To watch or not to watch

Our daughter is almost four months old now and as each day passes it becomes more apparent to me how the values of my wife and I will shape my daughter's. What and how we eat, the language we use, our priorities, our concerns will most likely become hers.

Lately I've been concerned about television. Where I work I am able to observe a lot of children's television and I am considering how much exposure my daughter should have, if any at all. When I grew up, the options were much more limited. Mr. Roger's Neighborhood, Sesame Street, and 3-2-1 Contact were the main options. Of course there were only three networks to choose from, cable being a thing that our family couldn't afford. Cartoons were mainly reruns of Loony Tunes with fare such as the Smurfs, He-Man, and GI Joe coming along a little later.

Still my parents, being staunch Fundamentalist Baptists, found ways to whittle down even those limited choices. In time I wasn't allowed to watch the Smurfs (the character Gargamel was a warlock) or He-Man (there was only one "master of the universe" - God). Finally, 3-2-1 Contact was given the axe when my mother watched an episode with me that discussed plate tectonics and therefore gave the estimated age of the earth, 4-5 billion years old, which went against the creationist views of our faith (10,000 years old).

I'm not sure what effect all of this censoring had on me as I would allow my daughter read the Harry Potter series and I readily accept the scientific understanding of the evolution of the universe, solar system, and life on earth. Nonetheless, I do think this was a valuable lesson my parents gave me if only in that it provided an example of the duty of parents to be aware of the content of shows their children watch and to control what their children are allowed to view. And it was most likely this decision on their part that led me to read more than I might have if I had not been limited in my viewing choices.

So now here I am a parent in my own right and being faced with the same dilemma - to watch or not to watch. I am taken back by the amount of marketing directed towards children for movies that are, in all probability, far to violent for younger viewers. Case in point- the latest Indiana Jones movie. I like the Indiana Jones movies. And I did view them when I was younger. However, I was probably 10 years old before I saw the first one and then it was done in the company of my parents who made me cover my eyes during the more violent or scary parts. Also, I do not remember there being much marketing of the film towards children. There were no Indiana Jones toys, no Indiana Jones commercials run during times that children would be watching television. With this latest installment though the airwaves of children's channels such as Nickelodeon and The Disney Channel have been saturated with advertisements for the movie or toys, food products, etc. associated with the film.

Last night, my wife and I were watching Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and noting how much violence was contained in the film, again one that was heavily marketed toward children without discrimination to age. I enjoyed the film, but my mind kept wandering to wondering what impact its images might have had younger viewers.

I know that this marketing trend will most likely not cease. The only possibility for change is if those in the positions of power and wealth sense blood in the water for some other target demographic. Yet the choice available to my parents still remains one open to me. The hard part is that it will require a discipline on my part that I am not sure I yet possess. I am inclined to think that maybe it will begin with small steps - limiting the time I spend in front of the idiot's lantern each week, maybe progressing on to further steps such as trying a week without watching television. Who knows?