Summary

00:20 Cold open with Jade Carroll. ""TV woos you in - you watch it and sometimes you become a TV addict!"" 1:13 ""Martha Dewing"" by Skip Blumberg. Martha Dewing, editor of ""Children's Video Report,"" cites some frightening statistics on the prevalence of TV in children's lives. She says that parents don't want their children to be exposed to violence on television, but it happens through ignorance. 03:17 ""Jade Carroll and Molly Kovel"" by Dee Dee Halleck. Jade and Molly, two young girls, review the findings of a ""Weekly Reader"" survey of 5th and 6th graders. This survey cla ims alarming levels of television viewing amongst children in this age category, including the fact that 23% call themselves TV addicts. However, the girls proudly proclaim themselves to be above this trend. As for Jade: ""I've gone months without watching TV."" 05:51 ""Media Class"" by Appalshop and Suzie Wehling. A survey of the communications program at Whitesburg High School in Kentucky. Despite being located in one of the poorest counties in America, they have a newspaper, a weekly radio show and a video class. One girl comments as she puts the paper together: ""The reason people put what we do down is because we're doing stuff better than what they're doing. They're kind of amazed we got the skills to do that."" 10:15 ""Rockin' Robin"" by Robbie Leppzer. In Holyoke, Massachusetts, four girls sing and perform ""Rockin' Robin."" 12:48 ""Ariana"" by Skip Blumberg. Two little girls are asked what tape they'd like to rent at the video store if they could rent anything. The girls want to see ""The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover"" because it is NC-17 and they want to know what adult movies are all about. The girls think that adults are trying to hide funny parts and scary parts from them and that children are missing out on these funny things. 15:48 ""Philip Morris Protest"" by Skip Blumberg. Skip Blumberg talks to the security manager (who is smoking a pipe!) at the Philip Morris headquarters in New York about getting an interview, but he is denied on the grounds that he has no press credentials. A group of protesters surround the headquarters. Their grievances include the way Philip Morris targets children and they demand a stop to advertising near schools and playgrounds. Children make up a large portion of those protesters. Anti-smoking activist Rev. Calvin O. Butts attempts to lead a coalition that includes Chicago community activist and Catholic priest Fr. Michael Flager to speak with the heads of the company. They are denied. Butts promises to return and take over the building. 23:51 ""Erica Becker"" by Eddie Becker. Erika discusses the issue of teen smoking with her father. She says, ""Kids do things that are bad because their parents don't let them do stuff... I have friends who are smoking because their parents don't want them to smoke."" Her dad counters, "" So you're saying you don't smoke because your parents encouraged you to smoke?"" She replies, ""No, but they say, 'It's your life. You can ruin it if you want to.' "" 28:26 More from ""Martha Dewing."" ""We have to remember as adults that the kids are experiencing things now - they don't have any point of reference from three years ago, ten years ago - they're watching TV!"" 28:46 ""Copeira"" by Bart Friedman. Scenes from a class of young people learning the acrobatic martial art of Copeira in Salvador, Brazil. 30:28 ""Dr. Melanie Tarvalon"" by Starr Sutherland. Dr. Melanie Tarvalon, a pediatrician, says that black youths between 15-25 have a better chance of being killed than graduating from an institute of higher learning. ""There's nothing connected with color that makes African-American youth engage in violent behavior... This is a society that has violence everywhere you turn... I think its a mistake to blame African American youth for the violence that occurs in our communities."" 32:13 ""Sean Parker"" by Fred Bridges. Ex-gang member Sean Parker warns a group of students against getting involved in gangs: ""Gang banging will take you further than you want to go, make you spend more than you want to pay, and keep you longer than you want to stay. Gang bangers don't live to become administrators or doctors and they don't live to become lawyers and judges. They live to become prisoners... or you will find them in the grave..."" 35:00 ""Schooled Down Home"" by Teresa Tucker-Davies. Piney Woods Academy in Mississippi orchestrates a program that brings down kids from Chicago housing projects to live in a safer environment. Philip Woods, a student in the program says, ""Everybody should get an opportunity to go down there and get a taste of that atmosphere down there... I thought I'd have to look over my shoulder for the rest of my life [to make sure that there was no one behind me]."" 47:11 ""Irian Jaya"" by Mary Lou Witz. Kids in Irian Jaya, Indonesia scramble after a yellow balloon. 47:30 ""Betty Aberlin"" by Skip Blumberg. Aberlin from ""Mr. Rogers Neighborhood "" claims her success in children's programming is due to her arrested state of mental development, claiming she functions better in ""make believe"" than in reality. 47:48 ""Cheers Kids"" by Skip Blumberg. In Brooklyn, a troupe of young girls perform a rhythmic cheer: ""Hey Champions, ready for the first beat? Pick it up and bring back down..."" 49:14 ""Capital Children's Museum"" by Eddie Becker. In Washington D.C., we visit the animation lab at the Capital Children's Museum. Kids prepare the animated explosion of New York: ""It'll be funny to look at New York sink"" ... Chris Grotke talks about 5-year-old David Cook's piece, ""The New Exciting Galaxy of Space Dog and Space Kid"" from which some excerpts are shown. 53:06 ""Boy with a Microphone"" by Bill Stamets. Rutland, VT. A little boy with a microphone wanders around, interviewing residents of a farm. He comes across some pigs and asks, ""What do you explain?"" The pigs oink, to which he replies, ""Pigs, they don't explain anything. They're just pigs."" He then tells the pigs to shut up when their oinking interrupts his investigation of a toy box. Access Only