Safe Entertainment or Parental Compromise?

How many of you parents trust sites like nick.com to provide your child with good, clean fun. How many of us-some on a daily basis-trust these sites to do so without our supervision. We all know that we should know what our kids are watching, playing, and listening to, but how easy it is to become complacent. Once your kids are in the habit of watching one or two mom-approved shows on a given network, or a handful of games on a dad-verified website, do you, on a daily basis, (re)evaluate the content they're accessing? I know I'm not.

It's been brought to my attention that there are free internet games accessible from nick.com that are extremely inappropriate for children (or anyone IMO). Though the games actually "live" on a separate website, addictinggames.com, they blend right in with all the rest, some clickable directly from the main page of nick.com. Addictinggames.com was purchased by Viacom, which also owns Nickelodeon. http://www.viacom.com/ourbrands/medianetworks/mtvnetworks/pages/addictinggames.aspx

(Watch the video to see the inappropriate content.)


I share this information with you not so much to point fingers and hurl blame at Nickelodeon or any other entity. I share this with you as I, myself, take a long, hard look at my own media-monitoring practices. The dad who made this video has given me a welcome wake-up call. Viacom is certainly not the only corporation out there that parents regularly, virtually blindly, trust to "police" the internet, television waves, and games our children are exposed to. Lately, I've increasingly become conscious of just how excessive my own children's media consumption is, in general, and just this morning decided to (once again) make attempts to curb this addiction. And, don't get me wrong, the addiction is just as much my own (free babysitting right??), as it is my children's, though I'm certain the withdrawal will be harder for them than myself since I've given them little motivation to be very discriminatory in their viewing/playing. I also don't get up off my butt, or away from my computer, often enough to help them find something more healthy, productive, and FUN to do. Even my desire to get my bedroom cleaned, dishes done, or floor mopped interfere with my responsibility to teach my children to recognize healthy, constructive hobbies vs those that consume way too much of our time-our most valuable resource-and give us little of real value in return.

It wasn't until discussing this video on a friend's FB today that I realized that all the good-intentions in the world are not going to keep my kids safe. It's like knowing the ibuprofen should be kept out of reach of children, but leaving it on the nightstand anyway. Will I wait until one of my children "overdoses" on inappropriate TV, music, or videogames before I take some real action; before I REALLY start protecting them? This video lit a fire of urgency and encouragement under me that I needed! Nickelodeon has completely lost my trust, and for now, erring on the side of safety, my family will seek our entertainment elsewhere, and in EXTREMELY limited doses. Time to blow the dust off of Monopoly and the Uno cards!

Kudos to you parents who have been vigilant all along! Best wishes to those like myself who will make up for lost time, hoping it's not too late!


Anyone interested in contacting Viacom or Nickelodeon about this matter, use the following:

Viacom Inc.
1515 Broadway
New York, New York 10036
(212) 258-6000
http://www.viacom.com/Contact/Pages/default.aspx

Nickelodeon
1515 Broadway
New York, N.Y. 10036
(212) 258-6000
http://www.nick.com/mynick/write_nick/mail.jhtml