Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 1, 1995 TAG: 9503010044
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CLAUDIA PUIG LOS ANGELES TIMES
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The nationwide poll, conducted by Children Now, a national children's advocacy group, asked 10 to 16 year olds how television shapes their values.
``I think it pressures people my age,'' said Rayelyn Rodriguez, a 14-year-old Southgate, Calif., girl who was among the 750 children in the survey. ``They think if they see it on TV they want to go do it too.''
More than two-thirds of the young people said they are influenced by television. Seventy-seven percent said there is too much sex before marriage depicted and 62 percent said sex on television and in movies influences their peers to have sexual relations when they are too young. Two-thirds said that shows such as ``The Simpsons'' and ``Married ... with Children'' encourage youthful viewers to disrespect parents.
``With a show like `Married ... with Children,' kids talk back to their parents and they always hit them up for money and stuff,'' said Jesse Lunn, a 13-year-old Mission Viejo, Calif., respondent.
An overwhelming majority of young people polled also said that television should help teach them values, but instead often showed people getting away with - and sometimes triumphing by - deceitful behavior or physical aggression.
The survey was conducted in January under the sponsorship of Children Now, whose board of directors includes television producers, academics, former California Supreme Court Justices Allen Broussard and Cruz Reynoso, former Los Angeles Raiders football player Jim Plunkett and the chairman of Warner Bros. Records, Danny Goldberg.
Researchers interviewed an ethnically balanced sample of children nationwide via telephone, with about a 3 percent margin of error, and focused on cable and broadcast programs airing during the evenings, pollster Paul Maslin said.
The purpose, according to James Steyer, Oakland-based president of Children Now, which has several offices around the country, was to examine the lessons imparted by the young characters on entertainment shows.
``We ought to listen to what kids themselves say, and 82 percent of them say the media should teach them right from wrong,'' said Steyer. ``Kids seem to be suggesting that anti-social behavior should not be rewarded.''
The findings have prompted Children Now to ask television programmers to show viewers the consequences of anti-social behavior and to depict children dealing with real-life problems credibly - and making wise decisions on difficult issues. The organization is also calling on program producers and writers to include less sexual activity, especially avoiding sex before marriage and at young ages, Steyer said.
``We're not suggesting that television should be the scapegoat for all these heavy issues relating to kids and values, but they can't be a scofflaw either,'' Steyer said. ``This is a positive challenge, not an indictment.''
To that end, the organization will offer suggestions on story ideas to television producers and has organized a conference later this week at Stanford University, with industry heavy-hitters scheduled to discuss the role of the media in shaping children's values.
``There's a general sense that the values in society are declining and that kids growing up today are facing much more difficult choices at earlier ages,'' Steyer said. ``Therefore, they need much more solid foundations of values to deal with these very heavy choices.''
Steyer said his organization readily acknowledges the role of parents, schools and the community in teaching values to children, but emphasizes that the entertainment media also play a critical role.
The study's results were not always clear-cut. For instance, based on their TV viewing, 49 percent of the children said they think that people are mostly dishonest and 54 percent said people are concerned about money over anything else. But in response to another question, 54 percent also said people are responsible for their actions and are mostly moral.
In addition, 63 percent of the children polled said there are a sufficient number of positive minority role models on television, though the researchers noted that Latino children were grossly under-represented on television.
The study found that 60 percent of the teen-agers questioned had television sets in their bedrooms, 65 percent have three or more sets in their home and 44 percent said they watched different programs when alone or with friends than when they were with their parents. When away from their parents, those polled most frequently watched MTV.
The majority of respondents (58 percent) said they watched two to four hours of television daily.
by CNB