Monday, June 4, 2012

What your kids watch

Today, I was looking through the movies available to watch on Netflix instant watch and Amazon prime instant watch.  These movies are free to watch at anytime through your computer, Wii or other devices and are very easily accessible to you or whoever uses the devices.  Our daughter has a Roku device in her room and has open access to Netflix and Amazon Instant Video.

Now, I am more flexible of what my kids watch than most parents and more strict with what they watch than others.  Some people I know shake their heads either outwardly or inwardly when they hear what my kids have seen....and I sometimes shake my head when I hear what other kids have seen.

Summer is upon us now.  Kids are bored.  Some kids are left at home alone while mom and dad work.  As I looked at what was available to watch on these two programs, I was pretty scared of what is available for my daughter (and your kids) to see.  There is no way to filter what they can see.  It is all just out there.  I do not know which is worse, Amazon or Netflix.

Now, I am not here to tout the evil that is either of these companies.  It is not up to them to censor what they put out there, it is ours to protect our children.  It is supply and demand with them.  If people are watching these shows, than they will keep making them available.  But, I wonder...do any of us check up on what our kids watch?  Are we making sure that they are protected within the walls of what we have set for their viewing?  It is scary!!  A lot of good tv and movies are available in these programs.  Matt and I look forward to a Jack Ryan marathon soon as all of these movies are now available on Amazon (well, not Hunt for Red October, but then we own that one).  Lots of good British shows/movies are also available on each and we can not forget Spongebob and Phineas and Ferb which are staple shows for our viewing pleasure.

But, as I stated, my concern is our children (young and teen)...left on their own.  Curiosity is a dangerous thing. Curiousity killed the cat....and could kill your child's innocence.

I just wanted to state that in hopes that parents might look at the viewing history from time to time...make sure nothing is sneaking by.  There are some crazy, bad shows out there.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I don't even like it when my kids surf roku for shows. They can only go to specific or most popular, then have to look at the age rating. But the only roku is downstairs, so we usually see what they search for. When we leave them at home, they already have the shows they are going to watch lined up. The good thing about so many kids, the tattle!

Kimberly said...

Ops. That comment was Kimberly. The last the was supposed to be they.

Anonymous said...

We have only one Netflix account, so I can easily check the history of what the kids are watching, which I like. Also, our internet is limited (which really annoyed me at first), but now I see it as a blessing in disguise. We have to pay overage charges if we go over our internet amount, so that ensures that internet is not available 24/7 to my kids. There is a tool I use to monitor how much internet is used each day. So this helps me to monitor things too.