CAUSAL CHAIN

 Discussion Week 5:  “Contemporary media is encouraging children to grow up to fast”

                                                            CAUSAL CHAIN

  What our children view on TV, without parental supervision, can affect the way they view the world, of what is accepted and what is not. The way in which the media display each broadcast, from commercials to the some-what innocent TV shows that we as adult think nothing of, are having a profound effect on our children’s out-look of what it is to be an “adult” without the intervention of an adult to explain the ramifications of these actions viewed, children are more or less likely to develop the wrong attitude toward life and may also develop habits that are unbecoming of the innocent of childhood.

  Many, influential concerns in the media, that parents should concern their selves in, are the way in which they are presented and ways in which the child interpret that presentation. Some examples are; a child viewing a weight lose ad, sees and hears how wonderful it is to be thin, as the male or female representative of the weight lose ad is adored by men  or females with complements of admiration. To a child, to be thin is to belong; a commercial on makeup that shows how a plain female representative can transform into a beauty within a matter of seconds. What a child see, is the wearing of makeup will give them a higher social standing among their peers; TV Shows that broadcast the acceptance of teenage parenthood, tells a child that it is OK for a teenager to have sex and that birthing a child is what to be expected while young.

   There isn’t much we can do to keep our children from being exposed to the media but with monitoring what our children view and by explanation of what they have viewed can help our children grow up at the pace in which they were meant to grow up. The causal chain to be aware of for your children are.

·         The need to lose weight.

·         Is to become social accepted among peers.

·         The wearing of makeup.

·         Is to become as an adult figure among peers.

·         Exercising sexual awareness.

·         Is to take on the responsibilities of being an adult.

It is not easy being an adult. To let our children miss out on enjoying their childhood will reflect on we the parent. As parents, it is our duty to protect our children, from the “Media” and from themselves, when it comes to interpreting the media from a child point of view.