Children used to mimic the Power Rangers' high kicks in the school playgrounds. Now, as small children are exposed to more violence, sex and bad language, children's television programmes have been overtaken by increasing levels of bullying and violent behaviour, even at reception stage.
Protecting children from harmful media messages is increasingly difficult. Mediamarch organises protests, urging the Government to regulate media content better. Sadly, the power of the media industry has stifled our message, but we have a new initiative to encourage and empower parents to manage children's exposure to the media in the form of a booklet, produced with mediawatch-uk. 'Children and the Media - Learning by Example?' explains the developmental, physiological and moral harm that can be caused to children by excessive use of 'screens', such as TV, computer, mobile phone or interactive games. It suggests controlling children's access to the media by moving screens out of the bedroom. Early years practitioners should continue to encourage parents to read to children because the media habits that toddlers develop could affect them for the rest of their lives.
Professor Robert Winston said, 'Most scientists now think that TV can encourage violent tendencies. Experiments show how dangerous seeing the wrong kind of lessons on TV could be on a child's developing idea of how to behave.'
Mediamarch has launched a postcard campaign to lobby the Government for better media regulation. Please join us; together we can make the media safer for our children and the children in our care.
Miranda Suit is co-founder of mediamarch, www.mediamarch.org.uk.