Archive Index: March 2006
Archive: March 2006
A Pitch For Parents and Children Watching Baseball Together
"Whenever my father and I couldn't talk about anything else, we could always talk about baseball." - Billy Crystal as Mitch Robbins in “City Slickers”
Nothing bonds generations in this country like baseball. It is a great game for parents and children to watch together. And now that the season is upon us, many families will spend many hours in front of the television enjoying our nation's pastime. The reasons:
1.) Baseball’s pace
2.) The game’s built-in life lessons
3.) The issues baseball raises for discussion.
Bedroom Scenes from 'Bedford Diaries' on the Web...but not TV
Citing fear that certain scenes would incur indecency fines from the FCC if it broadcast the whole episode on television, the WB debuted an "uncut" version of its new drama "The Bedford Diaries" on the Web. The cleaned version, deplete of a few suggestive sex scenes, premiered last night. Parents: was this a legitimate move to keep racy content from young eyes, or are kids more likely to go and watch the show on the Web now?
Technorati tags: The Bedford Diaries The WB
Electronics in the Bedroom Mean Less Sleep for Teens
A new study out today finds that only 20 percent of teens are getting the recommended amount of sleep per night, and electronic gadgets in the bedroom look like a big part of the problem. According to the story at CBS:
Nearly all youngsters — 97 percent — have at least one electronic item in their bedroom, such as a television, computer, phone or music device. Adolescents with four or more such items in their bedrooms are much more likely than their peers to get an insufficient amount of sleep at night. They are also almost twice as likely to fall asleep in school and while doing homework...
Does this sound realistic? Have you found your kids up late playing video games or watching television instead of sleeping?
An Electronic Solution for Managing Kids' Media Use?
One of Common Sense Media's primary recommendations for managing kids' media use is to set clear time limits and to stick to them. But for many parents -- especially those who work outside the home -- enforcing those time limits can be a tricky proposition.
A company called Hopscotch Technology has just released a product intended to help parents enforce media time limits. "BOB," as the device is called, works with televisions, computers and game consoles, and keeps track of how much screen time kids' are spending with each. Once they've spent their allotted time with the media, "BOB" shuts the gadgets off.
Digital Lifestyle magazine calls it a "harsh but extremely effective product.".
Parents: Does this sound like a good way to enforce time limits, or is it better to enforce kids' media use in person?
It's Time to Stare Down Stereotypes, Says Common Sense TV Editor
I've always been a TV lover, from my earliest days as a Sesame Street fan, through the years when I was glued to the screen after school watching reruns of Who's the Boss? and Magnum, P.I. (not to mention The Smurfs on Saturday mornings), and up to the present, when I set the TiVo for every new installment of Lost, Arrested Development, The Office, and 24.
But since I began my tenure as Common Sense Media's Senior Editor of Television just over a month ago -- when it officially became my job to watch TV (my mother is so proud...) -- I've really started looking at television with new eyes. And not just kids’ TV, either, because we all know that kids are watching a lot more than Nickelodeon and the Cartoon Network.
