Taming TV: Has Television Gotten Worse


Taming TV: While Parents Worry About Other Media, Has Television Gotten Worse?

While media decency advocates and high-tech gadgets aim to help parents control what shows their kids see, taking the time to watch TV with your kids - and talking together about the content - is still the best antidote to concerns about inappropriate content.













This article is part 1 of 4 in a series on
Kids & TV



By Gregory Keer


The Internet is full of just-a-click-away sexual imagery. Video games offer countless depictions of violence. Music rife with profanity reaches kids' ears via iPods and cell phones. So it's easy to see how television (so old school!) might have taken a backseat among parents' concerns.

But that backseat is getting warmer.


Influenced by action groups trying to clean up the airwaves, In June 2006, Congress approved a tenfold increase in fines - from $32,500 to $325,000 - on broadcast TV and radio stations that violate decency standards. President Bush quickly signed the bill into law, putting more teeth into Federal Communications Commission rules that:



  • prohibit the broadcast of obscene material at any time and
      

  • limit the broadcast of "indecent" (sexually explicit, exceedingly violent or profane) material between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m.


But the law does not extend to cable TV, which hosts many shows popular among kids and adults alike. And whether it's broadcast or on cable, some media observers charge that TV programming aimed at families has gotten worse - it's too violent, too sexual and full of attitude, they say.

What's a parent to do?

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