One spin around the web for every week of the school year
by Jennifer Binford
This week: Small Screen, Big Questions
“Mom, can we rent Monsters vs. Aliens?”
We’ve made our weekly pilgrimage to Blockbuster to choose a DVD for the weekend.
“Um…” I stall, squinting at the characters on the case, trying to determine which little animated creature looks likely to perpetrate gratuitous violence or use adult language. “Well…” I hesitate, scanning the teaser copy for clues about gender stereotyping or contempt for authority figures. “Hmmm…” I waver, searching the heroine’s face for indications of anything vaguely role-model-ish.
My almost-eight-year-old peers up at me expectantly. “I don’t know,” I say. And it’s true. I honestly don’t know.
It was so much easier when they were little. Then I could winnow down their choices to a shelf or two of relatively innocuous stories and shows. For anything else, I’d say, “That’s for kids a little bit older than you.”
Well, now they’re the kids who are a little bit older. I have a pretty good sense of what I’m comfortable with and what they’re comfortable with. But it’s not always easy to judge a video by its cover, and I’m often left playing in-aisle amateur detective about whether a release is right for us.
If you’re in the same boat, you’re going to love Common Sense Media. They have all kinds of tools and resources for parents and educators who are trying to shepherd children through the media thickets (think grade-by-grade guides, expert interviews, student discussion guides, family media agreements, discussion forums, etc., etc.). There’s some great guidance about everything from advertising to social networking. Some random topics I spent a morning reading about: YouTube 101, Taming Gaming at Home, Talking about Cyberbullies, When Good Role Models Go Bad, Media Protocols for Playdates, 7 Things You Should Know about Web Filters…it’s truly a gold mine for parents like me: I’m ambivalent about so much media exposure for kids, but I know it’s better to manage it than to ignore it.
Now, back to the aisle at Blockbuster. Common Sense Media has a gazillion reviews of movies, books, web sites, music, and TV shows. I literally sat down with my cell phone, went to the site, read the review out loud, and then decided that Monsters vs. Aliens was probably okay for my second grader. At which point my second grader informed me that he wasn’t interested. “Too intense,” he said, opting instead for a collection of Phineas and Ferb episodes. Wow. Instead of making an arbitrary call, I was able to offer some reliable information that let us both practice being savvy media consumers.
And the site really lives up to its name. No politics, no agenda. Just a level-headed look at the media fare our kids are being offered, with suggestions about how to talk about it, digest it, avoid it, or embrace it. Obviously, reviewers have their own biases, and parents have their own criteria, but this site provides some valuable tools and information to help parents and kids make decisions they’re comfortable with.
P.S. On the heels of the movie release of Where the Wild Things Are, The New York Times has an interesting conversation among child development experts about children’s movie experiences. Check it out.
See you next link!
