By Tracee Sioux

"Kids close your eyes!"

How many times do you find yourself trying to protect your children from harmful and destructive images while watching family television?

Two years ago, while watching television, I was assaulted with an image of a woman wearing a see-through nightgown, nipples protruding and visible, erotic soft lighting, floating in a bathtub. It was intentionally erotic, except that she had been violently and bloodily murdered and this erotic woman was, in fact, dead.

"What the heck is going on?" I thought. "Why are my children and I being subjected to this kind of sexually violent imagery in a commercial?"

So, I wrote the FCC. The Federal Communications Commission used to be the people who governed our airwaves. They used to control when and what was allowed to air during times when children were expected to be viewing television. Remember when they wouldn't let radio stations play George Michael's, I Want Your Sex?

Many months later they wrote back.

"Each network or television station has control over what it airs during commercials. You'll have to write each network to complain about every commercial you feel is inappropriate," they informed me.

"What? Who made that stupid rule?" I wanted to know.

And now that I've read So Sexy So Soon: The New Sexualized Childhood and What Parents Can Do to Protect Their Kids, by Diane Levin Ph.D and Jean Kilbourne, Ed.D, I know who made that stupid rule.

As a point of fact and matter of record it was specifically: Ronald Reagan who got the "deregulation of the media" rolling. George H.W. Bush furthered the problem with the telecommunications act of 1996.

The euphemism for more sex and violence on TV is "deregulation of the media."

Sounds innocuous doesn't it?

Essentially, deregulation means fewer laws. Fewer laws governing what? What companies can sell and who they can sell it to, when they can run an ad, and what the ads' message can contain.

The motive? To stimulate the economy allowing telecommunications companies more freedom to make more money.

To that end, deregulation has been a fantastic success.

Companies spend about $17 Billion annually marketing to children, a
staggering increase from the $100 Million spent in 1983, according to Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood.

Unfortunately, their freedom to make more money by advertising whatever they like in front of whichever audience they buy airtime for - is infringing on my freedom and my children's freedom to not be subjected to sexualized violence and objectification of people on television.

This is especially upsetting to me in regards to commercials where I, and children who don't know better, are a CAPTIVE AUDIENCE and there is no implied consent, as there is when choosing to watch a sexual or violent movie or TV show.

Did Ronald Reagan mean for deregulation of the telecommunication industry, including children's television, to result in hyper-sexualized and all-too violent advertising for children? Was this his intention?

Was it the intent of the George H.W. Bush and Congress in Telecommunications Act of 1996 to further open the floodgates for marketers to legally target children, instead of targeting their ads at parents?

WHO CARES?

This is the result. This is where we're at.

I know for a fact the religious conservatives who voted for them would not have been in favor of such legislation if they had understood the kinds of sexual and violent imagery which would be coming at children from every direction. But, again, who cares?

It is from here we have to make a choice. Do we want to allow this kind of thing and all its consequences on our culture, our children and our own minds to continue?

I was just reading in A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of "A Course in Miracles" by Marriage Williamson, this morning, the definition of one of the most beautiful miracles - Changing Our Mind.

The fundamental change will occur with the change of mind in the thinker.

We can change our minds.

Right now. There are numerous bills before Congress that would re-regulate our children's media and make parents, as opposed to marketers the primary influence over our children's minds. Visit Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood for direct links to find out about the bills and send letters directly to representatives.

Stay tuned we'll get into the ideas presented in So Sexy So Soonand the practical steps to change our own minds, our schools, our culture and our media's influence over the role of sex in our children's lives.

Subscribe to this RSS feed so you're sure not to miss the So Sexy So Soon Series on Empowering Girls: So Sioux Me.

More details about my contact with the FCC in Misogynistic Violence for Breakfast

By Tracee Sioux

Two big things have happened to protect children from sexual abuse perpetrators, especially repeat offenders.

The State of Texas has passed The Jessica Lunsford Act. Each state has its own version of “Jessica’s Law” before legislatures. The law requirements are a little different in each state depending on how strict or lenient the current laws are. The goal, as a nation, is to get state laws to be uniformly strict in dealing with sexual predators so they can not continue to victimize children from state to state without penalty.

Jessica’s Law includes:

• 25 year minimum sentence for sexually violent offenses against children under 14 years of age.
• Eliminates eligibility for parole for certain sex offenders.
• Makes a second conviction for a sexually violent crime against a child a capitol felony (as in the death penalty).
• Allows children to report the crime for 20 years past his or her 18th birthday.

This is good news for our kids. They deserve to not be sitting ducks waiting for some pervert to victimize them.

To send the message to your own state legislatures telling them they must pass a version of the Jessica Law. These letters make all the difference in the world. Though they might not read every letter word for word, they do make a tally of how many letters they receive about this issue and vote accordingly.

Oprah has a letter for each state’s representatives that you can quickly use in a couple of minutes. You can write each of your representatives in very little time, but with big results for our kids. Click Here.

Last year the Adam Walsh Child Protection & Safety Act passed, which notably required the first Dru Sjodin National Sex Offender Registry. It is up and running here.

This is important to you and your children because now by clicking on a single link you can see who, in your neighborhood or school, has been convicted of at least one sex crime. Also, this is the first time ever law enforcement has had this type of tool to track sex offenders from state to state.

It is disturbing to put your zip code or address in and see that only two houses or streets down lives someone who has molested a 6-year-old. But, it has become the reality for America. You can input names of people, like the soccer coach, teachers, Sunday school teacher or anyone else with authority in your child’s life, in the system to see if they have ever been convicted. It's also handy to check whether a sex offender lives next door to a house you are considering buying.

I sat with my 5-year-old and looked at the sex offenders' pictures in our neighborhood and gave her instructions to never speak to these men and to always tell me if she sees them.

I was no more explicit than these are very bad men, which I felt was age-appropriate. As your children get older you may want to provide more information. Obviously, we’ve spent time on good touching and bad touching in regards to family members, baby sitters, friends, coaches and teachers.