In its opening chapter on Adolescents in America, the Carnegie Council of Adolescent Development warned in 1992 that "adolescent health care in America reached crisis proportions ... about a quarter of all young adolescents are engaged in behavior that is harmful to themselves or others".
Further they noted that young people are bombarded with messages from television, movies and magazines that 'glorify casual unprotected sexual intercourse,' "portray alcohol and cigarettes as symbols of maturity" and imply that "self-indulgence is a virtue".
In their 1995 report they saw media literacy as a partial solution and response to some of these potentially harmful media messages.
In 1990 the American Academy of Pediatrics took the unprecedented step of suggesting to parents that:
children under age 2 should not be allowed to view TV or videos
that computers and TV should not be placed in the bedrooms of children or teens
that pediatricians conduct a media history of their young patients.
"More and more experts are making a connection between the sexual portrayal of children and adolescents in everyday media and actual sexual abuse".
'Society cannot claim to abhor the sexual abuse and exploitation of children in pornography and yet allow the portrayal of children as sexualized objects in the popular press and in advertising.'
--Pornography: Women, Violence & Civil Liberties, Catherine Itzin, "Images of children in the Media,"Michele Elliott, 1992.
Many thanks to YMN, Youth Media Network in Prunedale, CA, for their assistance in providing data about Activists involved with Detecting and Rejecting media messages that glamorize tobacco and other problem products and values. Information concerning these important issues can be found at some of the following sites:
National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information (NCADI)
Media Literacy: An Introduction to Media Literacy by Dr. David Considine
Media Literacy: First National Media Literacy Conference at ASU
Media Literacy: Summit 2000: Reflections on Toronto Conference
