Parents Fear Media Messages : Poll: Sex and violence on TV and other media worry O.C. parents more than any real-world threat.

Orange County parents know that when their children head out the door, they’re going into a world that harbors armed gangs, AIDS and ready drugs and alcohol.

So what is the most common worry of Orange County parents today?

Television.

Nearly half the parents queried by The Times Orange County Poll said they worried “a great deal” that sex and violence depicted on TV and in other entertainment media are threatening their children.

That would come as no surprise to the television industry, which is scrambling to appease Congress and avoid stiff laws against video violence. Only Wednesday, after a series of congressional hearings, TV network executives announced a plan to voluntarily add warning notices to programs considered too violent for children. The notices will start in the fall, the executives said.

The catch: No series now on TV would qualify as being too violent, the executives added.

Many Orange County parents obviously disagree, for no other poll category accumulated so much worry.

Four in 10 were seriously concerned about their children becoming actual crime victims. About a third were seriously worried about their children contracting AIDS, and a quarter were worried that their children would abuse drugs or alcohol or would engage in sex before adulthood.

Cheryl Katz, co-director of The Times Orange County Poll, said the results reflect an across-the-board concern over televised sex and violence regardless of regional and income differences. “Sex and violence on the TV is getting into every family room in the county, regardless of where you are,” Katz said. “I think people feel very helpless about it.”

Gilbert Geis, a UC Irvine sociologist, agreed that parents probably feel helpless when it comes to controlling their children’s TV viewing.

“Essentially, they don’t like TV because it’s a competitor. It makes their children infinitely more precocious. TV is very sexual, erotic and violent, and that is not the parents’ values and attitudes. It makes parents very nervous that their children might grow up with values other than their own,” Geis said.

In all, 49% of parents said they worried “a great deal” and 25% “somewhat” about “children being exposed to too much sex and violence on television, in the movies and through popular music.”

“The blood and so forth is getting worse and worse,” said Laura Ridley, 41, of Laguna Niguel, mother of a 12-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter. “The killings and the type of killings, the mass murderers. They play up things that are in real life, and that has even more impact.

“We try not to limit our son. If there is some type of thing on TV that we don’t agree with, we try to give him the pros and cons,” she said. “There was something recently regarding gays, and they were acting like it was OK, and we were explaining that’s not our philosophy so he’d understand.”

Kellyne Rosenthal, 28, of Tustin watched TV’s effect on her 8-year-old son, the eldest of her three children, and did not like it. “My son was so upset about the riots, about Saudi Arabia. Just because Mom was watching it, he did. The news exaggerates, and they don’t put a lot of happy stuff on. Lately we just turn the TV off.”

Kerry Otis, 25, of Fullerton said he spends a lot of time talking with his 14-year-old stepson, trying to explain the sort of things he sees on television nowadays.

“You can almost see naked women in TV,” Otis said. “And sex on TV. Women’s boobs hanging out, it’s ridiculous. That’s the reason we don’t have cable now, because some of the things they have on.

“And the violence. Oh, my goodness, I tell you, the violence is just as bad. He’s not sensitized to it anymore. We don’t say much about it. He knows it’s fake.”

But for others, those concerns are not such a big deal.

“Sex and violence on TV, I don’t even notice it,” said David Zutz, 35, of Costa Mesa, father of a 3 1/2-year-old son. “Maybe I’ve been watching it for so long it doesn’t affect me. It’s all fake, you know. The violence you have to worry about is what’s happening on the streets. That’s what’s really happening.”

Sarah Reichardt, 25, of Tustin, mother of a 2-year-old girl, said she simply is not concerned “because I screen what she watches. We don’t watch stuff that’s extremely violent.

“But I think children are better at discerning fantasy from violence than adults are. I remember looking at things from a kid’s point of view. I could pick out fantasy from reality.”

The solution is simple, she said. “If TV is so bad, then get rid of the television. People spend too much time in front of the television anyway.”

In reality, the solution is not that simple, Geis said. “Turning it off is a great theory, but it’s a very hard battle to fight, and I’ve seen few who win it. If the kid doesn’t watch it there, he watches it at his friend’s. And if you succeed, you’re running the risk of isolating your kid.”

When it comes to real sex and violence, fewer parents describe themselves as greatly worried. But the numbers still are significant.

About four in 10 worry “a great deal” about their children becoming crime victims in their neighborhoods or at school. About one in four is greatly worried his or her child will become involved with gang and criminal activity.

Such worries do not seem exaggerated to Douglas Woodsmall, who runs the Orange County district attorney’s gang unit.

“We’ve seen over the last five years gangs increase in numbers and the number of individuals in gangs increase. They seem to be going into areas they’ve not been in in any degree before. Along with that, there’s been just a general increase in gang violence.”

Children Now, a nonprofit advocacy group for children’s well-being, says the number of teen homicide victims in Orange County has been rising steadily since 1988. That year, two of 13 violent teen-age deaths were homicides. In 1991, the number of violent deaths had increased to 32, and 12 were homicides.

Rosenthal is raising her three children in the Tustin house where she lived when she attended high school. But the neighborhood just is not the same, she said.

“We have (graffiti) on our walls. We have drugs at the intermediate school. We have to sign a statement at the beginning of each school year that our kids won’t wear Raiders caps and shirts (because they are worn by some gang members). The gangs are here in Tustin now, and it’s scary.”

Two doors down, a 13-year-old boy was stabbed to death in his home five years ago, and the murderer has never been caught, Rosenthal said.

“There’s so much you have to worry about. In the ‘60s and ‘70s, it was: ‘Bye, Mom, I’m gonna go play.’ You can’t do that anymore. You have to be out there watching them. You never know what’s going to happen.”

Daniel Dobias, 27, of Laguna Niguel, father of a 2-year-old girl and 2-month-old boy, says gangs don’t worry him--yet. “As far as I know, gangs aren’t really around here very closely, but that can change. I know they’re in San Juan” Capistrano.

Dobias is more concerned about providing for his children’s future, a strong worry cited by four in 10 parents. A construction plumber, Dobias has been out of work for more than a year.

“At this point, I don’t see much light at the end of the tunnel,” he said. “We’re all hoping. We keep saying it’s got to get better, but it just doesn’t seem to. When you’ve been out of work this long, it’s hard to be excited about anything else.

“We just bought a condo about two years ago, and the way the home prices have gone down and buyers have gone down, we can’t afford to sell. If I could, I would go--anywhere I could get work.”

Eleanor Jordan, labor market analyst for the state Employment Development Department in Orange County, said people like Dobias have every right to be worried about the long term.

Unemployment, now at 6% for Orange County as a whole, is likely to be a chronic problem in manufacturing and construction for the foreseeable future, she said.

“Manufacturing is still down. Construction is still down. Growth tends to be in business services, mainly in temporary employment agencies,” Jordan said. “If you’re in a field such as construction or an aerospace engineer, yes, you have real worries.”

And if you do have a job? “If you’re an average, middle-class person, probably yes, you don’t necessarily have the job security you might have had five or 10 years ago.”

About a quarter of the parents also worry about teen sex, AIDS, drugs, alcohol and immediate finances. But 59% of all parents described Orange County as an excellent or good place for raising children. Only 11% rated it “poor.”

Little wonder, then, that the most frequent complaint is something as “banal” as television, Geis said. “What is it they’re afraid TV is going to do? They don’t think it’s going to change them into a sex maniac or mass murderer or that would be reflected in those categories.

“They just don’t like what they see on television, and they’re reflecting their own anger and anguish,” Geis said.

“It’s what parents talk about to each other.”

Highest Anxieties

Children’s exposure to excessive sex and violence on television has Orange County parents anxious. Percent of parents saying they worry a “great deal” about the following in raising their children:

Media sex and violence: 49%

Kids becoming crime victims: 43%

Paying for their future needs: 40%

Lack of religion, morality: 37%

Kids contracting AIDS: 34%

Teen Sex: 28%

Drug, alcohol abuse: 24%

Becoming gang members: 23%

Paying for current needs: 22%

Source: Times Orange County Poll

TIMES ORANGE COUNTY POLL

Location, Income Are Keys

Both locality and household income appear to be factors in parental worries about their children. Although there are some similarities, those parents living in South County and with higher incomes tend to be less likely to say they worry a great deal about various social problems.

Media Sex, Violence

Although parents in both the north and south parts of the county and from all income levels are highly distressed about the amount of sex and violence to which children are exposed in popular media, North County residents and those from households with less than $50,000 in annual incomes express greater levels of concern.

* How much do you worry about your children being exposed to too much sex and violence on television, in the movies and through popular music?

All Less than $50,000 parents North South $50,000 and more Great deal 49% 52% 41% 58% 44% Somewhat 25 24 29 21 29 A little 12 11 16 9 14 Not at all 14 13 14 12 13

Crime and Gangs

Concerns that children will either become victims of crime or involved with gangs are more acute in North County and among less affluent parents. In all groups, parents worry more about their children becoming crime victims than gang members.

* . . . worry that your children could be the victims of crime or violence in your neighborhood or in the local schools?

All Less than $50,000 parents North South $50,000 and more Great deal 43% 47% 29% 49% 36% Somewhat 28 28 28 27 29 A little 19 16 30 16 23 Not at all 10 9 13 8 12

* . . . worry that your children could become gang members or involved in criminal activities?

All Less than $50,000 parents North South $50,000 and more Great deal 23% 26% 14% 35% 12% Somewhat 16 15 19 16 16 A little 19 18 22 16 22 Not at all 42 41 45 33 50

Morality and Values

Morality is a topic that produces a mixed set of responses among parents. Attitudes regarding the moral climate in Orange County cut across regional and economic lines, with parents in all groups equally troubled. However, those living in North County and with lower incomes worry more that their children could contract AIDS. Overall, parents are less distressed about their offspring becoming sexually active before reaching adulthood than about the specter of AIDS.

* . . . worry that your children are growing up in a place where there is a lack of concern for religion, morality and family values?

All Less than $50,000 parents North South $50,000 and more Great deal 37% 38% 36% 41% 37% Somewhat 24 23 25 26 22 A little 18 18 17 14 20 Not at all 21 21 22 19 21

* . . . worry that your children could contract AIDS?

All Less than $50,000 parents North South $50,000 and more Great deal 34% 37% 27% 43% 26% Somewhat 26 23 35 21 32 A little 21 21 18 16 24 Not at all 19 19 20 20 18

* . . . worry about your children engaging in sexual intercourse before they reach adulthood?

All Less than $50,000 parents North South $50,000 and more Great deal 28% 29% 25% 36% 22% Somewhat 30 29 35 29 31 A little 21 21 21 17 25 Not at all 21 21 19 18 22

Drugs

The possibility of drug or alcohol abuse is not as great as other parental concerns, but again is more pervasive in North County and among those with lesser incomes.

* . . . worry that your children will abuse drugs or alcohol?

All Less than $50,000 parents North South $50,000 and more Great deal 24% 26% 16% 35% 14% Somewhat 16 15 23 13 20 A little 34 32 38 30 37 Not at all 26 27 23 22 29

Family Finances

Not surprisingly, less well-to-do parents worry more about financing both the current and future needs of their children. Upper-income parents are much less concerned with current needs than they are about possible future deficiencies.

* . . . worry about not having enough money to pay for your children’s future needs, such as a college education?

All Less than $50,000 parents North South $50,000 and more Great deal 40% 41% 35% 56% 25% Somewhat 28 26 33 26 30 A little 13 15 8 7 20 Not at all 19 18 24 11 25

* . . . worry about not having enough money to take care of your children’s current basic needs, such as food, housing and clothing?

All Less than $50,000 parents North South $50,000 and more Great deal 22% 24% 13% 36% 6% Somewhat 21 21 22 23 20 A little 22 21 25 19 27 Not at all 35 34 40 22 47

Source: Times Orange County Poll

How the Poll Was Conducted

The Times Orange County Poll was conducted by Mark Baldassare & Associates. The telephone survey reached 750 Orange County adults during a four-day period ending June 6. Using a computer-generated random sample of listed and unlisted telephone numbers, the poll contacted residents on weekday nights and weekend days. The error margin for all respondents is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points. For the subgroup of parents with children at home, the margin of error is plus or minus 5.5 percent.

The Embattled Family

TODAY: Exposure of their children to sex and violence depicted on television and other entertainment media is the worry parents cite most often.

MONDAY: Most Orange County residents are content but feel much less secure about their finances than three years ago, a concern that’s bleeding into other areas of their personal happiness.

TUESDAY: Moms and dads fret about different issues, and this may reflect not only traditional male and female reactions to threats but also may explain a gradual evolution in the roles of each parent.

WEDNESDAY: Divorce, remarriage and economics may be reshaping many families, but three-fourths of Orange County parents still believe their clans are close, especially young families.

THURSDAY: More people still believe medicine will be the best job path for their children but, shaped by perceived dark economic winds, they have scaled back other expectations for the future of their offspring.