There are some beneficial commercials appearing on American TV these days. The commercials are concerned with families and their problems. I noticed two problems that many American families are suffering from. The first commercial runs something like this: “Do not look for your children far away because they might be very near. The wrong kind of friends may be in your home — in your child’s room on the Internet.” This commercial carries a very important message because it warns parents and those in charge of children to monitor what children are looking at on the Internet. If this is what happens in the American society that is supposedly breaking down, what about our society and how the Internet affects our children?
I noticed from some newspaper interviews with parents whose children had been caught in the terrorist network that they had realized that their children were spending most of their time at home, rarely leaving or meeting other people. Americans discovered this before we did. They noticed that children and young people develop online relationships with people in Internet chatrooms without having to leave the house. Terrorists used this medium to poison young minds. The terrorists work in the shadows to brainwash young minds that embrace anything new and different. The minds are in great danger of being overwhelmed and overcome by unacceptable thoughts.
If American society fears these problems in spite of its openness, what about our society, which is closed and never tried to expand and be open to different thoughts and opinions. The other commercial that caught my attention was one encouraging families — parents and children — to have dinner together at one table since this is seen as a way of strengthening family relations.
These two American TV commercials have made me look closely at our Arab channels because I wanted to see if we were close to advanced societies in admitting our mistakes and trying to solve them instead of hiding our heads in the sand
- Arab News From the Local Press 2 September 2003
