AE Network Pushes Graphic Rape at 14-Year-Olds

Take Action Against Bates Motel

A&E THINKS A GRAPHIC RAPE SCENE IS RATED AS APPROPRIATE FOR 14-YEAR-OLDS

This season’s serial-killer fixation continues with the recent debut of Bates Motel on the once-classy A&E network. Bates Motel explores the formative teen years of Psycho’s Norman Bates… but though the subject matter clearly signals that this is going to be a violent series, A&E thinks it’s just fine for your kids.

The series premiere featured a graphic rape, which the network deemed appropriate for viewers as young as 14!

If you agree that this program was inappropriately rated, take action now. Contact A&E Network, and urge them to give Bates Motel a more appropriate TV-MA rating.

Click here to contact A&E: http://w2.parentstv.org/Main/Action/ActionAlerts/aa_2013_03_27.aspx

Nick Jr's NickMom: A Massive Failure

...A woman explains her divorce by saying, “We were different signs. I’m a Leo. He’s an a**hole”
...A mother says, “I know a woman who said, ‘I can’t imagine my life without children.’ Really, bitch? ‘Cuz I can!”
...A teenage girl shows her mother how to use Facebook. While her mother talks on the phone, the girl posts an image of the mother flashing her breasts at a Mardi Gras celebration.  

These are not samples of an edgy night program rated and geared towards adults. No, these are excerpts from Nick Jr's new "NickMom", which was formerly a kids-only channel. Safest on TV, many assumed. 

I dub "NickMom" a. massive. failure. The show and its moms take pride not in nurturing and guiding our children, but in removing ourselves as far from the realm of parenting as emotionally possible. Why is Viacom pushing this down our kids' throats? Why can't this be aired on a different channel altogether? 

It's precious, really. Marketing a martini glass to toddlers. 

To add insult to injury, NickMom has taken residence on Nic Jr's website. What you'll find there is as adult as it gets: 

• Top 9 Favorite Wines of Moms 
• How Many Glasses of Wine Should I Have Tonight?(implying women cannot cope with motherhood without drinking); 
• Postpartum Breast Threat Levels (which opens with, “Congratulations on the birth of your baby! Sorry about what it did to your body”);
• Things I Should Be Doing Instead of Reading 50 Shades of Grey. 
• Nine Ways to Respond When Your Kid Wants to be Kim Kardashian For Halloween

Can your kids read? Will they be able to soon? Then in the words of NickMom: “SH*T! SH*T! SH*T!”

The October 3^rd episode of NickMom Night Out featured various comedians joking about becoming a stripper rather than staying home with kids. And during a promo for Mom Friends Forever, a mother tells her children, “I do not want you to forget where you came from.” Her teenage son replies, “Your vagina?”

Brilliant. 

Look, I'm a mom. I get the "I-can-still-be-cool-even-though-I-have-kids" thing. And I'm about as far removed from perfect as it comes. The only thing organic in my kitchen is a bag of rotten fruit I forgot to feed the kids. Sometimes I find myself wondering just how insane life is actually supposed to be. Am I on candid camera? Did my kids just really do that in public? Aren't they tired YET?? I've been known to refer to my toddlers as sociopaths. (Seriously, toddlers kind of are). 

But I don't talk about that in front of them. I talk about it with my girlfriends, safe from their little ears, whose only concerns should be whether or not they get an extra snuggle at bedtime and if I found their favorite Curious George book. 

Viacom choosing to merge content this radically is a poor choice. Take the show to another channel altogether. At least, at the very minimum, take NickMom off their website. And I'm not the only one who feels this way. Here are some comments pulled from the ParentsTV Facebook Page: 

  “I put Nick Jr. on for my kids at 7 p.m. while my husband and I did the dishes. My kids were exposed to vagina jokes, penis jokes and female orgasm jokes. One joke I heard had to do with a woman shoving her kids up their grandmother’s vagina. And this channel was created for kids??” 

·         “...Why spend all day airing shows teaching children how great it is to love, share, be kind, and be a family....and then tell kids their parents don't even like them?” 

·         “I just want to thank NickMom for showing my 2½ year-old son a woman stripping with her shirt off. I had changed the channel to what I THOUGHT was safe programming for him. I didn't wait for the channel to come up…only to walk back into the room moments later to the horror that was on TV.”  

·         “My TV is set up to automatically switch to Nick Jr. when my daughter’s favorite shows come on. I walked in and discovered her watching some woman talk about uncircumcised penises.”  

·         “Nick Jr. claims this is 'what moms want.' You know what moms want? They want to watch good, quality, educational programming with their children at times convenient for their families -- which is why I'm paying extra for this channel.” 

·         “We have all heard that ‘children are like sponges.’ Why show our little ‘sponges’ programming that glorifies drinking, vulgarity, racial stereotypes, and rude behavior?”              

In addition to being justifiably outraged that they are paying a premium fee on top of their already-high pay-TV rates in order to get a channel which sells itself as appropriate for children 24 hours a day, many posters pointed out that Nick Jr. apparently has only one network “feed.” Thus, while the raunchy Parental Discretion airs on the East Coast at 10:00 p.m., it begins on the West Coast at 7:00 p.m., disrupting the TV and bedtime patterns many parents have established for their children. And in Hawaii, Parental Discretion’s flood of breast and penis jokes airs on the “safe, educational” Nick Jr. at 4 o’clock in the afternoon.

Naturally, "NickMom" rates all its adult-themed programming TV-PG – except for Parental Discretion, which is rated TV-14. Clever, clever, clever. 

What about you? Think I'm overreacting? 

To contact NickMom about its programming, click here.

  

I Just Want My Pants Back

Watch this clip:



Like it? That's fine. You're an adult. But do you like it enough to watch it with a 12 year-old? MTV thinks you should. 

I Just Want My Pants Back is the latest attempt by MTV to parlay a lifestyle of drunken hook-ups into the living room of minors. But in all fairness (I am no prude), if adults want to complain about finding lost clothing because of a poorly-planned indiscretion, have at it. They are adults. They can do whatever (and, er, whomever) they want to.

But here’s where Watchdog Mom gets irritated: MTV is advertising this show to 12 year olds.  Don’t believe me? MTV’s head-honcho himself, the head of programming, David Janollari, is on the record saying the network is targeting kids as young as 12 with the content:

            “The idea is to reach out to the 12-34-year-old demo at a level that relates to them.”

Janollari and the rest at MTV want to intentionally target pre-teens and teens with a TV-14 rating. The episodes introduce a foursome, and a woman asking a man to insert his finger into her rectum during intercourse. 

If you agree this content is inappropriate for children of any age, please take action now by contacting the sponsors, Dr. Pepper, T-Mobile, and Toyota. Ask them if alcohol-fueled sexual foursomes and a woman who wants finger up her a**’ are an accurate reflection of their mission statement.  

Click here now to take action.

Egomaniacs and Reality TV

I recently read an article in LiveScience highlighting a new study in Cyberpsychology which details how fame is the #1 draw to kids (preteens and teens) when it comes to viewing choices. A key bullet of the study pointed out that the quest for fame, specifically in the age of Twitter and Facebook, lends to an inflated sense of being. Translation: Narcissism. 

Outside of Napoleon (or a toddler), I can’t think of a bigger narcissist than a teenager.    

And we owe a great deal of thanks for the enlarged egos to reality TV. It's no secret this genre of 'entertainment' (and I use that term loosely) has changed many a life. From the mob wives who had to endure raids, infidelity, beatings and jail-bound husbands in private, to the little girls pimped out by their pageant mothers, people had to actually live their lives in privacy! The housewives of America who used to have crow's feet and non-inflated lips...we now have women whose boobs are next to their earlobes and their faces are stuck in an “I think I just pooped my pants” expression. 

Then we have Snooki. I'll leave it at that. 

But today, let's talk about our teen moms. I don’t think there’s anyone on earth who could say with conviction that children raising children is a plus to our society. Let me make one thing clear: I give major props to these girls who didn’t take the easy way out and chose to have their babies. But shame on the media for glamorizing a life less ordinary, and shame on their greedy parents for allowing it. Our society has plummeted into a gutter of voyeurism where following people’s heartaches and struggles is something we need to validate our own lives. ("Well, at least my daughter isn't hooked on drugs and pregnant.")

Teen Mom  (MTV) led Tuesday night’s cable lineup as the Number 1 show.  A show packed with meaningless sex, suicide attempts, domestic battery, child neglect, drugs, alcohol…this was number 1? Why?

Could it be that all of these teen babies raising babies are now front and center on magazine covers? They have managers, publicists, stylists, and hordes of paparazzi. It’s no secret teenagers are narcissists anyway. They’re trying to figure out how they fit into the world (much like toddlers), and it’s a hard place to be. But (much like toddlers), they have very little sense and even less self-control. Perhaps bombarding them with images of poor decision-making being rewarded by lots of notoriety isn’t the wisest thing to do.