Protect Your Children From Inappropriate Content

There is only so much that you are able to protect your children from, you must prepare them for the rest. As a parent, you should monitor what your children access.

"Parents have got to be aware of, monitor and control what, when and how much their children are exposed to," says Ed Dunkelblau of the Institute for Emotionally Intelligent Learning (IEIL) in Hoffman Estates, Ill. "Parents also have to be involved in talking with their children about how to make use of what information they do receive," he says.

Discuss with your children your beliefs and the issues that they will have to deal with, and practice role-playing. In this way, you can teach them the social and emotional skills that will allow your children to build up their problem-solving skills. They will learn to handle their reactions properly.

Tailor the discussion to your child's age and developmental stage. "At each developmental stage, kids have different abilities and different needs in understanding the media," says Dr. Michael Rich, a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics' Committee on Public Education and a specialist in adolescent medicine at the Harvard School of Public Health. He states that children under 7 are not capable of distinguishing fantasy from reality. They are not able to separate real-life death from a death in a movie or video game.

Dr. Rich adds, "Children should watch TV in a co-viewing situation with parents. That doesn't mean the parent has to sit there and actually watch TV with them, but the parent can be in the room, aware of what's going on and when something comes up, be able to discuss and help children understand that experience."

Watching television with your children will also prepare them for any outside influences they are exposed to. "You can't avoid it. We live in a violent society," Dunkelblau adds. "Our best hope is to raise the next generation to be aware of that and to make choices that are different."