Parents need to monitor their teens? exposure to television to avoid modeling their behavior after twisted “South Park” or “Jackass” characters, said a speaker at an Anne Arundel conference.
“The MTV generation is the generation in which the TV becomes the parent,” said John Hodge, director of the Urban Learning and Leadership Center in Newport News, Va.
“As parents, we need to monitor and regulate TV, or it will seep into our schools.”
Hodge spoke during the Parent Involvement Conference on Tuesday at Carver Staff Development Center in Gambrills.
Parents viewed clips from “South Park” in which a “high” school counselor uses marijuana and LSD, and a “Jackass” segment in which a character disrespects a car salesman after demolishing a car during a stunt.
“Do you hear what a teenager might hear during these shows?” Hodge asked. “I?m not bashing MTV or Comedy Central, but I question the age appropriateness of some of these shows.”
The Ethics Resource Center, a nonprofit in Washington, D.C., that advocates for high ethical standards and practices in public and private institutions, found that by the time children finish elementary school, they will have witnessed 8,000 televised murders and 100,000 acts of violence, Hodge said.
He urged parents and teachers to educate the whole child by caring for children?s social, academic and moral environment.
Dorette Johnson, parent of four children, including a kindergartner and fourth-grader at Marley Elementary School in Glen Burnie, agreed.
” ?South Park? came on when my two oldest were in elementary school,” she said. “My two youngest know that they can?t watch that and to change the channel when it comes on.”
She limits the time her children spend watching television, and video games are only allowed on the weekends during the school year.
