There are bigger dangers to the youth than broadcast content

Abstract

A series of guidelines and directives issued by the Kenya Film Classification Board in recent days has stoked controversy surrounding media regulation. Several questions have been raised, not only regarding the mandate of the board, but also whether regulating broadcast content, in itself, will serve any purpose in contemporary society. While I do not entirely disagree with the need to protect our young people from exposure to inappropriate content, I also believe that, to continue focusing our attention on media regulation is to miss the bigger picture regarding the complexity of the moral question in the everyday life of our young people. We are living in a rapidly changing society where a multiplicity of factors are contributing to the difficulty of regulating, or even monitoring, content that our young people have access to. The rapid evolution of information technology, coupled with the challenges of everyday life that have considerably reduced the level of interaction between children and their parents, have altered the forms of socialisation that our children are exposed to. Many now agree that a modern child, especially among the middle class, is raised by the house help, the media, and the teacher. In most modern families, especially those that live and work in urban centres, parents have limited time with their children. They leave for work before the children wake up and go back to the house when the children are preparing to, or have already gone to bed. Even when parents are able to have contact with their children, the stresses of everyday life make it difficult to engage in meaningful conversations that would help the children make sense of, and cope with, their world. Parents come home tired and having a lot to worry about. They, therefore, need space to relax and reflect on the events of the day and think about their future.