As more children grow up with less adult supervision for large parts of the day, care must be taken to ensure that high-quality content is widely available. Excessive commercialism as well as lack of appropriate programming present significant concerns. Nearly half of American adolescents have no structured, supervised after-school activity, leaving them without guidance in viewing or using the new media. American children spend an average of 10 to 12 fewer hours a week with their parents than they did in 1960. Marketing of licensed toys and other products drives television programming today, with product-related shows accounting for the vast majority of new production.
New media bring new threats to children.
Current protections, such as the prohibition against cigarette and excessive advertising, may not carry over into new media. In early 1994, Massachusetts police charged a man with raping teens and preteens after enticing them through a computer bulletin board. Some of the most innovative uses of new information technologies are taking place in local communities across the country. While most of these uses are still at the experimentation stage, they suggest promising new ways to address persistent problems children face. Left to itself, the commercial marketplace, where much of the superhighway will be developed, can not be counted on to take the best interests of children into account.