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Wuggie's
Music Media and More
February 2008
You, yes you! Parents!
You have WAY MORE influence than you think you do!
Your kids want you to lead them away from BAD MEDIA!!!
They don’t always show it, but they do.
They really do!! Here’s how I know.
In November, we had a middle school retreat.
Mark Bushuiakovish, Katie Raezler and I took over 30 6-8th
graders to Camp Skyline for a weekend of fun.
Our theme was Music and Media. The
first night I asked them how many watch MTV on a regular basis.
Almost every hand went up. I asked
them how many kids came from homes where MTV was unavailable
either because they didn’t have cable or because the channel was
blocked. Only two hands went up.
I asked them how many people had seen Tila Tequila’s show
on MTV. (You know, the pornographic lesbian
sex show I reviewed in the November issue of this column,
available on
www.RedeemerBirmingham.org.) Well over
half the hands went up. Sad.
Scary. Reality.
Most 6-8th graders at OUR CHURCH have been watching
pornographic lesbian sex shows on TV. So
what did I do? We talked about it.
We talked about why people watch it.
We talked about why it might be bad for us.
By the end of the weekend, Several kids said they weren’t going
to watch it anymore.
Conclusions:
- Kids will respond to the truth
when you tell them and encourage them to have good morals.
- I wonder how long these kids
will stick to their resolution not to watch the show when
they get home? You can help them by
blocking MTV.
- Many of the kids need more than
my encouragement. They aren’t bad kids.
They are up against it! They’ve
been told very strongly by MTV, by their friends, and by
their own sinful desires that watching lesbian sex shows is
ok. They need more than a weekend with
me. They need YOU.
They need you to talk to them about the show.
They need you to keep it from coming in.
- They need you (and WANT you) to
block channels like MTV, Comedy Central and VH1 which
deliver a steady stream of bad media into YOUR HOUSE!)
- They need and want you to
strongly supervise and install parental controls on their
Internet usage. Want a sample of how
easy and immediate the bad stuff is? Do
a Google search for Tila Tequila. Click
on the top listing. It’s Tila’s MYSPACE
page. See how easy that was?
See how bad it is? Of course, if
Myspace is blocked on your computer, Good - you couldn’t get
to it. But what about the third link on
your Google search? It’s Tila’s Website.
What about the many links to Tila’s videos on YOU
TUBE? Ready to throw out your computer?
Ready to say, “I can never filter all this stuff, so
why bother?” Neither reaction is
necessary. There are software programs
that allow you to restrict Kid Internet time to hours when
you are home and can supervise.
Netnanny.com & Cybersitter.com are the best.
If you have Comcast, they provide a Security Manager
feature for free. The former programs
have more features and more flexibility, but Security
Manager will get the job done.
- Here’s how to set Parental
Controls on your cable box if you have Comcast: Press the
button on your remote to bring up the Quick Menu, and select
the Lock icon to access the Locks Setup screen.
Then follow on screen instructions.
It’s easy!
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