News and Notes from the
World of Al Menconi

Teenagers 'can be corrupted' by Hollywood sex scenes Watching sex scenes in Hollywood films can make children more promiscuous and sexually active from a younger age, a new study has suggested. By Andrew Hough July 18, 2012 for http://www.telegraph.co.uk Psychologists concluded that teenagers exposed to more sex on screen in popular films are likely to have sexual relations with more people and without using condoms. The study, based on nearly 700 popular films, found that watching love scenes could "fundamentally influence" a teenager's personality. The researchers, from Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, concluded youngsters were more prone to take risks in their future relationships. They also concluded that for every hour of exposure to sexual content on-screen, participants were more than five times more likely to lose their virginity within six years. "Adolescents who are exposed to more sexual content in movies start having s

In his Newsweek cover story from July 16, 2012 titled "Tweets. Texts. Email. Posts. Is the Onslaught Making Us Crazy?" Tony Dokoupil makes some insightful observations. This article is not something written by some  "right wing religious nut" like me, but it takes a rational in-depth look at our society as it adapts to the electronic media.  Dokoupil's article makes some seemingly "off the wall" statements then supports them with facts.  I believe this article could be the most important article on technology you can read because it is so insightful, easy to read, and has a number of practical "take aways" for parents.  My three favorite are: Be mindful of the time you are online.  Go on with a goal, accomplish it, and get off.  This will keep you from idling away hours of time.    Choose face to face conversation whenever possible.   Model good behavior to your kids.  No phones at dinner table, etc.  As parents we can't be addic

How to set rules without looking like a control freak. by  Sierra Filucci  |  Jul. 9, 2012  |  Family media management Recently I was stuck without a babysitter when an important event came up. I reached out to friends on  Facebook , and someone was generous enough to watch my kids at the last minute. But when I picked them up, I found out that they'd spent the entire time watching movies and playing video games. I don't have a problem with a movie or video game here and there, but I've found that too much of either makes my kids a little nutty. And some of the movies they'd watched at my friend's house made me feel uncomfortable, too. I left feeling conflicted. I was grateful to my friend for helping me out but sort of upset that she hadn't checked in with me about what kinds of movies were OK or how much time they could spend playing video games. Ultimately, I realized that my kids were fine (if a little antsy) and that by dropping th