I find myself wondering: Aren't some of the stockholders and officers of the corporations that spend billions on advertising parents too? Do they even know what's going on themselves? According to sources at the Jack in the Box shareholders meeting, after Mac Neal testified the room was dead silent. It seems that many of the executives on hand were clueless and mortified to hear where their ad dollars were going.

This, though pathetic, is also encouraging, on one level. And it's one reason why PTC hasn't called for a boycott of the company- - they believe that now that the shareholders know the truth, there is great hope that Jack in the Box to do the right thing. There's hope for other companies too. But that involves you and me "tuning in" to who and what entertainment our hard-earned money is going to support. Moms and dads should not put up with us and our kids being used in this manner - and we need to let the offenders know.

Tom Winter and the other great folks at PTC recently released a study about a different kind of media that also caught my attention. Winter explained that the group did an analysis of YouTube and discovered how easy it is to stumble across crude, "extremely graphic" and "harsh profanity". Among young tween girls, for instance, two of the most popular searches on YouTube are for videos of the beloved "Hannah Montana" and "High School Musical". But, parents beware: often on the same page as Hannah are crude spoofs and unrelated raunchy material. And, if kids search for videos and make even a small typo they often end up viewing highly objectionable videos created by folks determined to promote highly sexualized and crass behavior. The PTC website has information on how you can join the effort to encourage YouTube to adopt higher posting standards that protect our innocent kids. But you have to take responsibility, too. Don't let your kids surf the net alone - and install your own internet filter if you haven't done so. There are many great filters that take just a few seconds and keystrokes to download. (The one I use is from http://www.BSAFE.com.)

Maybe if parents understood the powerful impact that media has on the behavior of our children we would actually get a bit more serious about knowing what is going on and making our voices heard. The PTC website has loads of data that proves how media shapes both attitude and behavior, especially of youth. For instance, a new three-year study by the RAND corporation reveals what we parents have suspected in our guts all along: children with a high level of exposure to television shows with sexual content are "twice as likely to get pregnant or impregnate someone" as those who watch fewer such programs.

Parents Television Council can help equip you to fight back. Just go to www.ParentsTV.org click on "Join Us" or "Take Action". You can also download Tim Winter's "Entertainment Alert" video which provides the latest information and action steps on how you can affect the entertainment media. Membership is free and you can sign up for e-mail alerts to keep you informed, protect your family, and actually change the culture around you.