United Press International- July 15, 2002
Pat Nason, UPI Hollywood Reporter

Sesame Workshop vice president Joel Schneider announced last week at the 14th International AIDS Conference in Barcelona that the new character would join the current cast of "Takalani Sesame," viewed in a country in which it is estimated that one in nine people are infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

According to Daily Variety, before the week was over, several members of Congress had written to Public Broadcasting System president Pat Mitchell, putting her on notice that the U.S. government will be watching what "Sesame Street" does in South Africa. Rep. W.J. "Billy" Tauzin, R-La., and five Republican members of the House Commerce Committee, which Tauzin chairs, used the letter to remind Mitchell that the committee holds the purse strings for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds PBS.

"We look forward to working with you to ensure that only age and culturally appropriate programs air on PBS," said the letter.

In large part, the argument against exposing tots to the idea of AIDS is an echo of a long-running media debate that goes at least as far back as the 1942, when Disney took heat over the animated feature "Bambi." Critics blasted the studio for a scene in which a deer hunter shoots Bambi's mother -- even though viewers did not see the hunter or the fallen deer.

In an interview with United Press International, Andrea Lafferty, executive director of the Traditional Values Coalition, asked, "What happened to protecting the innocence of our children?"

The TVC is a non-denominational church lobby based in Washington, D.C., and Anaheim, Calif.

Lafferty acknowledged that "the issue in Africa is different," but she is troubled by the possibility that children's programming about AIDS might open the door to material that is not age appropriate, and get into more difficult areas than the question of how a young child should treat a playmate who is HIV-positive.

"Obviously, children need to be treated delicately if they're sick with this disease," she said. "I think a lot of people were kind of taken aback by using 'Sesame Street' for this."

Infants can contract the virus from parents, but critics of Sesame Workshop's announcement are concerned that the show might eventually tell young children about other ways in which the virus is transmitted -- sexual contact and needle-sharing.

"When are people going to be honest about how it is transmitted?" asked Lafferty. "We don't believe it's appropriate to talk about it with little minds."

Schneider said "Takalani Sesame" -- primarily watched by toddlers, preschoolers and their families -- will avoid any explicit mention of sex, focusing instead on the more practical concerns facing HIV-positive people on a daily basis.

"We want to show that here is an HIV-positive member of our community who you can touch and interact with," he said. "We will be very careful to fashion our messages so they are appropriate to the age group. What do I do when I cut my finger? What do I do when you cut your finger? That sort of thing."

While the public discussion has primarily been about content and standards, very little attention has been paid to a central issue -- the ways in which viewers consume and digest content.

Elizabeth Thoman, president and founder of the Center for Media Literacy, said critics "tend to focus on the message that's coming through the screen," while ignoring what viewers actually do with that information.

The CML, a nonprofit based in Santa Monica, Calif., researches and promotes "the ability to communicate competently in all media forms ... that make up our contemporary mass media culture."

"What we have learned through media education and research is that what's important is the process of making sense of it -- what's going on the child's head," said Thoman. "What adults see is not necessarily what children see.

You've got to work with the kid and help them figure out what they're seeing first, and then provide an educational, age appropriate approach to help them make better sense of it as they grow older."

Thoman said that, in order to do that, it is not necessary for every parent to watch every single thing their kids watch -- which should come as a relief to Lafferty.

"I do get a little frustrated with people saying it's always the parents' responsibility," said Lafferty.

To be sure, some parents are so busy -- or perhaps lacking in resources -- that they have little choice but to park the little ones in front of the TV set, or maybe send them to daycare facilities where TV and video consumption passes for care giving.

Ultimately, however, if parents are not responsible for the consequences of their children's media consumption -- particularly parents of "Sesame Street"-age children -- then who is?

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