daniel bowman simon

Riding the twenty-seven hour ship from Tagbilaran to Manila a month and a half ago, I met a group of Filipinos working on a project called AnakTV (translates to ChildTV.) They advocate for more child-sensitive programming on the airwaves, and hold events around the country (on ships included) screening pilot TV programs. Before the pilots, a video is shown about a day in the life of a three-year old who is left alone (by his mother and babysitter) with a remote control for an entire day, seen through his eyes. Dozens of very sexual and very violent scenes are shown. (They were all recorded off free TV channels in Manila over a two-week period a couple years ago.) Then, parents are asked to rate the programs for child-sensitivity. The AnakTV seal is then awarded annually to the top-ranking programs.

Pretty much since the minute I arrived here, in February 2004, I’ve been disturbed by how much TV Filipinos watch. It seems like the sets are never turned off. I’d been meaning to get past the first chapter of a particular book for over a year, and though the ship would be a great place to do so. But, alas, I was quite interested to talk to the AnakTV people. Ultimately, I stayed up into the wee-hours with Mag, the Secretary General, discussing TV, culture, kids, advertising, the environment, etc.

A few weeks later, when my parents and sister were in Manila, we met for dinner. Mag really wanted to meet my parents because he had never before met people who had eliminated TV from their home (against threats of rebellion from their children, no less!) We had a lively dinner, and met the following day at lunch to continue the discussion. Finally, Mag invited me to join AnakTV as they headed way north, to Vigan and Laoag. I declined because I really needed to get back to work, but agreed to speak the following week in Dumaguete, just a short ride away from Bohol.

My speech was received well by the audience of mostly private-school students and their parents. I post the text and audio here. For the audio, which sounds like it’s transmitted from a few meters underwater, my speech begins at about 2 minutes in, and there are bits of Cebuano interspersed, and yes, my accent is funny. At the beginning, I invited the crowd to stretch a bit, since they’d been sitting a while and surely their butts were getting hot. They appreciated it.

People just don’t seem to have any idea of the health, intellectual, and social risks of planting themselves on the couch. They just want to be zone-out and be entertained; especially the lower-class folks (by that I mean perpetually in-debt and lacking money for even basic daily needs.) So, of course, I don’t think just stamping seals on appropriate programming will do the trick. (For one thing, nobody in my town seems to know what the AnakTV represents.) Commercial messages seem to take up more time than the programs themselves, and there is absolutely zero media-awareness here. If I had the cash, I’d buy a hammer for every home in the Philippines and include specific instructions for use. But for a million and one reasons, baby-steps are all are being taken now.

However if you’d like to educate yourself about the boob tube and “The Facts About Marketing to Kids” from an American perspective, check out Campaign For A Commercial-Free Childhood. Now I’m off on another tangent, and I’ll end with a run-on sentence that is just the tip of the iceberg lettuce. Since Americans consume more than anyone else, and so many people around the world look up to and yearn to achieve the American lifestyle, the best way to curb unsustainable consumption worldwide would be to slow things down on the home front, especially amongst the young, impressionable minds.