Parents Warned Against Giving 'Culture Carrier' Christmas Presents
by Allie Martin and Pat Centner
December 8, 2006
(AgapePress) - - An official with America's largest public policy women's organization, Concerned Women for America (CWA), says parents must be vigilant when it comes to buying Christmas gifts for their children that do not connect them with negative cultural influences. Dr. Janice Shaw Crouse is director of the Beverly LaHaye Institute, a CWA think tank. She says gifts such as iPods, DVD players, video games, movies and compact discs have the potential to isolate children from others as well as to expose them to violent, demeaning, or otherwise harmful forms of entertainment.
Mothers and fathers have a responsibility to monitor video games, music, and movies for their children, Crouse asserts. "Parents need to be very diligent," she says, "about avoiding gifts that are what I call 'culture carriers.'" What that means, she explains, is giving as presents items that have a tendency to "infiltrate [and undercut] the parents' teaching about life and about values and morals and biblical worldview."
It is the parents' responsibility, the CWA spokeswoman contends, to ensure that their home is a safe haven for their children. Among other things, she points out, that means being careful consumers who read the labels on video games and actually listen to the music and watch the movies they buy, because it is "so easy for these entertainment mediums to slip in things that contradict the parents' teachings and undermine those things that the parents consistently nurture in their children's lives."
To combat the influence of potential "culture carriers," Crouse says parents must look more carefully at what they're buying for their children. "Make sure the games that you buy for your kids are fun, enriching and enjoyable," she says, and "that the movies do provide entertainment as well as character-building messages."
Also, the pro-family official says, parents should look for alternatives to children's games and activities that are solitary endeavors. "Choose toys and games that are interactive and encourage creativity," she advises. "Don't just use these kinds of things as babysitters and let their minds just kind of 'freeze out' on them."
A new report from the National Institute of Media and the Family says the video game industry is working to keep violent games out of children's hands. Meanwhile, many pro-family groups and child advocates are working to educate parents about how to understand warning labels in order to avoid graphic sexuality, violence, or other mature content in media entertainment that targets children.
But Crouse feels conscientious moms and dads need to be both wary and proactive. Not only must they steer clear of gifts for their children that could promote an anti-Christian worldview, she says; but parents must also look for positive, creativity fostering and character-building alternatives to presents that, although popular, could easily introduce negative cultural influences into a child's life.
