In closing

I hope this blog helped my readers have a better understanding how screen systems work. My audience can use this information in their daily lives when they go to watch or buy screen related items, not only for the parent’s well-being, but for their children as well on what they are seeing.  The topics that I covered in my blog are: system ratings, pictures of children with screens in front of them, shows that are inappropriate for children but are fine for adults, some of the many negative effects that too much screen time can do to a child, and how children view advertising. I hope that I left your mind wondering about what shows your children are watching and what the meaning really is behind the shows. Please leave your helpful feedback on your view of my topic. Thank you for reading my blog on all things with screens; I hope that you found this informational.  

Why Children Watch the Shows They Do.

Children today cannot get enough of their cell phones, the Internet, and the latest movies or shows. It never used to be that way. Children were depended on helping put food on the table, now days it is a more relaxed setting that involves some more fun. I'm not sure why we have gone from hanging with the family with interactive games to the over use of the screen technology, but we have. According to my research, Children and the Entertainment Industry, an anthology edited by Karen Miller, shows what it is like to be a child star.  One of the articles is titled "Production Studios Foster the Careers of Child Stars" and the author talks about how kids spend most of their time acting, leaving little time for anything else. The producers see more of the kids than their families once the children are in show business. Some children like to become doctors, engineers, firefighters, and some are dreamers. The dreamers that I'm talking about are the children who are old enough to know that they want to be famous, not the children who are placed into fame. Children are becoming singer(s), actor(s), dancer(s) or comedian(s) all in one big package, not just one talent, but as a mix. They know how to be funny, how to dance and at the same time others can sing and act. The children that people were looking up to just ten years ago were The Olson Twins, Lindsey Lohan, and Hilary Duff. Today's child stars are looking up to Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez and Raven Symone. All child stars are acting twice as much as they were just in the recent years and little less acting like a normal child. I did want to become a singer, but I did not think that I could handle all of the fame because I am a really shy person. All children look up to the one that they admire and now days it is not any different. Kids now days dream the same way as the children in the past according to the author of this article, "Productions Studios Foster the Careers of Child Stars." To close this blog up read the post right above this one and you will have an over view of the whole blog.

Ascher-Walsh, Rebecca. "Are Children in the Entertainment Industry Exploited?"
     2006. Children and the Entertainment Industry. Ed. Karen Miller. Detroit:
     GrennHaven P, 2010. 108-115. Print.

Product vs. Images

Products hardly ever look like in real life as they do in the pictures. The way that an adult views products is different than how children view them. Fast food is to look like it is a good way to get your children fed while on the run when the truth is that it is better to cook at home. The fast food ads are also misleading to children. How? The toys work on TV and hardly in "real life."  Judith Van Evra in her book titled Television and Child Development talks about everything that you need to know on how children view advertisements. One of the chapters that I'm going to use is "Celebrity Endorsement." Evra states " The combination of a famous presenter with perceptually exciting and dramatic material from the 'real' world would be a powerful message for children who are prone to believe adults, aspire to emulated heroes and are literal-minded in their interpenetration of sensory information." What I got out of what Evra is saying is younger children are easy to persuade to buy the product more so than an adult. Also if the adult is looked up to then the child is going to listen to what that person has to say.  The general ads for children to see are: Clothing, Toys, Toothpaste/brush, electronics, and music—all of which any child cannot live without, or so they think. Other advertising companies like to beef up what they are trying to sell, so it will sell. Take a place like McDonald's, the kids in the commercial are generally laughing having a good time, the toys always work, and eat healthy. The 'real' life situation is more like: mom goes through the drive through, the toy does not work, and the kids want burger and fries which leaves them tired and cranky. I see a little difference between them. According to Evra "There are children's magazines, promotional toys, cartoons characters, logos on clothes, and promotional giveaways such as McDonald's Happy Meals." When you think of advertising it is generally linked to a TV screen, and that is not always the case. Sometimes it is the clothing on the racks at the store or a billboard that you see going down the road. Next time that you want something that you see on TV do some research to see if it is worth buying the product; most of the time it does not work like the commercial said that it would. There has to be a reason why children are so involved with electronics more now than ever and I will cover that in my next post.

Evra, Judith Van. Television and Child Development. 3rd ed. 2004. London:
     Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2004. Print.

Advertising To Children

For every product that is on the market there is an ad for it. Not all of the ads are for children to see. Some of the products that would not be good for a five year old to see are the underwear commercial and the children twelve years of age do not need to see birth control ads. Of course there are others and I can go on for a while, but I think that you get the hint. I found a book in the Heartland Community College Library titled Advertising to Children on TV: Content, Impact and Regulation, which answers questions that I didn't even know that I had. There are three authors who wrote this book and they are Barrie Gunter, Caroline Oates and Mark Blades. There are three key points that I'm going to cover: first we will take a look at the age that children understand the ad, second point is the memory of the ad and third the effects of the slogans. Children under the age of five have a hard time understanding the difference between the show that they are watching and the ads in-between them. That is saying that children can think that they are watching a continuing show. I know that channels, such as Disney Channel, generally just promote the upcoming shows. The understanding of the ads can be confusing to children because they could be watching a show like Hannah Montana and then it could be a commercial on the next season of Hannah Montana. The way children remember the ad or commercial is for the bright colors, catchy music, and the people who are promoting. Asking a child what they remember from the ad, it could be something like "the blue truck," or "the yummy Christmas cookies." Ask an adult the same ads and you may hear answers like this "0% down on your next purchase" or "there is a sale at Wal-Mart for the Christmas cookies." Music is the same way; children like the music and adults think that it is an annoying jingle just like all of the other commercials. The State Farm and Macy's ads are known for their jingles during ads. The ads can be on the radio or on the TV, and sometimes while you are surfing the Internet or on a billboard as you are driving down the street.  Ads are everywhere and children see them, remember them and understand the message differently than adults. Next in my blog I will be going over the advertisement and how it varies from the picture to the product according to Erva.

Gunter, Barrie, Caroline Oates, and Mark Blades. Advertising to Children on TV:
     Content, Impact, and Regulation. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum
     Associates, 2005. Print.

TV Zombies

When anyone has a screen in front of them they go into a state which is non-responsive. In children this is worse therefore it is important for them to have less screen time than an adult would have. The children become glued to the video game or television show to where the only way to communicate with them is to turn it off. Marie Winn is known for her books on drugs and she wrote the book titled The Plug-In-Drug. She says "We notice that they always come away from an hour or two of television watching in a terrible state: cranky, captious, tired, and ready to explode." I agree with Winn because I have seen this first hand with family members of mine. Any kind of screen interaction puts our body in a sleeping mode which lowers our metabolic rate; therefore it is like you are being interrupted from your nap before you were ready to get up or away from the screen. The next time that your little one is in front of the screen to pass time, suggest doing something that is a little more active.  Some solutions that children would love to do besides having a screen in front of them are: Jump rope, hide and go seek, tag, playing house, and all sort of card games. Metabolic rate affects the amount of metabolism.  Metabolism is the amount of calories that you have compared to the amount that you use. There are ads on every channel and everywhere in between. I will answer that question in the next blog post about children’s advertising and how they view them.

Winn, Marie. "A Changed State of Consciousness." 1977. The Plug-In Drug:
     Television, Computers, and Family Life. 25th Anniversary ed. New York:
     Penguin Group, 2002. 16-25. Print.

Physical Points

Reading about how much screen time a child should be able to watch makes me want to get up and do something active. I mean that your brain is affected by too much screen time. That is true according to Marie Winn. Winn is known for books on drugs and since the television is called the plug-in drug she wrote a book about every aspect of the TV.  The book is titled The Plug-In Drug and the chapter that I'm going to focus on is about the effects that it has on the human body. She talks about the physical effects on children. In fact the whole chapter is just about children’s health. I agree with Winn when she says "I blame it on all of the 'educational' shows and how kids are learning from what they are seeing on the screen." There are more and more education devices that are trying to teach children their ABC's and 123's. Also how to get along and play nicely with others are more educational shows' main points. That is where the problem comes in. The best way to learn how to work nice with one another is to play a game or read a book together. Not only will you be teaching your children the facts that they will need for the rest of their life, but it will also raise their metabolism. Metabolism is the amount of activity that you can handle without getting overly tired. It also affects your metabolic rate. The metabolic rate is a state that a body goes into when he or she is asleep. Children of all ages go into a low metabolic rate when they are watching the TV, playing a video game, watching a movie, talking on the phone too long, or on a computer. That makes you gain weight and want to be less active for the rest of the day. It also can make you tired, grumpy, or angry toward everyone from the interruption from your screen, also known as your awake nap. That is why it is not good for children to have screen time right before they go to sleep. There are some other health issues that Winn states in her book as well. They are having lower back pain, sleeping disorders and they could end up with diabetes for the lack of exercise. The lower back pain is from sitting too long and your tail bone begins to hurt. Not all of the time you sit up while watching TV, sometimes children like to lay on the couch. Sleeping disorders can come from something that they saw that makes them scared therefore they do not want to go to sleep. Also the sleeping disorders are linked to the metabolic rate as well. The diabetes is linked to the lack of exercise that the child would be having. Winn says it best "Don't have a screen for a babysitter, pass time, or a relaxer to fall to sleep and you will have well behaved kids who go to sleep on time." I like that statement because I see that in my own life with my younger siblings. If they get permission to stay up later than normal to watch a show that is on TV, they tend to stay up one or two hours after the show is over due to the metabolic rate disorder. The following post is about the reaction of children when they have a screen in front of them.

Winn, Marie. "A Changed State of Consciousness." 1977. The Plug-In Drug:
     Television, Computers, and Family Life. 25th Anniversary ed. New York:
     Penguin Group, 2002. 16-25. Print.

What Would You Allow?

There is something called too much TV, video games, computer time, and cell phone use. The younger the child is the less time a child should have to utilize them. I spend different amounts each day. That is due to the amount of homework that I have and if I work on that day or not. Children do not have that problem of working and most do not have computer assignments until they are older. Children three years old and younger should not have any screen time at all as you have read in my brain development post at the beginning of the blog. Children the ages of four to nine should only allow thirty to forty-five minutes a day. That is depending on what homework they might have and how much free time they have outside of sports. Children the ages of ten to fourteen should have sports to keep them busy therefore only one hour per day for them. They have papers that they have to do and are talking on phones more. Children fifteen to seventeen have an hour and a half to use any of the above resources. They are generally hanging with friends at the mall or playing a sport. After the time that they have at school working on homework the time at home should not be that long.  Adding up all of the time for the week per age group it comes out to be ages under three no time. Ages four to nine is between two-hundred and ten to three-hundred and fifteen minutes a week, which is around five hours per week. Ages ten to fourteen comes out to be four-hundred and twenty minutes a week or six and a half hours total. Children ages fifteen to seventeen are at ten hours a week on average. It did not sound like a lot of time per day, but instead of doing everything in one day spread it out throughout the week and you should be fine. Knowing the amount of screen time that should be allowed for a child during a certain age, take a look at the physical reasons behind them in my next post.

Ashley. Weblog post. Screen Wars. BlogSpot, 7 Oct. 2010. Web. 8 Oct. 2010.
     http://screenwars.blogspot.com/.

Moving From One To Another

We have looked at many different aspects of children's TV programming. First thing was the online chat program that is there for children and parents. Next was the history of the first TV, how screens affect the brain, then some pictures of little kids in their stare expressions, and then history of the phones. After that we covered all of the ratings: US TV ratings, US video games ratings, and what I would consider to be a good rating system for all things with screens. Also, I talked about how other countries have different systems than ours. I compared the number of shows that was in the nineteen eighties to the present two-thousand and ten top shows followed by how many shows there were, there are and are going to be in the future. There are some shows that are for older children that younger children watch with them. Those shows are: Modern Family, Tomorrow Pioneers, and Lazy Town, all of which seem at first glance good for children's shows or programs. Now let's take a look at the following part of my blog. I will talk about what the right amount of screen time for children is and what the amount of time that they do have does to their bodies. There are different effects like physical and developmental as well. Also advertising to children and how their views are different than adults. Lastly I will discuss why children want to watch the programs they do and play the games that they play. Let's start off with what the approximate amount of time is.


Ashley. Weblog post. Screen Wars. BlogSpot, 7 Oct. 2010. Web. 8 Oct. 2010.
     http://screenwars.blogspot.com/.

LazyTown - Tarzan & Jane

This is the third of three shows that I wanted to be covered in my blog. Here is a show that is to help encourage healthy eating, how to work as a team and why exercise in children's lives is important.  I am going to give an overview of quotes from the above show clip just in case the video will not work for you. The blue dressed man is pretending to be Tarzan and the pink dress girl is pretending to be Jane. The age for him is supposed to be around 20 and she is supposed to be 15. Their actual ages during the show were 40 and 13.
Quotes from the show "Come baby come, I'll take you for a swing"- Tarzan. "Let's go honey I'm tingling"- Jane.  "When you touch me it spins my head"- Tarzan. "I feel it to when your touching me"-Jane. "Come to my tree house true my honey" - Tarzan. “Yes I will if you carry me... Tarzan is cute, Tarzan is strong, and can’t you hear his jungle song"-Jane. Tarzan-"Go cheka here monkey a banana, get funky, banana, everyone get funky". Then Jane says "Swing along Tarzan, I like to ride elephants". Then a gorilla swings on a vine and smashes into a tree after she says that.  "Why do you keep ignoring me" - Jane.  "Tarzan is here come kiss me baby"- Tarzan.  "oche-gouchi kiss me tenderly" -Jane. Then Tarzan says "YEAH" real creepy.


I can see why children like the show because it has a lot of movement and the tune is catchy. I used to watch the show myself and I do not remember anything of the nature that we just watched and I think that it has to do with the covering up of the meaning with education.

This is the URL to look up more Lazy Town Video clips.
http://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=d7mG5pQ-s2U
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0396991/fullcredits

Muslim Mickey Mouse: I Love Death and Mayhem!

The second of the three blog posts is about Islamic people trying to convert young children to be aggressive, but they cover that up with a look-a-like Mickey Mouse,Farfur, teaching ABC's. I know that this program  is banned from the United States TV and that is why they put it onto the Internet. They have topics that would be acceptable for Muslim children, who have grown up around it for generations. Children in the States could get the wrong message. Children have a hard time telling the difference from make believe and real and this show would confuse them to no end. I found this show when I googled "little kid shows." I do not agree with the content of the show or which character that was chosen to copy for what the message is that they are trying to say. Mickey Mouse is known for being fun and exciting. The Mickey Mouse that they have is little more aggressive.  Children may be taken in by this if they do not know any better. This is an example of a child's show that I don't think that they should watch. The reason why I don't want them to watch it is because they are telling little kids that it is okay to go and kill whoever you do not like or that is different than you.

"Mickey Mouse on Hamas TV Teaches Children about Islamic Rule." Tomorrows
     Pioneers. YouTube, Palestine, 6 Apr. 2007. List verses the ultimate top
     10 TV shows. Web. Transcript. 8 Oct. 2010.
http://listverse.com/2009/06/29/top-10-bizarre-tv-shows-for-kids/.
Here is a link that has more information about this program than what I have. http://images.search.yahoo.com/images/view?back=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.search.yahoo.com%2Fsearch%2Fimages%3Fp%3Dtomorrow%2Bs%2Bpioneers%26ei%3DUTF-8%26fr%3Dyfp-t-701%26fr2%3Dtab-web&w=800&h=554&imgurl=www.observer.com%2Ffiles%2Ffull%2FFarfour1.jpg&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.observer.com%2F2007%2Fpalestinian-territories-tragedy-made-children-s-tv&size=221KB&name=...+TV+%7C+The+New...&p=tomorrow+s+pioneers&oid=1a4c3f3f48cbfedb59c54784b50f0bca&fr2=tab-web&no=7&tt=10700&sigr=12f1gmdb7&sigi=1180dqjh2&sigb=134381ah9&.crumb=IYqxnrNAtTs

"Modern Family" Trailer

The first of the shows that I want to talk about is Modern Family. This show was designed so that people who have families like this one would have a show to watch. The families in the show are not your typical mom, dad, and three children. Little children are not to watch this show because there is some content that is not for younger children. Since the word 'family' is in the title people would think that it is a family show. Not all of the content in the show is bad, but there are enough parts of the show that makes it inappropriate for kids. In this video clip from the show Gloria Pritchett, the wife, tries to convince Jay Pritchett, her husband that he needs to slap the chicken to get all of the evil spirits out before it is cooked. He starts slapping the chicken and the noise that he makes sounds funny, which would attract young children. This scene has adult humor.

Here is the YouTube URL to watch other videos on Modern Family.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6OhjpyveNw

Popular Shows for All Ages, Not.

We just looked at shows that were rated the top ten shows of the eighties and present day. Here are some shows that are supposed to be for the whole family, but are only appropriate for the older children.

The meaning of the show is to let the public know that there are many types of family's all over the world.  To the left is a picture of Modern Family cast. The show airs on ABC Family at seven every Wednesday night. The critics gave this show eight point seven out of ten. The age that you have to be to be able to watch this show is thirteen years old. It is a sitcom comedy that is not for the little ones in the family, therefore how cans it be a family show? They make commits on adult content and the show has some language that is definitely not for young children. There are some parts of the show that the kids could see, but other parts not so much.  Here is the plot in a nutshell. The blue plaid shirt is married to the lady in the pink shirt that is sitting down. They have three children: Blue jacket, Green shirt, and Yellow shirt. The pink shirt lady and the red head guy sitting next to her are brother and sister.  They are children of the old guy. The old guy and the high-five lady are married. The boy in the Orange shirt is high-five lady's son from the first marriage. That leaves the sky blue shirt married to the red head and the little girl in the red dress is their adopt daughter. In the post right after this one is a video clip that will help explain what I mean. The video is a clip from one of the episodes of Modern Family.

  

Here is another popular show that was turned into series of movies called Scooby Doo and to the left is a picture of the most recent movie cover. The most recent edition of the Scooby Doo franchise is based on a small town of Crystal Cove, a place with a long history of ghost, demons, phantoms and other paranormal activity. Every child has their own limit on how scary they can handle without having bad dreams. The new changes of this movie could be a young child's limit. That being said this would not be a good show for a child to watch right before he or she goes to sleep.  It could cause brain development problems that the children may not have otherwise. Scooby Doo, when the show first came out, was a funny show that also made you kind of scared, in a cartoon kind of way. All of the characters were funny, but my personal favorite was Scooby doo and shaggy. From the more resent Scooby Doo movies it is just about how each character is trying to solve a mystery, not just about a talking dog.  Plus the features are more realistic than what they used to be. I would allow children ten and older to watch this show, but only with someone over the age of eighteen. I think that just anyone younger could be misled between the difference of real life and fantasy world.

The next three blog entries will be covering show that are kid appropriate, but I feel that the rating  are not kid appropriate.  The shows are The Modern Family, Lazy Town and Tomorrows Pioneers.

http://www.animatedviews.com/wp-content/uploads/archives/Scooby_Doo_Halloween.jpg  and

http://static.tvfanatic.com/images/gallery/modern-family-cast-pic.jpg

Then and Now shows for Kids

Top 10 then:                                                                     Top 10 Now:
1 Animations                                                                     1. Hannah Montana
2. Barney                                                                          2. Sweet Life on Deck
3. Snoopy                                                                         3. Wizards of Waverly Place
4. Tom and Jerry                                                               4. The Wiggles
5. Mickey Mouse                                                              5. Scooby Doo
6. Sesame Street                                                              6. Sponge Bob Square Pants
7. The Jetsons                                                                  7. Sesame Street
 8. The Electric Company                                                  8.  Obi
9. Kennan and Kel                                                            9. Dora the Explore
10. All That                                                                      10. Lazy Town

All of the programs were rated for a child to view. Some of them I do not agree with. Not all of the top ten programs are watched by every child in America, but there are enough children watching them to put them in the top ten.  The show that made both the then and now shows surprised me, because I did not realize that they were that popular. The next blog post will take a look at two different programs that children tend to watch with someone of an older age. This information is based on many different web sites. I took the average of them and this is what came out to be.

Number of Shows Then and Now

I looked up how many different shows there was in the 1980's. The research that I have found says that there were 1,285 different shows broadcasted during the years of 1980-1989. The amount of shows that was aired during the years of 1990-1999 is 2,020. That is an increase amount of 735 shows within ten years. Now take a look at all of the shows that have already aired for the years of 2000-2010. The total comes to 3,810 shows that was aired already by this year. The difference in the 1990's to the 2000's is 1,790 show increases. All of the numbers that I have listed is the total number of shows aired during a ten year period. That is telling me that within the next ten year there could be between 4,000 and 5,000 shows that air on the TV alone. That is not including the movie, video games, music, and all the other media devices. If we keep this rate up we are going to become a screen based society and hardly ever talk to people face to face. If we are to talk face to face with someone then the children of the future is going to have a hard time doing so. Being able to have a conversation with someone in person is important in the job field. Now take a look at the top shows from the last ten years compared to the present days.

Different Rating in Different Countries

When you watch TV you have to look and see who was is rating it. Was it according to the American ratings or was it rated outside of the country. Some countries allow younger children to watch more adult shows that would not be alright for them to watch in the states. It is important for my audience to  understand  that the ratings are different due to how different countries view the same content. Depending on where the movie or show is made will depend on the ratings that will be given for the different countries. It is important to know the difference because if you come to America from a different country you may be confused on why you were once able to watch the show and now you are not allowed to. It can also go the other way around. For people that are from different upbringing background will view different shows different ways.
- P Rated programming content is intended for pre-scholars. Commercial stations must show at least 30 minutes of P-rated content each weekday between 7 am and 4:30 pm. No advertisements may be shown during P-rated programs.
- C-Rated programming content is intended for children. Commercial stations must show at least 30 minutes of C-rated content each weekday between 7 am and 8 am or between 4 pm and 8:30 pm. A further 2.5 hours a week must also be shown either within these time bands or between 7 am and 8:30 pm on weekends and school holidays, for a total of five hours a week (averaged as 260 hours over the course of a year). C-rated content is subject to certain restrictions and limitations on advertising (typically five minutes maximum per 30-minute period or seven minutes including promotions and community announcements).

- For general exhibition.
- Parental guidance is recommended for young viewers. PG content may only be broadcast between 9:00 am and 4:00 pm and between 7:00 pm and 5:00 am on weekdays, and between 10:00 am and 5:00 am on weekends.
- Recommended for mature audiences. M content may only be broadcast between 8:30 pm and 5:00 am on any day, and additionally between 12:00 pm and 3:00 pm on school days.
- Not suitable for people under 15. MA15+ content may only be broadcast between 9:00 pm and 5:00 am on any day. Consumer advice is mandatory.
- Not suitable for people under 15. This is similar to the MA15+ rating; however it is used specifically to differentiate violent programming. In all other respects, the content cannot exceed the guidelines for MA15+. AV15+ content may only be broadcast between 9:30 pm and 5:00 am on any day (though there has been one exception, Saving Private Ryan which aired at 8:30 pm with an additional warning). Consumer advice is mandatory. (This has recently been replaced by the new R18+ rating).

Knowing all of the ratings is good for people who even only watch a couple of shows. The ratings are there for the thousands of programs within the last twenty years. My next post will tell just how many there really are out there without any other media form.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_content_rating_systems

How I would Rate All things with Screens

After seeing all of the ratings that are out there for the Untied State can get confusing from the difference between them. Here is what I would do and this would go for all things that needed to be rated. I would give these ratings to movies, TV programs, video games and internet access.
1.     TVY Television for younger viewers. I would have 0-5 years of age only view the learning your shapes and color shows.

2.     TVPT Television for Preteens I would allow the 6-9 years of age to have comedy violence which would be like Road Runner and Bugs Bunny. No real people involved with the show.

3.      TVT Television for Teens. Then I would have the 10-13 year old, to where they are now allowed to watch some of the violence that they are saying that 7 year old should be able to watch. Some of the language is not all that pleasant but they are able to handle the adult sense of humor.

4.  TVK- Television for King Sized children14-16 year olds are now there is evens more violence than any other rating and the language is a little rougher than the one before. Also there is some sexual contact but nothing that makes a person feel uncomfortable watching it.

5.  TVLD- Television for Licensed Drivers. This is the category that I would be making for the 17 and 18 year old to get them ready for the next rating. The only thing that is not in this rating that is in the next rating is the horror scenes. You know the blood and guts kind of movies and TV shows.

6.  TVA-Television for Adults. This is the final rating category for the 19 year old and older. In other words mature audiences only and at that it is at the viewer discretion to watch the show/movie or not. 

 My point is that young children remember seventy-five percent of what they hear, see, and read. The information should be positive with little to no violence and bad usage of language.  All of the ratings that I have been talking about so far are only good here in the United States.  However other countries have different ratings and the next topic that will be discussed how they are different from one another.

Video Game Ratings

Now that you have seen the ratings for TV here is the video games ratings.
Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB)
E- Everyone.
T-Teen
M-Mature.
 Here are some of the categories they fallow:
1. Alcohol Reference, is there any in the shot
2. Animated Blood, unrealistic blood shown
3. Blood, real blood or real looking blood
4. Blood and Gore, Body parts
5. Cartoon Violence, violent actions with cartoon faces
6. Drug Reference, any images or suggestive drug presence
7. Fantasy Violence, violent actions of fantasy nature involving real/unreal situations
8. Language, mild to moderate
9. Lyrics, mild reference involving sexuality, violence, alcohol or drug use in the lyrics
10. Sexual content, language, theme, violence, and gambling have their own section

The next blog post is going to be over how I would rate all things with screens. There is some difference between them, but I think that it works better.

TV Rating System

TVY	All Children: This program is for all children and adults. No matter live-action or animated themes young people would be able to watch. It is not frightening for anyone. They are general for 2 to six years of age.
TVY7	Older Children: This program is only for children seven years old and older. The content is for developed skills so that the material could be distinguished between make-believe and reality. Comedic violence and fantasy may occur, and be scary for young children. Parents are asked to watched with their child. This is just for seven years of age.
TV Y7 FV	Older Children Yet:  Programs have fantasy violence  and is more intense with  combative themes. Child age target is eight and older, but mainly twelve or thirteen.
TVG	General Audience: All ages would be able to watch  the program. Parents could leave their child unattended, if wanted to. It has little to no violence or strong language. Also no sexual  dialogue or situations.
TVPG	Parental Guidance Suggested: This program contains suggestive dialogue, infrequent coarse language,  some sexual situations, and moderate  violence.  Parents should watch with their kids and only over the age of fourteen should view the content of the program.
TV14	Parents Strongly Cautioned: No younger than fourteen years of age. Parents are strongly urged to exercise greater care in monitoring this program and is cautioned.  All of the fallowing will be in the program: Sexual sense and language, intense violence, fantasy violence  and strong language.
TVMA	Mature Audience Only: The audience must be seventeen  years or older. This is the R rated movie show rating for a TV show. This has strong language, violence, sexual related  material and emotion. http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/dpp/about_us/operations/TVRating_System

Cell Phones

 

 

From the first to last picture: one of the first phones, the upgraded house phone, one of the first portable house phones, one of the first cell phones, cell phones about ten years ago and a phone that you could find now days. Looking at all of the pictures they have really gotten smaller in size and more complex in the capability that the phones are able to do. Phones when they first came out were to talk to people who you may not see in a while. Now days the phones can do Internet, texting, games, and of course communication is still there.  Seeing the history of phones from one of the first phones to the present day cell phones really makes you appreciate what our phone can do today. Let’s talk a look at the next blog post that will cover the rating of the TV system.

http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=A0oG7nSorMRMIk0A3iNXNyoA?ei=UTF-8&p=phones&fr2=tab-web&fr=yfp-t-892

Screen Time Pictures

The children in some of the pictures are barely two years old. I was shocked that the children are allowed to get on the computer at that age. Look at their faces see how they have these distance stares that is due to their metabolic rate. That will be covered towards the end of this blog.

  



Now that you have seen the ages in which children start playing video games and watching TV programs, let’s take a look the history of the phones.

http://www.ehow.com/list_6052268_get_well-gift-toys-kids.html
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.longislandpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/kids-playing-video-games.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.longislandpress.com/2010/03/20/cw-post-explores-art-science-business-of-video-games/&usg=__w_YmxsFSXI9MCRRt4XsJ...

Children's Brain Development

We all know that screens make us tired and that our eyes hurt after a while looking them. What you may not know is that it also hurts the way that the brain is developed. Not all programs are bad for children to see because they can learn subject such as: foreign language, shapes, colors, ABC's and safety. On the flip side not all programs are good either. Tom and Jerry may have some good points in the program, but the program is not based on educating children. One of the problems with too much screen time is how it affects the brain on the face to face inter action skills, that is necessary to have as you get older.  Communication is very important to have once you go out into the work force and the best time in your life to learn how to talk to other people is when you are first learning how to talk.  That leads me into my next point on what age is bad for children to have a screen in front to them.  The worst age for a child to have a screen in front of them is under the age of three. The reason why children of those ages believe whatever they see and hear has to do something where there brain is in developing. Another reason why a child under the age of three shouldn't have any screen time is the part of the brain that should be used for storing information will be used for "silly cartoons". In the next blog post you will see some pictures of kids playing games and watching TV. There is a large age range.

http://kidshealth.org/parent/positive/family/tv_affects_child.html

One of the First Television

This is a picture of one of the first televisions that was available to the public.

If you have ever had one of these TV's you know just how far technology has come in this department. To the left is one of the first TV ever made for the public to buy? The television was released to the public in the mid nineteen twenties. This particular television used to have something called  the color tube. A color tube is similar to an ink cartridge in the printer. Every so often the tubes would run out of color and would need to be replaced. The ink was expense that is part of the reason why many people did not have them when they first came out. Looking at what was shown on the TV when it first came out is different to what is shown on the TV today. The only thing that was really shown on the Television is weather, war, and news. Yes, there were comedy shows like "I love Lucy", but it was mainly informational. Now days the war information is really limited to what the public eye can see. There are more news channels than there used to be, but it does not cover the same kind of information. There are channels for children only and adult only. There are channels for cooking, home decorating, and how to repair household items. All of which you can also find on the Internet, therefore more and more information is being put out for the public to know, but less and less family time that used to be present when TVs first came out. Further in my blog I will be talking about how many shows were available to watch compared today's program watching.  My next blog post will take a look at the affects the brain in the development process. 

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7VPKVIFREHiHW2YcKg12U_J527usPMNo8OnasWlCbFAY-88wjMoIGm45yM2hV2ceOcwxguSpoBwpys6WvezezA20m2ftaJ51JLmcpoHeOmFDY3zlK766yA21ANX1g4T8TTEXOSTcMQiQ/s320/first-tv-set.jpg%22

Kids Health

The first thing that I am going to cover is a program that helps inform parents on how much TV a child should watch, per day. This website would also help kids by having better games to play.  According to the website called Kidshealth.org children should have only a couple of hours a day of screen time. Whether that time be on the computer doing homework or watching their favorite television program. "Kids Health" is part of a larger organization called Kaiser Family Foundation which is a non-profit organization. They are amending in helping families with all issues of life. Some of the topics they cover in one of their articles are how the lack of exercise leads to overweight children, which they are saying that is due to the amount of screen time children have per day, now days.
 One thing that I like about this website is that they have live people that you can talk to through chat. In order to talk with a person you would have to go through main page, choose either parent or child, and then communicate. The amount of TV that infants and toddlers should be watching is none at all. Kids under the age of six watch an average of two hours a day. That is primarily TV, videos and DVDs. Also kids between the ages of eight to seventeen years of age spend up to four hours a day with a screen in front of them. One way to cut that time in half is to plan on playing some kind of physical activity. After some time of playing more games and family interaction children would forget that they have screen time daily.  Not all of the shows are educational that say that they are. Later in my blog you will see what I mean by children learning different information than what the programs is saying. Now let’s take a look at one of the first TV's and how they are different to today's TV's.

"How TV Affects Your Child." Kids Health. Kizer Foundation, 2010. Web. 6 Oct.
     2010. http://kidshealth.org/parent/positive/family/tv_affects_child.html.

Welcome to this Blog

I tend on looking for information in many different places such as: the Internet, books, newspaper, and my personal experience to better understand on whom should be in charge of what children watch on television. I will look at how the available channels for children under the age of seventeen.  I chose these years because I have two younger siblings in their teens that think that they can watch whatever they want.  The parents and the television companies are both saying that the other one is responsible for what is on the screen. I have a personal interest in this topic.  Topics that you will find in my paper is: rating system for all things with screen, how I would change the rating system, different shows that are being watched by children now and then, also my thoughts on this topic. I want my audience to know that these ratings are out there for them to use in their own lives when they want to know more about something that interest them.