Parents Television Council - Keeping us informed

I am so happy to have groups keeping me informed about media and the dangers lurking there!  Take a look at Parents Television Council's website -- www.parentstv.org.  Here is a sample of some information they share!  Let's get involved in praying for and trying to change the face of the Media!  From PTC Newsletter:  Director: Violence in Entertainment is “Out of Control”

Entertainment industry executives consistently deny that the violence, sex, and profanity present in their products should be matters of concern to parents and viewers. Instead, they endlessly proclaim that “it’s just a TV show” (or movie or video game), implying that what people see and hear in entertainment has absolutely no influence on their behavior. But Oscar-nominated writer and director Peter Bogdanovich disagrees. This week, The Hollywood Reporter quoted Bogdanovich as saying that “Violence on the screen has increased tenfold. It's almost pornographic. In fact, it is pornographic. Video games are violent, too. It's all out of control.” Bogdanovich, who directed acclaimed films like The Last Picture Show, What’s Up, Doc?, Paper Moon, and Mask, continued, “Obviously, there is violence in the world, and you have to deal with it. But there are other ways to do it without showing people getting blown up…There's too much murder and killing. You make people insensitive by showing it all the time. The body count in pictures is huge. It numbs the audience into thinking it's not so terrible.” The entertainment industry cannot be held directly responsible for the actions of individuals. But by continually exposing millions of viewers, especially children, to violence, promiscuous sex, and other harmful actions – and even glorifying them – the industry plays a major role in shaping the attitudes toward such behavior. ► To help the PTC in our fight for greater responsibility by Hollywood, click here. ► For more on this story, click here.

Study: Six-Year-Old Girls Want to Be “Sexy”

Further proof that what viewers – especially children -- see in media influences them was offered last week, when a new study found that girls as young as age six equate being “sexy” with being popular. In the study by psychologists at Knox College and published in the journal Sex Roles, girls were shown two dolls, one dressed in tight and revealing "sexy" clothes, and the other wearing a loose outfit which covered it. Researchers asked each girl to choose which doll looked the way she wanted to look, and which she thought was the popular girl in school. Overwhelmingly, the girls chose the doll in the revealing outfit, with 68% of the girls saying the “sexy” doll looked how she wanted to look, and 72% saying it was more popular. "Girls wanted to look like the sexy doll because they believe sexiness leads to popularity…Although the desire to be popular is not uniquely female, the pressure to be sexy in order to be popular is", said Christy Starr, the study’s lead researcher. The study also found that girls were more likely to say the “sexy” doll was popular if they were heavy consumers of television and movies. ► More

Sex in Films Influences Teen Sexual Behavior

Media messages don't just inform children's attitudes and beliefs about what it takes to be popular, they also inform teens' sexual choices. A recent study to be published Psychological Science found that adolescents who are exposed to more sexual content in movies "start having sex at younger ages, have more sexual partners, and are less likely to use condoms with casual sexual partners