The major evening newscast on one of our television stations is preceded by a warning that children under a certain age should be cautioned about viewing the programme. I don’t recall the exact wording, but it’s similar to caution statements issued when adults-only films are about to be screened, or scenes of extreme violence and blood and tears are about to invade your living room. It’s hard to accept that news broadcasts in Jamaica have now joined those ranks in content.

At first I was taken aback by the warning. But when the news package begins to unfold you realise that it makes sense. Mark you, the news and the stations are not be blamed. Those murders, robberies, rapes, violent scenes, and natural disasters we are fed every evening are only the reality of what is happening to our country. The average news package leads off with three people killed here, two people killed there, domestic murder and suicide, and the war scenes that look like they could easily be happening overseas when indeed they occur right here.

The corruption stories taking place in public spaces follow, as well as the failures of public institutions, education, schools, water shortage, we want roads, and so on.

And the kids are watching. Even if you prevent them from watching the TV news the same stories are available on cable, Instagram, telephones, social media; at the swipe of a finger.

Violence and sex are very much a part of the daily diet offered by television news. And, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), a child who watches three to four hours a day of non-educational TV in the US will see about 8,000 small-screen murders by the time he or she completes grade school. We, in Jamaica, have full access to this tripe. So that while the main intent of television is to inform and entertain, many programmes do have a negative influence on childhood behaviour and values. Youngsters may become less sensitive to the terror of violence, accept violence as a way to resolve life’s difficulties, or even imitate the violence they’ve seen. Hence, the realisation that we do have to issue our caution statements about watching even the local news.

The mission of the Broadcasting Commission in Jamaica is to ensure a successful national transition to a digital economy, using the empowering and liberating potential of technological innovation to encourage new forms of business, social, cultural, and media development while protecting the people of Jamaica from potential abuses of communication and influence. With the avalanche of violent and antisocial trends and events in Jamaica, and from overseas, its officers have their work cut out for them.

“Many parents don’t understand that the news is very powerful,” says one expert. According to Joanne Cantor, PhD, professor emerita of communication arts at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, “[Parents] need to think twice about having the TV news on when their children are around, even if the kids don’t seem to be paying attention to it. A lot of parents think, ‘This is educational, and kids need to know what’s going on in the world.’ But TV doesn’t give the news in an age-appropriate fashion for kids.”

In a study of more than 700 children, Columbia University researchers found that adolescents who watch more than an hour a day of TV are more prone to aggression and violence once they reach their late teens and early 20s. So our television station is right — but not very effective. Children are still watching television at 7:00 pm when they should be sent off to bed or to do their homework. But even without television, there is still easy access, 24 hours per day, to the many cable and multimedia outlets.

So where are we now? At a dark and divided place.

One teacher in a peaceful, rural area says that the change of culture and lifestyle in Jamaica over the years has led to a damaged society. This teacher has given up on the expectations that he had of moulding young lives into becoming worthy citizens, and ladies and gentlemen of tomorrow.

In this instance he is not blaming crime, or indeed the media, for what he calls the social coarseness that now exists and that has permeated school life just when his students are preparing to take their position in adult society. He attributes drugs, deejay music, indiscipline, poverty, and the need to hustle rather than learn as the core of this new behaviour.

If all of this is happening on the front line, then what will become of the next generation? Modern communication via the Internet, iPads, and cellphones were meant to be tools for learning. But, with easy access to every possible low life and slackness, these tools have themselves become a distraction from education, and have instead opened the door to all types of debased lifestyles and morals that influence and twist young minds.

Another teacher I know says she fears for her beloved students at a high school in the inner city who are growing up under the trauma of vicious crime and the lack of respect for life that they see and experience night and day. Many of them are bright boys and girls who, if allowed time to focus on their school work, will pass their exams and do as well as their peers in the safer areas. But this school is located in a so-called ghetto area, where the conversation each morning revolves around the latest crime in the neighbourhood and the tally of those killed over the night.

A few years ago journalist Erica Virtue wrote a chilling piece in The Gleaner on the heavy burden of violence that children are carrying in their tender years. On-site interviews in a crime-ridden area painted a grim picture of an everyday experience in which children are taught to ‘get flat’ when the gunshots ring out in the naked city. On the streets, or at home, the reaction is instantaneous.

“Run inside if you are outside. Drop on the ground if you are inside. When you hear talking, or the police siren, it’s kind of safe to come outside.” Oh, my Lord.

We are told that violence to them is as common as breathing, and “getting flat at the sound of gunfire is like a game”, according to the article.

“I ask God to protect me from all the perils and danger,” says a 14-year-old high schoolgirl. “I get flat and then I pray while I am flat.” What an indictment on our society, and what a revelation this story was. Small wonder, then, that when it comes to reporting the news of the day the media reports faithfully, but at least they issue a caution. Pretty soon this warning will not only be for children, but will have to be extended to all ages. Frankly, sometimes even a regular newshound like me doesn’t want to watch. Sometimes too grisly, too bizarre.

I hasten to say that this is not confined to Jamaican news. Instant television and replays cover the world of bad stories, new cultures, cheapened values, and changing faces. Only a week ago we saw a candidate for the most powerful office in the world embracing his same-sex partner on a public stage before a television audience of millions around the world. There was applause. That’s gross, at least in front of a Jamaican audience. A lot of explaining has to be done to our younger generation, as this is not just a massive, it represents a most shocking culture change.

For the older heads like mine, it’s difficult to accept that you can’t just watch the evening news without recoiling at some point. We grew up with the newspaper and the radio, and a relative cleaner media stretch than what we are undergoing in this digital of the digital.

I remember clearly that my mother would hide The Star, the afternoon paper, from us children because it carried divorce stories and “half-naked” female pictures. Of course, we got around that and followed the titivating divorce stories where the writer reported all the lurid details highlighting the errant husband and co-respondent caught in bed, the colour of the underwear, and the Tarzan-like leap through the window. The reporter always had a big flashlight with him and truants used to fear the sudden opening of a window, the broad beam of the flashlight, and the names called on-the-spot as evidence to be relayed later in court.

That was about as scandalous as news stories went, and you see how parents did their best to implement their own caution statement practices. And, if all else failed, you could suffer a good beating if you were caught reading the ‘infamous’ tabloid.

One too cannot forget the movie Street Corner, which opened at the Carib Theatre 67 years ago, March 4 1953. Street Corner was considered the adults-only film, as it was said to show a woman actually giving birth as part of the drama. We were so prudish in those days that there were different showings for men and for women. It caused a sensation with sermons preached against the showing in Jamaica. And, at one female showing, some men disguised themselves as women and sneaked into the theatre. In today’s environment the film is barely mild, but in our time we couldn’t even call the name in our house.

Times have changed. Kids have gone way ahead of their parents in matters of what is what, and what is not. Caution statements are useful, but believe me, kids are ahead of the game.

Lance Neita is a public relations consultant and author. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or lanceneita@hotmail.com.