Technology and the media is constantly changing and updating over time, and as this happens parents need to be aware of how it is affecting their children. According to the report “Always Connected: The new digital media habits of young children” from Sesame Workshop, current popular media platforms include: movies, print, radio, television, cable television, home video, game consoles, portable music players, DVDs, home computers, portable handheld video game systems, internet, cell phones, MP3 players, DVRs, electronic interactive toys, internet-connected smart phones, and tablet computers. Texas Tech Assistant Public Relations Professor, Dr. Eric Rasmussen, researches specifically how media affects children, and what parents can do to …show more content…
However, she does let her children play games on an iPad. Her youngest daughter Brylee, 5, said she likes to play games on her iPad. Kyla Hamilton added that her daughter was 2-years-old when she first began to use an iPad. “She started doing the ABC’s, songs, and counting, and those types of apps on the iPad, Kyla Hamilton said. Rasmussen added there has been research done about media affects since the 1950s when television became mainstream. He said children use television more than any other media, including the Internet. “There has been concern since the 1950’s and 1960’s about how kids are affected by it, and we can see during the latter half of the 1900s there were policies put in place by the government to help kids not be so affected by media and advertising and things like that,” Rasmussen said. “It hasn’t really been until the last 20 years or so that we’ve really learned that parents play a really pivotal vital role in changing how kids are affected by …show more content…
Rasmussen said he agrees that video chatting is okay. However, he thinks parents need to monitor what their kids are doing online and with other screen media. “I don’t think we should ban it from kids,” Rasmussen said. “I don’t think we should let kids do whatever they want, but I think they need to kind of monitor and regulate what they’re doing.” The Amarillo Native, Kyla Hamilton, said she monitors access to what her children, especially her daughter, are doing when using technology and media. “On my daughters stuff, we have parental controls on it to where we can turn it off, or she can’t even turn it on after so much time,” Hamilton said. From observations and previous research, Rasmussen said he finds that parents think that setting rules is going to help their kids deal with the media they come into contact with. However, this is not the