21st Century Parenting

I came across an article today called "Simple solutions to high-tech headaches", which discussed how "Today's parents have a whole lot of new things to deal with".

They interviewed Kathy Walker, a child development consultant, and one of her suggestions was only allowing "half-an-hour a day maximum TV and computer screen time for those aged two to five and no more than one hour for those aged six to 12".

Ideally most parents dream of being organised and in control at all times, with never ending energy and time for their kids. Realistically though, many are juggling a combination of full time work, house work, multiple children, time with their spouse as well as trying to stay sane, so being able to turn on the TV to have a moment's peace can be a real help.

That's one of the reasons why we believe television stations should ensure their programming is in line with regulatory and community standards - parents want the confidence to know that if they have to leave the room momentarily, their children are not going to be exposed to content they are not comfortable with them seeing.

 

Walker also identifies that one of the things parents wrestle with is when to allow their children to watch a PG or M rated movie. We agree that parents consider this a big decision, because they are ultimately deciding what their children are being exposed to. As parents they should be afforded this right, television stations shouldn't be able to circumvent the law and community standards to play inappropriate content during family time slots. (Interesting fact though: Per the ACMA guidelines, M content can be played between 12pm-3pm on school days)

Have you ever seen anything inappropriate while watching television with your children? Do you approve of M content during the day? And how do you control TV watching in your house?