Is it time for a Parents' Bill of Rights?
[5-8-03]The report on
"Living Faithfully with Families in
Transition," coming to the 215th General Assembly, is being
attacked by many on the Right who view it as an attack on what they perceive
as the single form of family life ordained by God.
But if folks are really anxious to "defend the family,"
perhaps the greatest threat today comes not from the changing forms of
family life, but from the pressures of our market economy, directed at our
children through advertising.
A long article by Jonathan Rowe and Gary
Ruskin, published in Mothering Magazine (Jan/Feb 2003) explains in
detail the reasoning behind the "Parents' Bill of Rights."
This quote seems to sum up their argument:
Business Week, no enemy of
corporate America, perhaps put it best: "Instead of transmitting a sense of
who we are and what we hold important, today's marketing-driven culture is
instilling in [children] a sense that little exists without a sales pitch
attached and that self-worth is something you buy at a shopping mall."
Here is the full text of the ...
Parents' Bill of Rights
To send a letter to your members of Congress in
support of the Parents' Bill of Rights, visit
Commercial Alert's website.
WHEREAS, the nurturing of character and strong values in children is one of
the most important functions of any society;
WHEREAS, the primary responsibility for the upbringing of children resides
in their parents;
WHEREAS, an aggressive commercial culture has invaded the relationship
between parents and children, and has impeded the ability of parents to
guide the upbringing of their own children;
WHEREAS, corporate marketers have sought increasingly to bypass parents, and
speak directly to children in order to tempt them with the most
sophisticated tools that advertising executives, market researchers and
psychologists can devise;
WHEREAS, these marketers tend to glorify materialism, addiction, hedonism,
violence, and anti-social behavior, all of which are abhorrent to most
parents;
WHEREAS, parents find themselves locked in constant battle with this
pervasive influence, and are hard pressed to keep the commercial culture and
its degraded values out of their children's lives;
WHEREAS, the aim of this corporate marketing is to turn children into agents
of corporations in the home, so that they will nag their parents for the
things they see advertised, thus sowing strife, stress and misery in the
family;
WHEREAS, the products advertised generally are ones parents themselves would
not choose for their children: violent and sexually suggestive
entertainment, video games, alcohol, tobacco, gambling, and junk food;
WHEREAS, this aggressive commercial influence has contributed to an epidemic
of marketing-related diseases in children, such as obesity, type 2 diabetes,
alcoholism, anorexia, and bulimia, while millions will eventually die from
the marketing of tobacco;
WHEREAS, corporations have latched onto the schools and compulsory school
laws as a way to bypass parents and market their products and values to a
captive audience of impressionable and trusting children;
WHEREAS, these corporations ultimately are creatures of state law, and it is
intolerable that they should use the rights and powers so granted for the
purpose of undermining the authority of parents in these ways;
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the U.S. Congress and the
50 state legislatures should right the balance between parents and
corporations and restore to parents some measure of control over the
commercial influences on their children, by enacting this Parents' Bill of
Rights, including the following legislation:
Leave Children Alone Act: Bans television advertising aimed at children
under 12 years of age.
Child Privacy Act: Restores to parents the ability to safeguard the privacy
of their children. It gives parents the right to control any commercial use
of personal information concerning their children, and the right to know
precisely how such information is used.
Children's Advertising Subsidy Revocation Act: It is intolerable that the
federal government rewards corporations with tax write-offs for the money
they spend on psychologists, market researchers, ad agencies, and media in
their campaigns to instill their values in our children. This act eliminates
all federal subsidies, deductions, and preferences for advertising aimed at
children under 12 years of age.
Advertising to Children Accountability Act: This act helps parents affix
individual responsibility for attempts to subject their children to
commercial influence. It requires corporations to disclose who created each
of their advertisements and who did the market research for each ad directed
at children under 12 years of age.
Commercial-Free Schools Act: Corporations have turned the public schools
into advertising free-fire zones. This act prohibits corporations from using
the schools and compulsory school laws to bypass parents and pitch their
products to impressionable schoolchildren.
Product Placement Disclosure Act: This law gives parents more information
with which to monitor the influences that prey upon their children through
the media. Specifically, it requires corporations to disclose, on packaging
and at the outset, any and all product placements on television and videos,
and in movies, video games, and books. This prevents advertisers from
sneaking ads into media that parents assume to be ad-free.
Child Harm Disclosure Act: Parents have a right to know of any significant
health effects of products they might purchase for their children. This act
creates a legal duty for corporations to publicly disclose all information
suggesting that their product(s) could substantially harm the health of
children.
Fairness Doctrine for Parents: This act provides parents with the
opportunity to talk back to the media and the advertisers. It makes the
Fairness Doctrine apply to all advertising to children under 12 years of
age, providing parents and community with response time on broadcast TV and
radio for advertising to children.
Children's Food Labeling Act: Parents have a right to information about the
food that corporations push upon their children. This act requires fast-food
restaurant chains to label contents of food and provide basic nutritional
information about it.