Experiments have demonstrated that exposure to sexual violence in music videos and other media desensitizes male viewers to violence against women and heightens a sense of disempowerment among female viewers.

Other research has also demonstrated that songs containing violent lyrical content can increase aggressive thoughts and feelings.

Why does this matter? Because our children are watching.

We need to be concerned about the messages our children are exposed to in all forms of media, throughout the day, as this data proves. Parents need to be more involved in monitoring their children’s media consumption, establishing and sticking to household rules about media use, and discussing media content with their children.

Advertisers need to be held accountable for the content their advertising dollars pay for. Those companies that advertise on programs like 106 & Park, Rap City, and Sucker Free on MTV can and should use their unique influence with BET and MTV to push for greater responsibility where program content is concerned.

Consumers must demand and receive the right to pick and choose – and pay for – only the channels they want coming into their homes. It is unconscionable that parents who wish to protect their children from this content are nonetheless forced to subsidize it with their cable subscription dollars.

Finally, we must demand from the networks an accurate, transparent, and consistent ratings system that will give parents adequate tools to protect their children from inappropriate content.

As a mother of 4 children, I feel a need to take action and invite others to do so as well…BECAUSE OUR CHILDREN ARE WATCHING!

Sincerely,

Karmel Larson

Utah County Chapter Director

Parents Television Council

The nation’s most influential advocacy organization protecting children against sex, violence and profanity in entertainment.

The following is a press release that went out to announce the opening of our new chapter:

Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 10, 2008

Parents Television Council Introduces Utah County Chapter

Mother of Four to Lead Fourth Utah Chapter

LOS ANGELES (July 10, 2008) – The Parents Television Council™, the nation’s most influential advocacy organization protecting children from graphic sex, violence and profanity in the media, announced Karmel Larson as the director of the Utah County Chapter.

A dedicated mother of four, Larson is appalled by the plethora of negative messages that crowd television programming. “I am stunned by the inappropriate content on television that is so readily fed to young children. I look forward to working with the PTC to help clean up the airwaves and to help our children. There is power in numbers, and I think it all starts with educating the parents. Once we get more and more parents involved, I know we can make a significant difference in protecting our children,” said Larson.

As the voice of the PTC in her community, her chapter will implement the PTC’s national initiatives at the local level, in an effort to bring forth positive changes in television programming in the community. Larson and her chapter will focus on increasing local awareness about the impact that sex, violence and profanity in the media have on children by providing the community with the latest news and research regarding television programming.

Larson, in addition to being a mother and a working professional, is an activist and longtime volunteer for her community. She is presently the Utah Valley Chapter President for American Mothers, Inc., a non-profit organization that focuses on strengthening the moral and spiritual foundations of home-life for families. She is an actively involved committee member for both the White Ribbon Campaign, which is an effort to fight pornography, and Partners for Infants and Children (PIC). She has spent much of her time volunteering with hospitals, the Red Cross, the Center for Women & Children in Crisis, and for students with disabilities. Larson graduated from Brigham Young University with a degree in social work. Larson currently works as a realtor and a homemaker.

PTC President Tim Winter said, “Passion is the key to success, and Karmel’s passion for helping children and families has made her a community leader. Her experience as an activist with other family organizations should help her to achieve great things for her community, as well as for families across the nation. We welcome her to the growing family of PTC chapter leaders.”

To join the effort, contact me at karmel.larson@gmail.com.  (it’s free, simple and you can do as little or as much as fits your busy schedule).

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