The Moral Development of Children in the Conflict between the Media and the Family

Identifying the factors and institutions affecting the moral development of children and adolescents is a necessary step in the proper planning for their education. Today, the family does not operate in an unrivaled environment free of extra-family factors, but the media (especially television) as a family member affects the moral development of children. These two institutions (media and family) in a single environment (home) in an interactive process affect the moral development of children. The subject of the present study is to reveal some of the educational effects of media interaction (with emphasis on television) and the family. For this purpose, we have first reviewed the challenges of the family in educating the new generation, and then we have dealt with two special effects of the interaction of these two institutions, namely the generation gap and the decline of childhood. Finally, as a way to reduce the generation gap and childhood decline, we explore the element of "parental mediation" in children watching television. The result of the research is that "generation gap" and "childhood decline" are more as much as children's media consumption without parental support is more. Among the types of parental mediation, active mediation, more than other types, reduces the generation gap and the decline of childhood. In this study, in order to identify the challenges and problems of families in the field of educating the new generation, we have resorted to the questions posed by the National Center for Answering.