MTV's technological child abuse

The Miami Herald headline was startling: "MTV's Every Detail Etched on Children's Minds"

The article's author, Ellen Livingston, spoke with a myriad of teachers and students about the network's massive influence, almost all negative. John Anderson, a teacher at a private Lutheran School, said he's worried kids are obsessed with it. He cited the fact that creative assignments often include MTV references.

Livingston asked the question: Knowing that the programming gets "its force from sex, drugs and rock 'n roll" do parents mind their children spending the best years of their youth in front of MTV? "The kids say no," she writes - and Susan Long, 14, says her mom watches it, too.

But Susan Long is no longer 14. She's 42.

Everything I just told you came from an article in the Dec. 29, 1983 edition of the Miami Herald.

Twenty-eight years later, MTV is still pushing the envelope, and worse than ever before. The network's newest hit, "Skins," is drawing fire from nearly every corner, not just conservative-minded people. At issue is the fact that scenes of the program violate federal child pornography statues.

MTV executives are scrambling, trying desperately to get a handle on a controversy that is growing, and for good reason. The premiere episode garnered 3.3 million viewers. Nielsen reported that 1.2 million people under 18 watched last week. When I hear those numbers, I can't help but think: MTV's Every Detail Etched on Children's Minds

The travesty is not only that Hollywood continues to produce such garbage, nor is that the market will obviously support it. There is nothing new about either sad fact.

The tragedy is that millions of young children are having their minds warped and corrupted by images and themes they'll remember for the rest of their lives. Images and themes that scintillate and nefariously seduce. Images and themes they're entirely unqualified and unprepared to handle or process.

It is nothing short of technological child abuse.

By Jim Daly  |  January 25, 2011; 4:44 PM ET Save & Share:                 
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