Media has both an upside and a downside. Understanding these five facts about media is the first place to start.

Media Fact 1: All media educate

Children learn about the world and how to behave in it from their every experience – including their experience of media. Today’s media provide powerful messages that influence large audiences. Given that children constantly learn, we must pay as much attention to what we feed their minds as their bodies.

Media Fact 2: Kids get exposed to a lot of media – every day

According to recent national studies from the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Annenberg Public Policy Center, kids 8 – 18 years old spend over six hours each day on average using media outside of school (watching TV, videos, or movies, listening to CDs, using computers, reading, and/or playing video games). Remarkably, two-thirds of these kids watch TV in their bedrooms and almost half report watching TV during meals. Eighty-three percent of children under six and 59% of children under two watch TV on a typical day for an average of about two hours.

Media Fact 3: Media exposure may affect children in negative ways

Numerous studies from around the world show an association between children’s exposure to media and:

• obesity
• increased aggressive behavior
• desensitization to the pain of others
• anxiety, fears, and sleep disturbances
• risky health behaviors
• potentially decreased literacy
• possible attention deficit at school age

Center on Media and Children’s Health research shows that even G-rated animated films and E-rated and T-rated video games portray surprising amounts of violence and substance use as normal behavior.

Media Fact 4: Media literacy can help

Although not always apparent, most media intend to sell something – a product or a point of view – and the ability to critically evaluate media messages represents a crucial skill. Media literacy, the ability to read a variety of different media by identifying and analyzing embedded messages, represents an essential skill for today’s children and adolescents. Pilot studies suggest that children can protect themselves from the negative effects of media exposure once they become media literate, critical consumers of media. Media literacy can include the ability to write media by creating and sharing their own messages using media tools. Children, parents, and media producers can use these skills to promote health.

Media Fact 5: Media self-regulation depends on responsible, pro-active media producers and consumers

With the current system of voluntary ratings for each type of media, producers maintain responsibility for providing information about media content to help parents make better media choices for and with kids. They must provide consistent, reliable, and complete information about media content and address the issues of cross-marketing of content that send conflicting messages. Parents and kids maintain responsibility for actively choosing healthy media content. Parents should co-experience and discuss media content with their children and realize that it’s never too early or too late to start talking to kids about their media experiences.

Source http://www.cmch.tv/mentors/mediaUnderstand.asp

Read more about media literacy and helping your children navigate media in a “pornified” world in this Parenting the Internet Generation- e-book from CovenantEyes