This chapter begins with this thought:
While children are born with some abiliy to fight off infection, and are built to withstand a wide range of bumps and bruises as they learn to physically master their bodies, it does not seem fair that they are not pre-equipped to deal with media in any way whatsoever.
Dutwin points out that these are the years where you can still shield your children, but you would be better off giving them the tools to deal with media, as the time is coming fast when you won't be able to control them anymore. So, rather than just saying NO to all forms of media, now is the time to teach media literacy and awareness, and give them some limits that keep it all to moderation.
Key Points to think about and talk to your kids about for these ages:
- The thin ideal in media, and how that affects the body image of your children
- Cyber bullying
- Online predators
- Internet addiction
- Video game addiction
- Video game violence, and the desensitization that can lead to
- cell phone use - if you give them one, how do they use it responsibly?
- advertising
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