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Kids grow up really fast today. Censoring TV won't change that. For far too long, parents have stopped being parents and instead want to be their kids "best friend." With this kind of freedom, no wonder kids have no fear of retribution from their parents, like my generation did.
I think media is damaging to children-- and adults.
However I am not for censorship. Parents should be vigilant and monitor what preteens are watching and discuss the realities and consequences of this type of behavior. I have never in my life used an illegal substance, and this type of series often instills a fiction in viewers-- that there are no serious consequences. Parents who allow their kids to watch this, should also make them watch A&E's intervention to see what true addicts are going through.
I'm sure this program will be a giant hit. Sadly, the media has also in been totally complicit in dividing the USA against itself, so while the kids can be monitored and prevented from watching Skins-- who's monitoring the adults?
The British version is going on it's 5th season without incident, British kids haven't gone insane or died en masse of overdoses or STDs. The original show has been shown on US cable for years. There is nothing new going on, a lot of people are overreacting without any facts as usual.
There are consequences for characters on this show, overdoses from drugs, a character became pregnant, violence affected by drugs. The show is about the characters, you see real pain and problems in these kids, and ambitions, some of the characters are working hard to get into college, other are into dance or arts. They are real people dealing with many life issues, they aren't just running around getting high and having sex all day, every day. I find the show a very accurate portrayal of teen life. I knew a few straight edge kids growing up, but most kids I knew experimented with drugs and had sex before graduation and we didn't need a TV show to tell us to do it, we didn't have any shows like this then. I went to a Catholic high school in the suburbs, if it was happening there it was happening everywhere.
TV doesn't have as much influence as some people think. I was an intelligent kid, I partied a lot, but I also made choices and had lines that I wouldn't cross, there is a big difference between smoking a joint and shooting up heroin, drinking with a designated driver or not, or between safe sex and not. I may have gone to a party on a Sat. night, but I still got my homework done and got mostly As. I planned for my future, as did all the other kids I knew, very few teens who experiment with alcohol and/or drugs end up needing to be on Intervention. I'm not saying drugs or teen sex are great, but kids are doing them and that's not going to end even if we banned all TV and movies, but the G rated.
I had great parents who taught me self respect and to be careful for my future while also enjoying life. My parents let me read any book, and watch R rated movies, I wasn't censored, they taught me their values every day, then trusted me to recognize right from wrong so I didn't need to be censored. Words from a parent mean a lot more than a TV show, even if a kid denies it. My parents raised me well, that was what mattered, not TV shows or movies. If someone wants to really help their kids, watch it with them and talk about it, blocking it or censoring it only means they will watch at a friends and never tell you.
As I posted on another forum, this show is a huge waste of time and blatant exploitation of kids. I'm sure that kids in China, Japan, India, Korea and all the other countries who kick our a$$ in math/science aren't wasting their time watching this cr@p.
As I posted on another forum, this show is a huge waste of time and blatant exploitation of kids. I'm sure that kids in China, Japan, India, Korea and all the other countries who kick our a$$ in math/science aren't wasting their time watching this cr@p.
What are you complaining about? These fine amoral kids will soon be pumping out kids and asking their parents and/or the taxpayer to support them. This is what the fine American media has produced. Be proud of your American culture!
Television execs only want the most outragous, insulting, controversial and over-the-top programming because that's what Americans react to. Same with politics.
Please have you people ever watched MTV's "Real World"? or the "Jersey Shore"? If you think your kids are going to emulate these people then perhaps you should worry about what type of parent you are instead and not some TV show!
As I posted on another forum, this show is a huge waste of time and blatant exploitation of kids. I'm sure that kids in China, Japan, India, Korea and all the other countries who kick our a$$ in math/science aren't wasting their time watching this cr@p.
Yeah, we heard this irrational rant the first time. Irrational parents with the complete inability to use logic is what scares me, if American kids are getting stupider these people are a big part of the reason why. Blaming TV for everything instead of actually teaching kids to think and recognize right from wrong, this is why so much of the world thinks Americans are uptight morons.
I've watched 2 out of 3 episodes of the show. If anything, it goes much too far in portraying the part sex, drugs, and alcohol plays in teens' lives. Yes, they do play a role. Teens drink, teens have sex, teens use drugs - but most of them do not do them all of the time. The two episodes I have seen are almost all drinking, sex, and drug use. The fact that these have a place cannot be denied, but jobs, school, and extra-curriculars - are just as important to most teens. American teens are still a religious bunch, but you never see it on this show. I find the way they speak, especially when boys and girls interact, extreme too - I was their age about six or seven years ago and I didn't hear nearly that much sexual talk in conversations between the sexes, and I wasn't part of the greatest crowd. Maybe things have degenerated, though. If anybody at my school was like that, it was the burn-outs - and the crowd portrayed in this show are certainly not burn-outs. I especially dislike that arrogant prick Tony, who has an "alpha male" ego yet is effeminate in other ways. The males in this show dress like metrosexuals.
Heck, at times it seems like they're filming in a parallel universe. The young social studies teacher almost certainly would not have made a house call to Chris's house, and would have reported his party to the authorities. She definitely would not have danced with him, or lodged him in her house! Also, a boy walking naked in the street would have definitely attracted more attention than on the show. These teens seem to live not in this universe, but in the universe of a relativistic, secular humanist, amoral producer.
I've watched 2 out of 3 episodes of the show. If anything, it goes much too far in portraying the part sex, drugs, and alcohol plays in teens' lives. Yes, they do play a role. Teens drink, teens have sex, teens use drugs - but most of them do not do them all of the time. The two episodes I have seen are almost all drinking, sex, and drug use. The fact that these have a place cannot be denied, but jobs, school, and extra-curriculars - are just as important to most teens. American teens are still a religious bunch, but you never see it on this show. I find the way they speak, especially when boys and girls interact, extreme too - I was their age about six or seven years ago and I didn't hear nearly that much sexual talk in conversations between the sexes, and I wasn't part of the greatest crowd. Maybe things have degenerated, though. If anybody at my school was like that, it was the burn-outs - and the crowd portrayed in this show are certainly not burn-outs. I especially dislike that arrogant prick Tony, who has an "alpha male" ego yet is effeminate in other ways. The males in this show dress like metrosexuals.
Heck, at times it seems like they're filming in a parallel universe. The young social studies teacher almost certainly would not have made a house call to Chris's house, and would have reported his party to the authorities. She definitely would not have danced with him, or lodged him in her house! Also, a boy walking naked in the street would have definitely attracted more attention than on the show. These teens seem to live not in this universe, but in the universe of a relativistic, secular humanist, amoral producer.
If they keep following the Brit version, as the show goes on the characters start to round out, and the partying starts to become more just background noise, it isn't their whole lives. The show grows over time, it's meant to be seen and understood as a whole. Americans are more impatient than the Brits with letting shows unfold. Skins is absolutely not just kids partying,(unlike Jersey Shore which is actual garbage) the characters have talents and ambitions that come out as the show goes on, if you continue to watch you will see them start to stress over test scores and getting into college, you will see kids who have passion and commitment to art, dance, and enter classical music competitions. More about painful family issues will come out.
I don't know what part of the country you are from so maybe things are different, I grew up in metro Detroit which is not unlike Baltimore where the show is set. I have always found religious teens to be the minority, and I went to a Catholic high school so that says something, most kids only went to church because their parents made them. I knew very few kids who were actually religious as teens. There is a muslim character on the show who prays, and believes in his faith even when his parents aren't around, on one episode of the original he is outside praying the morning after a party, and he is serious about it, it's clear he prays every day, and that's respected so you can't say their universe is entirely secular humanistic, nor do I think it's amoral. There are moral lessons in many of the storylines, they just aren't shoved down people's throats. The show gives credit to teenagers for being able to think about issues rather than just telling them what to do or think. That's not a separate universe, many parts of it are very real to this universe's kids.
One must remember it is a TV show, it's not meant to be absolutely realistic, like most TV shows, some things are done in the extreme for humor and drama. His walking down the street naked is a bit of humor on the surface, but really meant to emphasize just how horrible his situation is, he was kicked out of his own house with no clothes on by a stranger because his mom left him, and he spent the $1000 she gave him stupidly, he now has nothing. Talking about sex between the genders has opened up a lot, that is actually pretty realistic for many modern teens since the late 90s especially, but that varies a lot, there may be some dramatic license in that also.
How about, just not let your kids watch it! I hate when people blame the tv stations. Its your responsiblity. Kids are gonna do what they wanna do. End of story.
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