Children's Media Experience & SEX

Today I saw a great poster! In bold and in very large letters was the word SEX! This is a poster no matter what your morals or gender you have no choice but to walk over and read it. Many people their first impression is “I’m offended!” So they walk over to yank it down without reading it. This almost happened while I was sitting at a table in front of the poster. I told the person after they asked me to move so they could specifically yank down the poster, “You don’t even know what it’s for. Why don’t you read it first?” I was definitely in defense mode at this point. The man walked away in a huff mumbling, “I don’t care. I don’t even want to know” still not bothering to actually find out what the poster was about. This is ignorant judgment. You should avoid this type of behavior and people who insist on acting this way. Always know what you are doing. Never jump to conclusions. In the words of Mr. Ready my high school biology teacher, “Never assume. It makes an ass out of you and an ass out of me.” This is a good and common saying but he said it on a regular basis to all of his students. Others are also offended but at least they walk up and read the poster and then seeing the actual reason it is hung there they leave it alone and walk away. There are also people that see it and think, “I like sex. I’m interested!” This is a poster that you have to engage whether or not the subject offends you. Talk about effective marketing!

The poster turned out to be an invitation/advertisement for a sex addiction counseling group for men at a local church.

This brings me into my real topic: sex in media outlets that are intended for a child audience.

Just like this sign, you can’t turn on your TV, radio, or computer, open a publication, or drive down the road without seeing an advertisement that is using sexual suggestion to sell a product, service, idea, or program. With being a mother of a young child I am concerned about sex playing too large of a role in my son’s media experience. I don’t want him to have negative connotations about his own self-image, or believe that his future partner should look a certain way or they aren’t worthy of his love, or even cause him to have abnormal sexuality (not talking about homosexuality) that may cause him to be a society outcast.

I find it troubling that even while watching TV stations that are traditionally aired for a child audience, there is regularly blatant sexual suggestive dialog, actions, or content. Even on Disney there are many tween shows that show children kissing and engaging in adult like relationships or wearing clothes that leave little to nothing to the imagination.

That being said I do NOT think that the government should ban ALL media that contains ANY nuance of sex. I am a full supporter of the 1^st Amendment of the United States Constitution but I also support a limitation on the venue of certain speech; especially when children are involved. I believe that blatant sexually suggestive content should be banned from media outlets that are targeting a child audience.

Let me clarify when I am talking about children, I mean any person under the age of 18 and the content I am talking about is blatant (obvious) sexually suggestive (indicating the desire or probability for sex) that the average parent would not approve of their child engaging in.

If I had a daughter I would certainly not approve of her prancing around or posing seductively in her skivvies like the women on the Victoria Secret underwear advertisements do. I wouldn’t want my son doing this either for that fact.

These days our kids are on media overload. With even two parent families having to work full time, media has taken the place of family time. Many families even experience media together because they are too tired or too broke to leave home to do anything and even when they do they usually still pick some media outlet to experience together, albeit more expensive. In our parent’s time, or at least mine, there were enough chores to keep you running around like a chicken with your head cut off before and after school so that by the time you were done with chores, homework, and dinner all you wanted to do was go to bed. Not watch TV or listen to the radio late into the night. Watching a movie was a sometimes treat instead of an everyday occurrence.

The only TV channel that I have seen that seems to have any type of censorship is Nick Jr.; which is intended for a preschool age child. Nick Jr. instead of having commercials has brain building puzzles or music during down time between shows. I don’t believe that this level of censorship should be the standard for all child audience directed media. I do believe however that there should be some kind of censorship.

The Supreme Court is very involved with deciding whether or not censorship should be allowed. Censorship on content is usually severely frowned upon and laws that ban certain content are usually deemed unconstitutional unless they pass the strict scrutiny test applied by the Justices. In this case, because I am proposing a ban on content in a venue (child audience intended media), the court would apply the less restrictive test of intermediate scrutiny. I believe that my proposal would be upheld by the court.

Opposition would argue that I am giving up my parental responsibility to monitor what media my child is exposed to but this is definitely not the case. I am only asking that the government impose this ban so that as a mother, I have a way to provide my son with media experiences that are both positive and appropriate for a child. I want HELP to be a good parent by allowing me an avenue to succeed in this endeavor. As a good parent I am advocating for this ban, which is in my opinion, in the best interest of my child.

Back to the poster.

 Since said poster was in a college, a venue traditionally directed and intended for adult use, it is perfectly appropriate for the poster to be hung there. However, if the poster would have been hung in the daycare across the street, I would have been just as offended as any other sensible parent and rightly so.

 Sex has its place in life but it should not be located in media outlets that are intended for a child audience.

Below is the poster I referenced, it didn’t last through class.