If you walk into a sex shop with some very obvious name like "naughty things for naughty people" (clearly, I made that name up...), would you expect there to be a sign on the door that says "WARNING: THIS STORE MAY CONTAIN MATERIAL THAT IS INAPPROPRIATE FOR SOME SHOPPERS (such as children and young adults...)"? I would laugh if I saw such a sign at a place like that. It is a sex shop, it's advertised as a sex shop, it's values are only limited to how dirty the community they operate in is in the bedroom.
I feel that this could apply to a record store as well. Although record stores tend to have a variety of different music, every buisness has a target class of people. If you are going to a record store to buy an album, I don't believe it is the record stores responsibility to tell you what you are engaging in when you buy their product. I work 2 jobs, one being at a department store. When someone buys a blender we don't tell them "This blender has blades inside of it. They could cut one of your fingers off!" If you are buying an item, you should have full knoweledge of what you are buying before you purchase it. If you are unsure of whether or not this item could be harmful or in this case, contain "bad" lyrics, than you can certainly ask.
If a record company, for the integrity of their buisness would like to pay the money to have advisories posted on all of the music in their store, that is completely their choice and I can respect that. Should a company have to? I don't believe so.
Let me also state though, that I do not have kids so I cannot FULLY understand a parents concern in that area but I do have plenty of younger cousins and nieces and nephews that I watch very closely. Furthermore, without parental advisories I can tell what is good and bad for them or appropriate for their age level. My eight year old cousin wants to listen to some Disney Channel star: fine. She wants to listen to Lady Gaga and Rhianna: not so fine. If you really care about what your kids are listening to, you can easily do the research yourself without the companies having to take responsibility for YOUR kids. Perhaps what you deem as appropriate for you child is different that what I deem appropriate for my child. It's your kids, your parenting style, your decision.
Hi Jessica, thanks for showing me the other side of the story. In some instances I agree with you, but mostly I don’t. As you said the companies can do whatever they can as they opt to sell their products. This is the point I don’t want to accept. Our children learn not only from their parents they can learn from their environments. Let’s take a simple analogy, we definitely know Cigarette has some health hazards and let it be sold for a two year old boy (by the way I saw a 2 year old Indonesian boy smoking cigar- if you’re interested watch him on YouTube) do you think this little boy knows what will be its consequence? So if these companies are not restricted what they are going to provide for our kids, even though parents take careful attention, our kids can get it from the neighborhood store, online, anywhere else. Don’t forget that these companies are tended for money making; they can do whatever they can to maintain their market. In spite of this fact even if they are responsible in rating their products, they do it in undercover labels where they can bypass parents’ effort. When you see online selling, there is no one who can check the eligibility of the audience on any music type. These companies are selling for everyone. Imagine how difficult is being a parent in these days. For the good of this generation we as parents and the record companies must work together to raise a healthy, responsible generation.
ReplyDeleteI like how you took on the other side and showed that everyone has the right to make their choices and not be forced to change including the music company. I do in a way agree with you about the music company’s responsibility. I do feel that if they do not want to put parenting advisories on their cds then that is their choice but I do not feel that it is solely the parent’s responsibility in teaching their child about the different types of music. In some cases, most children lack a parent figure or have a parent that really does not care about them in their life and as a result they do not quite learn how to react or respond to the differences between music with foul lyrics and music without it. I do feel that there needs to be some kind of regulation that would make it harder for children under the age of eighteen to obtain M rated music, i.e. use of I.D., having to have a legal guardian with them if under age, etc. But for those parents that actually take the time for their children I do agree that it is their responsibility to do background research on a cd before buying it and then decide if it is alright for their child.
ReplyDeleteOk I understand the sex store example but I dont get the music example, how could you put the music store with that. when you say sex store we all know what is inside but when you say music store that could mean a lot of different types of music, most stores carry gospel, rap, jazz, reggie, and heavy metal and lets not forget R&B. not all types of music have explicit lyrics in it. so it should it should be labled, and no it's not their responsiblity to protect our children it's ours and socity's responsibility to protect our children. ok you dont have any children of your own but how would you feel if someone took one of you little cousins to buy something that you deemed unsuitable for them, or if your nieces got a hold of one of the music CD's with the pretty cover but bad lyrics then would you feel a sense of responsibility to do something about it or would you just say thats the parents job? I think it's all of our jobs to protect our future.
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