Mediawatch have just launched a booklet called “Children and the Media - Learning by example?” It’s a very practical guide for anyone who wants to protect children from harmful and offensive audiovisual material. The launch coincides with an Ofcom report that shows that children are being exposed to more swearing and violence in the media than ever before.

The Mediawatch publication is full of plenty of good sense and highlights a number of important themes for concerned parents. It reflects the organisation’s positive approach to media by encouraging parents to “show interest” in their children’s media habits before they do anything else. Yes, it’s so important that we recognise the value of the media before we start being critical – and it’s through being more involved that we ensure that our children get the most from it – rather than suffering from the worst of it.

The theme of “learning by example” is also spot on. At last everybody seems to be accepting that children do pick up the examples of the screen. Territory that Mediawatch has been highlighting for years – and thank goodness general consensus is now following their lead. Being concerned about how children are influenced by bad behaviour and bad language on screen should be a concern for society as a whole – and Mediawatch have done so much to push the debate in that direction (see www.mediawatchuk.org ).

The booklet also uses the theme of setting a good example to challenge parents’ media habits. It’s no good telling children to come away from the screen – if parents spend hours on the couch clued to the footie or the soaps. What’s more, it’s important that we parents set examples in our behaviour and language. At this month’s Showcomotion Conference I was invited to speak on a panel debating “toxic TV”, and a number of children’s broadcasters quite rightly said that all too often fingers are simply pointed at the media – when in fact we need to review how we behave as parents – and how society as a whole brings up children.

During the debate someone asked the panel to name TV that was “toxic” for our kids. It was interesting that I immediately thought of adult programming – rather than children’s programmes. In particular adult programmes that become part of youth culture and that the kids sample during the pre-watershed hours. For instance, Big Brother that is constantly promoted during the early evening slots through the use of ‘mini edits’.

Then I thought of the increasing number of “documentary” style programmes that glorify bad behaviour and violence through the use of CCT footage and video. These are the programmes that are screened in early evening slots and use the pretext of the ‘police documentary’ style to show the very worse of human behaviour. The worst of these is a series called “Football Factories” that my 12 year old son found on a late night schedule and recorded without me knowing using the Sky Plus facility.

The important point to make is that the big danger often comes from children viewing too much adult material – and from the quality of adult material deteriorating – in particular where reality is used as a pretext for showing sensational bad behaviour. If you look at the quality of kids’ broadcasting – there is often more to commend the media world for – than to criticise it for.

So, I wasn’t surprised that in the Ofcom report today – they pointed to the rise in cases of programmes originally produced for a post-watershed timeslot being repeated unedited before 9 am. Protecting children from “toxic” adult content is a key priority – and we adults should be the first to set an example - by switching off when bad behaviour hits our screens.

We thought the Panorama programme last week was great. In an experiment with a class of primary school children they removed TV and computer screens from the children’s homes, and monitored the effects on school and home life.

The main results were seen in the home where children and parents rediscovered many of the positive experiences of family life. Parents felt closer to their children and siblings rediscovered each other. Children became more creative at entertaining themselves, and there were far fewer tantrums.

But there was no doubt that life without the telly or computer does requite more effort from parents. Switching-on is often the easy option and all the parents seemed to agree that they had fallen into the trap of relying on the screen too much.

Above all, it was great to note that all the parents wanted to establish new house rules now that the screens were back. They were determined to ensure that the screen doesn’t completely overwhelm family life as it had before, and one family, even decided to remove TVs from all their bedrooms.

These findings very much confirm what we have observed in our own research. Yes, controlling the screen needs to be taken on as a family affair – it’s critical that parents are good role models as well as being effective screen monitors.

What’s more, a break from the screen is a very effective way of regaining balance in a child’s life. In our new book we call it the “Cold Turkey” method. Cut out the screen for a set period of time and then return to it with a strict set of family rules in place.

And what could be a better moment to put this into practice than the summer holidays – so why not plan ahead – and decide when your family is going to enjoy a two week break away from the screen!

Members of a School Parliament told Shadow Minister for Children, Anne McIntosh MP, that they had voted 13-0 in favour of the motion ‘Children nowadays spend too long in front of the TV and computer games.’ The Shadow Minister met members of the Millbank Primary School Parliament at our book launch in London today.

Members of the School Parliament also shared some of their tips for parents with the Shadow Minister. These included taking kids out to the park; taking kids out to the park and buying an ice cream; teaching kids to save things on the computer; doing something fun with them; involving kids in youth clubs and activities and phoning friends to come and play.

The message from their Parliament to her Parliament was that parents needed more help in controlling screen time in the home and they wanted Parliament to come up with ways of making it easier to have fun away from the screen.

A discussion was also held with the Shadow Minister and parents of the school about the challenges of ‘media parenting’ and parents’ role today as ‘media gatekeepers.’

The message they wanted Anne to take back to Parliament was that politicians need to send out a clearer message to parents about the dangers of too much screen time; they should do more to try and make the outside environment safer; they should help parents find more time to spend with their kids and they should help create more activities local to home – and affordable.

Speaking at the launch, Anne McIntosh MP said: ‘The time for talking is over. Study after study has proved that too much screen time is bad for children. We now need to look at constructive ways of helping parents take action. I welcome this new book because it provides parents with some much needed practical help’.

Head Teacher, Alyson Russen said, ‘Some of the pupils in our hard -to -reach –families have excessive and unbalanced media habits. It’s very easy to be defeatist about it and say that’s the way of the world. But it isn’t acceptable and politicians – as well as the rest of us – need to look at the issue seriously and come up with some practical solutions.’

As we have toured the country over the last couple of years – we have found that above all parents want practical tips to help them control their children’s use of the screen. So our new book is full of tips that have been tried and tested by the people we have met.

We have seen that it is through exchanging tips and advice that parents feel encouraged to take action. If you see that the mum next door is having success with a new screen rule – then you feel inspired to give it a go yourself.

So we thought we would launch a “National Tip Exchange” at our book launch today – we are encouraging parents around the country to send us their tips via our web site (Mediadietforkids.com) and then we will paste up your ideas on our blog.

So for starters here are some of the tips that came from the parents and kids at our launch.

Tips from the kids:

“Children should go on the computer for no more that one and a half hours a day.”
“Keep computer games for Saturday and Sunday”
“Play on the computer or watch TV – then go out for an hour.”
“Set the TV timer for 2 hours and no more. Our timer cuts the TV out after time is up.”
“Hide the TV controls like my parents.”
“Show children how to save things so they can come back to their games later on.”
“Get reading – I enjoy adventure books.”
“Join a club and do something new.”
“Turn the TV off and go to the park.”
“Go to the park and play football.”
“Go to the park and have an ice-cream.”

So the advice from the kids is clear – parents don’t be afraid to be devious – and make time for lots more trips to the park.

Tips from the mums:

“Have a go doing without the screen. My neighbour threw them all out 5 years ago and says family life has never been better!”
“Act before things get out of control – I’m stricter now – but I wish I’d been more clued up from the start.”
“We only have computer games on the week-end.”
“Ban early morning TV. My kid started waking up for it – until I said no more.”

Many of the mums who contributed at our launch had been through a conversion – things had got out of control and that had made them take action. Once the new house rules had been agreed with the kids – things changed for the better.
But best of all – we spoke to one mum who had been happy to let her kids spend 7 or more hours in front of the screen until recently. But now she limited them to two hours a day. What caused this change in heart you might ask – she read our new book!

For the two of us – that makes it all worth it!

Please keep on emailing in your tips and experiences.

We were thrilled when Shadow Minister for Children, Anne McIntosh MP, agreed to launch our new book …. like us she believes that something more constructive needs to be done to help parents in their difficult role of ‘media gatekeepers’.

Anne McIntosh will be launching the book tomorrow at Millbank Primary School in Westminster, London.

We’re also very grateful to Head Teacher, Alyson Russen, for all her support. Not only has she agreed to host the event tomorrow but she also allowed us to meet the Millbank Primary School Parliament just before half term – and what an impressive lot of children they were. Lots of common sense and good ideas – just what every Parliament needs…

We presented to them the motion ‘Children nowadays spend too long in front of the TV and computer games.’ They then debated it and voted 13-0 in favour (We did look the other way as the voting was going on so as not to influence the outcome!). Needless to say, we were happy with the result.

The School Parliament also came up with some great tips for parents on how to control kids’ time in front of the screen – the most common suggestion was a very simple one – ‘take children out to the park’. Other tips included; ‘find something better for them to do’; ‘phone friends to come round and play’; ‘play football with your kids’; ‘do something fun with them’; ‘involve your kids in youth clubs and activities’ and ‘teach your kids to save things on the computer.’

But the message coming across loud and clear from the School Parliament was that kids really want more time with their mums and dads – and a lot more attention. If they get that, then they’re more than happy to come away from the screen. So parents, it’s up to us to change our ways too!

Members of the School Parliament will be putting some of these ideas to the Shadow Minister at the launch tomorrow.

THANKS TO MICHAEL MORPURGO FOR HIS CONTINUING SUPPORT

Michael Morpurgo again kindly agreed to supply the foreword to our new book. We are very grateful to him for all the support he has given us since we launched The Media Diet for Kids. We were lucky enough to meet him at last a couple of weeks ago at a wonderful literary event at the Savoy where we were treated to some great literature read by the likes of Joanna Lumley, Valerie Bloom, Clare Hughes, Michael Foreman, Juliet Stephenson – and of course Michael Morpurgo himself. Wow – what a treat it was.

The event was to support the charity which Michael and his wife founded - Farms for City Children. If anybody has any spare pennies it’s a really worthwhile cause to support. www.farmsforcitychildren.org

Our new book – ‘How to stop your kids watching too much TV, spending hours on the computer, wasting days on the Game Boy and endlessly texting friends etc’ is published by Hay House on 7 June at £7.99. Copies are already available on Amazon – for the amazing knocked down price of £3.99!

‘How to stop your kids watching too much TV etc etc ‘ is a book of practical tips – and loads of them. It’s full of 101 ideas about little things which parents can do to make a big difference.

It’s not a big read - we skim over the reasons why kids should cut down on screen time, for instance, because that argument’s largely been won. Our focus is on practicalities – what parents can do to help their kids achieve a happy media balance.

The book contains lots of new content which reflects how screen entertainment has moved on since the launch of The Media Diet for Kids. Cyber bullying …social networking … protecting kids on the internet, for instance, are all dealt with in detail.

So, we hope you enjoy the read and find it useful – please, as always, give us your feedback.

We are just back from a Media Watch conference at The House of Commons and we were struck by how the media mood is changing. When we launched our Media Diet two years ago, we were constantly quizzed by scepticism. “But is there really evidence that too much media is a bad thing?” we were asked by a member of the Government’s Media Select Committee.

At the conference yesterday, Dr Aric Sigman gave a very authoritative whistle-stop tour of the scientific research, and there’s no doubt that the case for setting limits to screen time looks indisputable. So what should we all be doing? Yes, cutting down the nation’s screen viewing should be a national health priority.

Dr Sigman proposes no TV for the under 3’s and an RDA (recommended daily allowance) of one to one and a half hours thereafter. We agree with much of what he says, although we feel it is important to tailor an RDA to the realities of modern day living. We propose an RDA of about 2 hours a day – and most importantly, we believe that this should include both TV time and computer game time.

Our figure of 2 hours emerged from a number of key scientific studies, and most importantly, we found that it was a figure that parents could unite behind. Not too low for mums and dads in inner city environment where limiting screen time can be so tough, and not too high for middle class families who can afford more help with the kids.

But above all, we believe it’s important that parents decide on their own limits. What matters is that people are starting to talk numbers, and we found that parents wanted guidance. It’s impossible to set media limits unless you have a vague notion of what you are aiming for. Time counting should be an important part of media parenting and the purpose of an RDA should be to offer guidance – not to enforce a “prescription” for all.

For instance, at the moment we have a son with a broken leg. So right this moment, the thought of anything thing too limiting would be a nightmare. What’s more, what’s right on a sunny day, is very different from what’s right on a raining day. And likewise, limits for holiday days have to be different to limits for school days.

What’s important, it that mums and dads recognise the dangers of screen bingeing and take more charge over the quantity and quality of what their children watch. A government RDA would give guidance to parents, and help them enforce limits with some much needed authority.

We are just back from a Media Watch conference at The House of Commons and we were struck by how the media mood is changing. When we launched our Media Diet two years ago, we were constantly quizzed by scepticism. “But is there really evidence that too much media is a bad thing?” we were asked by a member of the Government’s Media Select Committee.

At the conference yesterday, Dr Aric Sigman gave a very authoritative whistle-stop tour of the scientific research, and there’s no doubt that the case for setting limits to screen time looks indisputable. So what should we all be doing? Yes, cutting down the nation’s screen viewing should be a national health priority.

Dr Sigman proposes no TV for the under 3’s and an RDA (recommended daily allowance) of one to one and a half hours thereafter. We agree with much of what he says, although we feel it is important to tailor an RDA to the realities of modern day living. We propose an RDA of about 2 hours a day – and most importantly, we believe that this should include both TV time and computer game time.

Our figure of 2 hours emerged from a number of key scientific studies, and most importantly, we found that it was a figure that parents could unite behind. Not too low for mums and dads in inner city environment where limiting screen time can be so tough, and not too high for middle class families who can afford more help with the kids.

But above all, we believe it’s important that parents decide on their own limits. What matters is that people are starting to talk numbers, and we found that parents wanted guidance. It’s impossible to set media limits unless you have a vague notion of what you are aiming for. Time counting should be an important part of media parenting and the purpose of an RDA should be to offer guidance – not to enforce a “prescription” for all.

For instance, at the moment we have a son with a broken leg. So right this moment, the thought of anything thing too limiting would be a nightmare. What’s more, what’s right on a sunny day, is very different from what’s right on a raining day. And likewise, limits for holiday days have to be different to limits for school days.

What’s important, it that mums and dads recognise the dangers of screen bingeing and take more charge over the quantity and quality of what their children watch. A government RDA would give guidance to parents, and help them enforce limits with some much needed authority.

Yesterday a coroner in Birmingham recorded a verdict of accidental death after hearing how an eight-year old girl hanged herself after seeing a film featuring an identical death.

Police recovered 18-rated DVDs and videos from her bedroom including the film “Girl, Interrupted” that they believe she watched with her younger brother. The film is set in a 1960s psychiatric hospital and focuses on a group of disturbed young women. In one sequence a patient commits suicide by hanging herself. Kyseha was found hanging in her bedroom – she had made a makeshift noose from her pyjamas and slung one end over a curtain rail.

In his summing up, the judge said:

“Whether she was playing out something which she had seen on a DVD or whether she was upset and looking for attention, I don’t know. What I am sure about is that she could not form necessary intent to take her own life. Adults ought to be careful what films, DVDs or tapes are available for a child to see because it’s easy for a child to see something and imitate it without realising what it is.”

We believe passionately that parents should keep a close eye on what their children watch on DVD and play on computer games. In The Media Diet for Kids (page 33) we describe how children instinctively pick-up “behavioural scripts” from what they see on screen. We all know that kids love to imitate what they observe, and it would be wrong to pretend that this propensity to imitate is always harmless fun.

We have spoken to many parents who seem to have given up monitoring what their children watch. In this age of in-home entertainment it often seems too difficult to keep tabs on what their children consume, and anyway parents often feel that they can trust their own kids. We were particularly struck how many children are given complete freedom to play 16 and 18 rated games. Indeed the ratings system seems to be particularly ineffective when it comes to computer games.

None of us can predict what finally triggers a child to become violent, for example, scientists have shown how some kids are more vulnerable to the influence of violent imagery than others. But why put your kid at risk – when one thing is for sure - that a diet full of violent screen imagery cannot be a good thing for a developing mind. Better to play safe – and ensure that all adult material is kept strictly out of limits.

The report that was published today shows how children are missing out on crucial time reading, playing and eating with their parents. Mothers working unsocial hours are losing 8 hours a week with their children, while a third of working fathers are losing more than 15.

In our research, we spoke to many kids with working mums – they often return to an empty home, let themselves in and then hook up to the TV or computer until mum returns. Likewise, we spoke to many mums who arrive back from work exhausted, with little energy left for the kids. Even meal time feels an effort and as a result the TV is turned on to keep everybody quiet.

It’s tough being a working mum or dad – but the most important thing to remember is how precious your time is. Kids want your time more than anything – it’s more important to spend 5 minutes playing with them rather than trying to be a perfect housewife. Take time out from the chores to give your kids what they cherish.

So don’t forget how much kids value you. And, believe it or not, most of the children we talked to, would prefer a little more of your time – rather than yet another game for the computer.