Page 32 - ARUBA TODAY

A32 FEATURE
Tuesday 25 June 2019
From penny press to Snapchat: Parents fret through the ages

By BARBARA ORTUTAY Congress had authorized
Associated Press $1 million (about $7 million
NEW YORK (AP) — When today) to study the effects
Stephen Dennis was rais- of TV violence, prompting
ing his two sons in the “literally thousands of proj-
1980s, he never heard the ects” in subsequent years,
phrase “screen time,” nor Cassidy said.
did he worry much about That eventually led the
the hours his kids spent American Academy of
with technology. When Pediatrics to adopt, in
he bought an Apple II Plus 1984, its first recommenda-
computer, he considered it tion that parents limit their
an investment in their future kids’ exposure to technol-
and encouraged them to ogy. The medical associa-
use it as much as possible. tion argued that television
Boy, have things changed sent unrealistic messages
with his grandkids and their around drugs and alcohol,
phones and their Snap- could lead to obesity and
chat, Instagram and Twit- might fuel violence. Fifteen
ter. years later, in 1999, it issued
“It almost seems like an ad- its now-infamous edict that
diction,” said Dennis, a re- kids under 2 should not
tired homebuilder who lives In this Wednesday, Aug. 29, 2018, photo, Kathy and Steve Dennis pull off the cover of their watch any television at all.
in Bellevue, Washington. 1980’s-era Apple II+ computer bought for their then young sons in Bellevue, Wash. The spark for that decision
“In the old days you had a Associated Press was the British kids’ show
computer and you had a True, the anxieties these not be locked out or the children’s programming in “Teletubbies,” which fea-
TV and you had a phone days seem particularly children locked in,” Sidonie which they pledged not to tured cavorting humanoids
but none of them were acute — as, of course, they Matsner Gruenberg, direc- portray criminals as heroes with TVs embedded in their
linked to the outside world always have. Smartphones tor of the Child Study Asso- and to refrain from glorify- abdomens. But the odd
but the phone. You didn’t have a highly customized, ciation of America, told The ing greed, selfishness and TV-within-the-TV-beings
have this omnipresence of 24/7 presence in our lives Washington Post in 1931. disrespect for authority. conceit of the show wasn’t
technology.” that feeds parental fears She added that the biggest Then television burst into the problem — it was the
Today’s grandparents may of antisocial behavior and worry radio gave parents the public consciousness “gibberish” the Teletub-
have fond memories of stranger danger. was how it interfered with with unrivaled speed. By bies directed at preverbal
the “good old days,” but What hasn’t changed, other interests — conversa- 1955, more than half of all kids whom doctors thought
history tells us that adults though, is a general pa- tion, music practice, group U.S. homes had a black should be learning to speak
have worried about their rental dread of what their games and reading. and white set, according from their parents, said
kids’ fascination with new- kids are doing out of sight. In the early 1930s a group to Mitchell Stephens, a me- Donald Shifrin, a University
fangled entertainment and In previous generations, this of mothers from Scarsdale, dia historian at New York of Washington pediatrician
technology since the days this often meant kids wan- Arizona, pushed radio University. and former chair of the AAP
of dime novels, radio, the dering around on their own broadcasters to change The hand-wringing started committee that pushed for
first comic books and rock or sneaking out at night to programs they thought almost as quickly. A 1961 the recommendation.
n’ roll. drink. These days, it might were too “overstimulating, Stanford University study Video games presented
“This whole idea that we mean hiding in their bed- frightening and emotion- on 6,000 children, 2,000 a different challenge.
even worry about what kids room, chatting with strang- ally overwhelming” for kids, parents and 100 teachers Decades of study have
are doing is pretty much a ers online. said Margaret Cassidy, a found that more than half failed to validate the most
20th century thing,” said Less than a century ago, media researcher at Adel- of the kids studied watched prevalent fear, that violent
Katie Foss, a media stud- the radio sparked similar phi University in New York “adult” programs such as games encourage violent
ies professor at Middle Ten- fears. who authored a history of Westerns, crime shows and behavior. But from the mo-
nessee State University. But “The radio seems to find American kids and media. shows that featured “emo- ment the games emerged
when it comes to screen parents more helpless than Called the Scarsdale Moms, tional problems.” Research- as a cultural force in the
time, she added, “all we did the funnies, the auto- their activism led the Na- ers were aghast at the TV early 1980s, parents fretted
are doing is reinventing the mobile, the movies and tional Association of Broad- violence present even in about the way kids could
same concern we were other earlier invaders of casters to come up with children’s programming. lose themselves in games
having back in the ‘50s.” the home, because it can a code of ethics around By the end of that decade, as simple and repetitive
as “Pac-Man,” ‘’Asteroids”
and “Space Invaders.”
Some cities sought to re-
strict the spread of ar-
cades; Mesquite, Texas, for
instance, insisted that the
under-17 set required pa-
rental supervision . Many
parents imagined the ar-
cades where many teen-
agers played video games
“as dens of vice, of illicit
trade in drugs and sex,” Mi-
chael Z. Newman, a Univer-
In this Oct. 5, 1980, file photo, Nancy Armstrong, teacher at sity of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Marshall elementary school in Harrisburg, Pa., assists her students In this July 21, 1987, file photo, Carlos Tunnerman, 10, plays the media historian, wrote re-
in the use of computers to aid them in their studies. “Contra” video game at an arcade in a Miami, Fla. cently in Smithsonian .q
Associated Press Associated Press