The Child Rights Media Code aims to make the shapers of public opinion more responsible for the powerful images they present to children, writes Edwin Naidu
Would you allow your child to listen to Eminem, the foul-mouthed rapper who sings about performing disgusting acts with his mother and his girlfriend?
The answer is as irrelevant as when, at the height of school boycotts, the apartheid government banned the Pink Floyd 1980s anthem Another Brick In The Wall long after its release.
What is the use of asking the question after millions of children have been exposed to such filth?
Eminem was on the lips of several speakers at a workshop on the Child Rights Media Code last month.
Although he does not currently have a hit song on the charts, the repercussions of his million-selling and Grammy Award-winning album, The Marshall Mathers Album, still reverberated through the auditorium at Gallagher Estate in Midrand, north of Johannesburg.
“Children love Eminem although he insults everyone. Still kids think he’s cool,” lamented Johannesburg songstress Yvonne Chaka Chaka.
She warned that the impact of his music through his videos, some of which portray scenes of violence, are not suitable for children. “Is it right for our children to be exposed to this type of music? We should ask ourselves what kind of society we want,” she added.
Her concern was shared by PJ Powers, who said it was worrying that a rapper, who sang about killing his girlfriend, is so popular, especially among children.
Powers said that while visiting a friend she was shocked recently to hear the friend’s eight-year-old son listening to Eminem. “I asked him why and his reply, was ‘Eminem’s real’. I wonder where our moral code has gone. It worries me enormously that kids think this is reality,” she said.
“When Eminem sings about his mother, he is denigrating each and every child’s mother in the world. It’s nothing to do with freedom of speech but financial gain, and we have to do something with it,” said Powers.
Television personality Casey B Dolan said statisics reveal that 75-million people are listening to Eminem worldwide. “We’re creating an us versus them situation…adults should also be educated,” she said.
The Child Rights Media Code is to ensure that the overwhelming power of the media for the good in the lives of children is identified, encouraged and supported and that the potentially negative effects of media are recognised and reduced, according to Brenda Kali.
Thoko Mkwanazi-Xavula, director of the office on child rights in the Presidency, and Kali have been driving forces behind the initiative to draw up guidelines that promote and protect the rights of children.
Led by Essop Pahad, and supported by President Thabo Mbeki, the objectives of the Child Rights Media Code are to implement the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child through the National Programme of Action for Children in the Presidency.
The initiative needs the support of educators, parents, learners and civil society if the scourge of people like Eminem is to be neutralised.
– The Teacher/M&G Media, Johannesburg, June 2001.