People need to chill-out. Really. Grab a jug of ice tea, sit out on the sun, relax and un-spazz. The livid obsession with patrolling every little tunnel to and from the world of the popular media in an attempt to protect the untainted moral children of the world is about as successful as the movie Gigli.

When it comes to be concerned about media influence’s on young people, everyone and their brother seem have to have a thought on what’s bad about it and how they intend to fix it. Books like this that promotes the idea that kids and teens are so corruptible, I find it almost insulting. An e-mail promotion of the book it reads:

Parenting experts Brent and Phelecia Hatch are taking a stand against MySpace,iPod and video games, telling parents it’s high time they take back their rightful space in their children’s life. “It’s time we take back control,” say the Hatches. “Get into your kids’ space,” they say. “MySpace needs to be Our Space.”

One small step for parenting, one giant leap for annoying moral crises crusades. As heartfelt and meaningful as it is for parents to take active roles in whether or not they’re children are being stalked by 40-year-old men, when it comes to certain organizations taking it a wee bit too far, I start questioning the drive behind these strange battles of the right and just.

BattleCry, a religious group, is dedicated to fighting the long hard battle against the media. Which I suppose in their mind is like the embodiment of Darth Vader. On their website the first paragraph of their ‘afflicted’ crisis states:

Today’s teens are being attacked by popular culture like no other generation. Hollywood, the music industry, advertisers, and even the mainstream media are using their arsenal of tools to win the battle for our teens’ hearts- and so far they are winning! In order to defeat our enemy, we must know how it thinks and understand the weapons it uses. It is critical that we realize how far-reaching the crisis is- and then we must work together to stop it.

Not too long ago I tried to get an interview with a spokesperson from BattleCry. But apparently the only person who could give me decent explanation one was the founder, Ron Luce, himself. The interview never worked out, but it disturbs me that a whole organization trying to prevent the assimilation of the youth culture into the ‘evils’ of mass media did not have any other person available to explain to me what their group was trying to do. I guess they work like a sports team where the team puts all their hopes into just one of their players and leave the rest there to pretend like they know what they’re doing.
—Eming Piansay