The Kids are Alright

As a parent myself, I admit that I haven't given a tremendous amount of thought to the appropriateness of the multitude of media content that my son is faced with. Of course, he's two, and isn't exactly trying to stay up late and catch the new episode of The Walking Dead (right now). For that matter, he doesn't understand the internet or technology in general. He thinks the sole purpose of the iPad is to download Elmo's World. He still doesn't understand why the "big TV" is ever tuned to anything besides Sesame Street. At this age I'm not sure there is much to worry about in the form of media exposure on him. I know that someday soon all of this will change though. Monitoring my child will be completely different from when I was a child. I didn't grow up with a computer in my house. The only media exposure my parents had to worry with was basic cable. It makes me wonder what new parents, or rather "newish" parents, are doing to monitor their children.
My sister has an 11 year old step-son that she has been helping to raise since he was 7. I figured that since we have completely conflicting ideologies, she would be an interesting person to give me some perspective on this topic. She told me that she heavily monitors what her step-son watches on TV. He has his own TV in his bedroom...however; the parental controls are activated on it. He isn't allowed to watch anything rated TV13 or higher. She said did tell me that sometimes exceptions are made, but if this is case he must watch with my sister and his father. He isn't allowed to use the internet unless an adult is in the room, and even then he's only allowed to visit "family-friendly" gaming websites. My sister told me that lately he has wanted X-Box Live. Apparently, they told him absolutely not, and said that the issue wouldn't be readdressed until he turned 13. She said the reason for this was that they wouldn't be able to sensor or monitor what was being said by other players. I found the whole x-box situation to particularly interesting, because they monitor everything else so intensely, yet he's allowed to play any video game he wants, regardless of content.
When I asked about positive media content, she and I had a bit of a disagreement. She said she believes the shows on the Disney Channel, which are aimed towards his age demographic, are positive. I disagree. I think those shows are no different from the garbage that adults waste hours of their time watching. There is definitely something more positive than watching those shows that children can be doing to better themselves. That, bettering ourselves, should be the goal of every person, period... especially parents.

I digress, as you see; though the subject of media and children can be a touchy one, it's one that should be addressed. It's especially important now that media is everywhere and that exposure to its content is almost constant. As for parental discretion though, obviously the choice as to what their children can view is theirs alone. I think no matter what, as long as questionable topics are addressed and concern shown, the children will continue to be alright.