Family Group Reminds Parents to 'Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Take Control'

The holiday season is a joyous time when family and friends gather to celebrate, make memories, and in some cases, watch television.  This season, TV Watch is launching a holiday campaign, “Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Take Control,” reminding parents to take control of TV viewing, communicate with others in the home about TV rules and resolve to learn more about available technologies.

TV Watch was launched in May 2005 and is a national organization, which promotes parental controls and individual choices as an alternative to increased government regulation of TV content.

“The holidays are a time when children are out of school, family and friends are visiting and new programming is on TV,” said Jim Dyke, TV Watch Executive Director.  “It is up to parents to decide what is most appropriate for children to watch, and the good news is parents have a great deal of information and numerous tools to help them with their decisions.”

“Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Take Control” includes a web video that can be shared with friends, family and other groups.  TV Watch, a broad-based coalition of 21 prominent individuals and organizations representing more than 4 million Americans, will utilize tutorials and resources to educate parents about ways to ensure TV viewing is based on age, values and culture unique to their family.

Outreaching to parents organizations, experts and other allies, the campaign focuses on three issues:

• Manage Free Time: Children are out of school with more time of their hands.  This means more time to watch TV.  From the “Easy As Toast Tutorial” to the Spanish language “TV Control”, TV Watch provides numerous resources to help parents enforce the rules they set during the holidays.

• Tell Others: Extended family is likely to be in town.  Many parents may wish to share their rules and content ratings standards with grandparents, aunts, uncles and other family members that might be trusted with supervising the children.  A great tool to accomplish that goal is the easy to download and print Parent-To-Parent Information Card.

• Resolve to Learn: As the New Year approaches, and resolutions are made to exercise more, read books or swear off caffeine, consider a resolution to review the ratings and the family’s TV rules, then learn about the available technologies to enforce those rules. “TV Tools for Parents 101” is recommended reading to add to that stack of books you plan to get through in 2012.

“The tools and information needed to help parents make the best decisions are widely available and supported by parents,” concluded Dyke.  “For the 87 percent of parents who believe they do a better job than the government at monitoring what kids watch on TV, we will continue to provide resources to help them accomplish that task.”