The other day I was watching an upcoming KSL public affairs program, "TV Wise" - a very good half-hour about television violence and content in general (tentatively scheduled for December).
And I was somewhat taken aback when a 12-year-old girl announced that her favorite show is "The X-Files."I shouldn't have been surprised. It's not unusual for 8-year-old Cub Scouts touring the Deseret News to tell me that "The X-Files" is one of their favorite shows, too.
But it does make me wonder if the parents of these kids are paying any attention to what their offspring are watching on TV. And I can't help but believe that a lot of parents simply aren't aware of the content of "The X-Files."
Let's take, for example, the episode that is scheduled to air Sunday at 8 p.m. as the show moves to its new night. (It may, however, be delayed a week if there's a seventh game in the World Series.)
Here are a few of the images your kids will see in this episode.
- A man sitting dead in his car with blood gushing out of his ear. Turns out he was murdered by having a spike driven through his ear and into his brain.
- A woman with blood trailing down from her eye sockets. Turns out she had needles poked through her eye sockets to perform an amateur lobotomy.
- A couple of women screaming through the duct tape covering their mouths as a maniac approaches them to perform more amateur lobotomies.
- A picture of a dead man with a gunshot hole through his forehead. Blood dripping on that picture. Blood splattered all over a wall.
- A man shot to death before your very eyes.
Is this the sort of show young kids should be watching? No.
And yet, according the the Nielsen ratings folks, 6.5 percent of the nation's children between the ages of 6 and 11 watched the season premiere of "The X-Files" a couple of weeks back.
And the fact is that this week's episode of "The X-Files" is actually relatively tame compared to some of the others. Last week, the kids watching the show were treated to a blood-and-gore bonanza that was far too revolting to recount in its entirety.
Here's just one example. The plot involved an incestuous family, and opened with a monstrously deformed baby being buried in a field. Shortly thereafter, a bunch of kids were playing baseball in that field.
One of them sort of kicked at the dirt, uncovering lots of blood and a tiny hand.
And, according to the local ratings in May, an average of 13,000 Utah kids between the ages of 6 and 11 watched "The X-Files" each week.
An average of 4,000 kids between the ages of 2 and 5 were watching.
Not that "The X-Files" is the only show that's inappropriate for children. There are lots of network sitcoms that are full of sexual innuendo and vulgarity.
"Friends" is a very funny show that strikes the fancy of many adults. It's also full of so-called adult content.
Yet 5.6 percent of the nation's children ages 6-11 watched "Friends" one recent week. And 5.7 percent of the kids ages 2-5 were watching.
There were also an average of 17,000 Utah kids ages 6-11 and and 10,000 Utah kids ages 2-5 watching. (Those numbers, again, are from May.)
This is not to say that all television must be appropriate for 5-year-olds. But parents ought to monitor what their kids are watching and make decisions about what is and is not appropriate.
Many parents still seem to be under the impression that if it's on network television - particularly if it's on before 9 p.m. - it's OK for the kids to watch. That's pretty much the way it was when most of us were children.
But if you still trust the broadcast networks to make those decisions, you're making a mistake. They don't care about your kids - they only care about selling advertising.
If you're waiting for the V-chip, you've still got a while to wait. And, remember, you'll still be trusting someone else to decide what's appropriate for your kids.
And how many PG or PG-13 movies have you seen that are inappropriate for younger kids?
Maybe I'm naive, but I can't help but believe that if more parents were aware of the content of a show like "The X-Files," fewer kids would be watching it.