With the constant barrage of indecent, obscene and other objectionable material, it is all too easy for the average person to feel overwhelmed and powerless. However, real progress against those who seek to pollute our lives and attempt to lure our youth is being made. Computers allow pornographers to bring their perverse products to the fingertips of any man, woman or child who is able to access the Internet. Now computers are increasingly used to fight back.
"Arm-chair activism" seems to be the wave of the future. According to the most recent Morality in Media Newsletter, our obscenitycrimes.org site has processed "more than 20,000 reports of pornographic Web sites since the site went live in June 2002." Aside from merely informing people about current issues, now many sites provide the instant gratification of quick and easy ways to act on this information. Ranging from facilitating the reporting of Internet obscenity to signing petitions to contacting those who produce and sponsor objectionable material, the Internet has brought activism right into the home.
The American Family Association, a nonprofit and pro-family organization established more than 25 years ago, has created a trio of on-line information and action sites. Onemilliondads.com, onemillionmoms.com, and onemillionyouths.com provide opportunities for action to all family members. Each site offers a listing of issues, current and past, and provides a form letter that can be easily edited to individual taste. The letter is then sent, with a click, to the appropriate point of contact. A link to successes is provided, allowing the user to see what their efforts have accomplished. E-mail alerts are available for those interested. While many of the action issues have to do with television, and succeed through calling attention to the companies that advertise their products on programs that contain objectionable material, these sites also address other social and cultural issues that affect the family.
Some of the recent successes reported by these sites include Office Depot and Rubbermaid choosing to stop advertising on the program Lucky, which is shown on FX. According to AFA, as well as others critical of the program, Lucky contains excessive profanity.
"On May 15," reports onemillionmoms.com, "OMD thanked Wal-mart for pulling three offensive men's magazines. Your letters did not go unnoticed. This week (item posted June 6, 2003), Wal-Mart announced they would begin placing covers over racy women's magazines (Cosmopolitan, Glamour, and Redbook) in their checkout lanes."
Concerned Women for America is another information and action web site. In addition to providing in-depth information on a variety of social and political issues, they also provide action options in a similar format to that of the AFA sites. For example, one of their current issues of interest is the Houses of Worship Free Speech Restoration Act (H.R. 235). By entering a zip code, the user will be able to send a letter directly to his or her government representative. Nothing could be easier, the user doesn't even have to know the name of his representative.
The Parents Television Council, which describes itself as "bringing responsibility to the entertainment industry," claims over 800,000 members. This organization provides a wealth of information. Aside from their extensive research and statistical analysis of media and its influence on family and culture, the site offers parents information on the content and ratings of individual programs. They offer movie reviews, as well as a variety of tools to empower parents in their efforts to protect their children from negative media. They embark on "campaigns", such as the Stop Targeting Our Children campaign. The goal of this particular campaign, which began in October of last year, is to stop the entertainment industries from marketing adult material, R-rated movies being a prime example, to children.
Like the AFA and CWA web sites, the Parents Television Council site also facilitates actions such as contacting the FCC concerning indecent programming, the sponsors of such programming, and the networks responsible. E-mail alerts concerning current issues that need action are also available for interested parties.
These groups have proven to be effective. It is not only Wal-mart that listens. According to the Parents Television Council, for example, Pony has decided to discontinue its ad campaign that featured performers from pornographic movies. After receiving national attention and enduring a flood of protest from parents and other concerned citizens, Pony executives decided against smut to sell sneakers to our children. State Farm Insurance, as reported by onemillionmoms.com on June 6, 2003, has not advertised on NBC's Law & Order after being contacted on April 22, 2003, nor has Ace Hardware advertised on NYPD Blue after being contacted on May 20 of this year. The most recent complaint against that ABC program had to do with a sex scene.
We can be assured that change, even in regard to the actions of media and corporate giants, is possible. Today's technology and the hard work of those pro-family, pro-decency organizations allow us to achieve success, one click at a time.
In the May 26, 2003 issue of Broadcasting & Cable, Ken Kerschbaumer wrote of a new "watchdog group" called Common Sense Media. Founded by James Steyer, author of The Other Parent, The Inside Story of the Media's Effect on our Children, the nonprofit and nonpartisan organization seeks to provide parents with the information they need to make informed decisions regarding all forms of media for their children. Their web site, www.commonsense.org, in addition to television, movie, book, videogame and web site reviews, also offers current research on topics relating to children and media, as well as a newsletter for concerned parents.