Firstly, we suggest that one should approach parental group in Singapore (e.g. Singapore Planned Parenthood Association) as they have a greater voice, to convince toys’ retailers in Singapore to tag the Bratz with a sign saying: “WARNING: Parent Advisory Required”, thus making it clear to their customers. However companies maybe unwilling to follow our plans as it might affect their sales. To get around talking to the companies, the parental group can approach the Minister of Home Affairs to push for a bill.
Parents learn the importance of controlling what television programmes their children watch, what they wear and also what toys they play with via parenting courses and parenting books. We confirmed with twenty parents that none of the parenting courses or books discuss the negative influence of teenage behaviour on children. Hence, parenting courses and parenting books should include more information on this trend. This will allow parents to realise that toys, apparel and media can actually have significant negative influence on children, which can be greatly reduced when parents supervise them so that they will know what to learn and what not to learn from.
To do this, groups such as the Singapore Planned Parenthood Association can propose to companies involved in organizing parenting courses and publishing parenting books to include information on the negative influence of teenage behaviour on children. Financial assistance to hold these parenting courses or to publish these parenting books can be obtained from the MCDS (Ministry of Community Development and Sports). With more working parents, childcare centres are becoming a necessity for parents, and are where most children will spend most of their time. If these centres are properly educated about the trend then most children will be receiving the proper guidance during their formative years. This will reduce the negative influence of teenage behaviour on children due to lack of effective guidance.
Public parent support groups such as the Singapore Planned Parenthood Association, as well as parent support groups in schools can approach the principals of childcare centres to educate them about the seriousness of the situation so that they can highlight the importance of reducing this negative influence on children. Teachers can then monitor the children’s behaviour by methods such as correcting their wrong concepts and reprimanding them if they use profanities. To attract the attention of parents who fail to realise the existence of this problem, we have decided to come up with a radio advertisement to highlight the crux of the matter in a light-hearted manner. This will help to increase parental awareness to the issue so that they can be more receptive to our ideas. The advertisement consists of a short song and an advisory. The lyrics are as follows: (To the tune of “We are Singapore”)
This will be followed by a voice announcing “Children are ever-increasingly being exposed to violence and sexuality? As parents, you can play a part. For more information, contact Singapore planned parenthood association at http://web.singnet.com.sg/~chianwiz/ .” An expert well-trusted by parents, such as Dr. Jennifer Lee, could also be convinced to discuss about the effects of the teenage concept gaining in popularity amongst young children today, on public channels like Channel News Asia. Increased discussion over how increased exposure of children to negative teenage behaviour promotes violence, the use of profanities and early sexualisation of children today will result in greater awareness of the trend amongst parents.
Conclusion
All in all, we are confident that we have identified a trend that has been changing over the past few years, and that with our thought-out plan, we will be able to correct this situation in due time.
Bibliography www.childrennow.org