Enough! BET, MTV Hurt Our Children

Simply put, children learn what they live and see. And far too many children spend too much time in front of the television.

For the most part, our kids are not watching Sesame Street, instead it seems that music videos are the entertainment of choice for little renegades with remote controls.

The almost bare booty shakin', tooth grill blingin,' pimp/thug glorifying bombardment, usually found on display in hip-hop videos, is having a direct negative impact on our children according to a recent study 'The Rap on Rap' conducted by the Parents Television Council at the request of the Enough is Enough Campaign.

And according to this study, BET is the worst culprit. ...

Some highlights:

Relative to the December study period, sex constituted the majority of adult content in the analyzed videos (45%), followed by explicit language (29%), violence (13%), drugs use/sales (9%), and other illegal activity (3%). Although March data revealed higher quantities of content, the percentages reflected similar findings (42%, 37%, 10%, 9% and 2% respectively).

Out of the three shows examined in December, Rap City featured the highest levels of sex (31.6 instances per hour), explicit language (25.3 instances per hour),and violence (11.7 instances per hour); but MTV's Sucker Free on MTV contained the highest levels of drug use/sales (10 instances per hour) and other illegal activity (2.4 instances per hour). Similar results were found in March.

That's a lot of guns, sex and drugs. But how many kids are watching? Industry Ears - A Call to Consciousness, co-founded by Paul Porter, a fed up, former BET programmer, provides that information:

During the December study period, average ratings for each program were as
follows:

106 & Park
62,600 2-11-year-olds
111,700 12-17-year-olds

Rap City
45,400 2-11
88,200 12-17

Sucker Free
26,600 2-11
68,400 12-17

During the March study period, average ratings for each program were as
follows:

106 & Park
37,200 2-11
78,300 12-17

Rap City
31,800 2-11
74,600 12-17

Sucker Free
7,700 2-11
47,300 12-17

How do you think these hundreds of thousands of young minds and hearts are being shaped by watching all of this? Black boys and girls grow up believing that "thug life" is normal and something to aspire to. Kids of other races watch these videos and learn "that's just how black people are."

I believe that we as adults are shaped by media images as well, but at least we have life experiences to know the difference between what's real, what's possible and the crap that the music video industry serves up disproportionately.

There is a place for "realistic portrayals" of all aspects of life. But could we not serve it up to kids just yet? And could we balance out the glorification of crime and lasciviousness with some positive images?