No More Shock Value

So I got the opportunity to go see a speacker, Ray Hughes, at the SK safe schools conference for my Ed foundation class. He talked about the impact the media has on teens and children. The presentation was meant to inform people, mostly parents and teachers, of the negative images, videos, music lyrics, video games, and TV shows that bombard the youth today. He put up some stats and he warned us all of the shocking results. I found nothing shocking! I was the start of this generation that watches too much tv and listens to explict music lyrics and plays violent video games. This is nothing new! I am not saying that I think it ok to have music videos where women are complete sex objects and guns and violence is glorified, but this is not going away! If you were to go back in time and ask parents from 100 years ago I can guarntee that they would have been complaining because women were now showing off their ankles. Every generation is less respectful than the previous. and more violent and deviant..... well according to the older generation anways.
We live in a society were the mass media runs what we see everyday and we can not control that, but come on people stop being shocked and mortified and do something about it! I had very lenient rules growing up when it came to tv shows I watched and music I listened to, I never turned out to be some crack addict, or with 15 kids with 15 fathers, or stealing cars, only because my parents made it known what was fake on tv and what was not appropraite behaviour! They never sheltered me, they prepared me for the real world! Of course that being said, I dont think you should let a 2 year old watch the Sopranos, but they more you tell someone not to do something or that they cannot even see it, they will want to do the act. Prohibition has not worked in the past, and it still does not work!
Put limits on tv and internet for your kids, my gosh would it be so bad for them to actually, dare I say, spend a whole hour outside playing! instead of playing video games.
It is depressing though that we live in a society where there is no longer a shock value. We can watch the most violent horrible acts and not even blink an eye.Kids are going to see awful things from the media, eitehr from friends or from the internet, or some source. Educate your kids people! I realize that I am not an expert I have no kids yet, but from my childhood experience, you need to prepare kids and not shelter them, set boundaries and expectations. Parents and teachers need to inform themselves of what is out there. Dont be so naive. Pretending your kids are seing, or listening or watching the bad stuff out there, is not going to solve anything.