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Oregon Washington Sheriffs Conference March 17, 2004 Policing has changed dramatically in the last 50 years. When I was born in 1950, there was no such thing as community policing, yet law enforcement officers were often a caring part of the community. My wife is a huge fan of the painter Norman Rockwell. One of our favorites is the police officer sitting at the soda fountain with a little boy who has run away. Officers helping kids is nothing new, but today the programs to help kids are threatened, cut back or gone. That threatens those that will have to live in our communities in the 21st century. Helping kids is a passion of mine, the major theme of my office is, “helping kids to grow up healthy in safe communities with opportunity.” I would like to share some thoughts on them and some of the efforts to steal their hearts and minds, bodies and souls. If these heartless selfish people succeed, the kids will become society’s problem, and will become your problem. When I was born in 1950, there were no cell phones. Parts of America were just beginning to receive self-dial telephones. A home was $8,450, a car $1,500 - $1,800, a loaf of bread .14, a gallon of milk .84 and gallon of gas .18. Of course, minimum wage was only .75 per hour and the yearly average income was a whopping $3,216. A police officers pay was…Clearly, many things have changed in the world and for young people. Major difference between my day and today for kids. It is difficult to say exactly what it was like in 1950. We know cigarettes were not considered bad; the army included them with our GI’s C-rations. Like cigarettes, alcohol was shown in movies as the social norm at home, office and certainly over lunch; which was the genesis for the three-martini lunch. Drug use among young people was much less, but we know when that changed. It was Timothy Leary, “drugs are good for you, it will open your mind” era of 60’s. Where we find a big difference is in the concerns students, teachers, and administrators had in schools: cheating on tests, spit wads, and chewing gum were high on 50’s list. Today kids are concerned with violence, guns, drugs, AIDS, sexually transmitted diseases, teen pregnancy, teen suicide, and bullying. I am going to share some thoughts with you today about how our kids are influenced and not for the good. This is not the world of the fifties and that is good in a number of ways, but the changes and new technology have created significant challenges in many other ways. Television was the first real medium that found kids could be a target for marketers in the 50’s and it was first discovered with the Howdy Doody doll. It took radio 38 years after introduction to attract 50 million listeners. Television took 13 years, it only took the Internet 4 years to attract 50 million users. This amazing technology brought new, exciting opportunities for communication and research; it also created new challenges for our kids. Now they still spend more time on the telephone, video games and, believe it or not, reading, than they do on the internet, but it is substantial at 46 minutes online each day. In 46 minutes, a lot can go on. You need to know what they are doing on line with the barrage of unsolicited garbage and mass advertising. Most parents do not realize that 70% to 90% of teens online say they have been exposed to pornography sites accidentally. We all know we are barraged with unsolicited marketing. Here are possible reasons why you get much more than you should if sharing a computer with your kids. When kids visit a web site 39% of 13 to 17 year old kids, say they have given information on themselves and parents. They are often asked about their habits and interests, as well as those of their parents. Including allowance, names of their parent’s favorite stores, and how their parents spend their weekends. Many of the issues that we are concerned about with young people are caused or contributed to by drugs and alcohol. Although alcohol is the primary drug of choice for teens, since the mid 90’s more kids entered treatment facilities for the so-called non addictive drug marijuana than for alcohol. Nationally, 60% of teens in drug treatment have a primary marijuana diagnosis. The well-funded legalization movement tries to convince the world marijuana is harmless and non-addictive. Tell that to our kids in treatment. For years, kids have had a big target on them. A Vice President of a huge company was once quoted as saying, “This young adult market, the 14-24 age group represents tomorrow’s business. As this 14-24 age group matures, they will account for a key share of the total volume for at least the next 25years.” He was talking about cigarettes. (C.A. Tucker, VP of marketing at RJ Reynolds Tobacco in 1974.) They followed up with cartoon characters like Joe Camel, teen smoking of Camel cigarettes went from 3% to 30% in just 18 months.
A new study found that tobacco use is more prevalent in teen-targeted PG-13 movies than in R-rated movies. A comprehensive study by Dartmouth Medical School found smoking in movies promoted smoking among kids. Do not believe for a minute the tobacco industry takes seriously the commitment to not market to kids. •Just as creative and dishonest as prior to tobacco settlement and finding news ways to reach our kids •Tobacco industry name for our kids. The
replacement pool Replace 435,000 customers they kill in America. There is substantial reason for you as sheriffs to care about the issue of bullying. By the age 24, 60% of identified childhood bullies convicted of a crime. Drugs and alcohol are found to be common amongst those bullies. My office teams with SFY to present lively, multi-media programs for kids in elementary and middle schools on bullying. (Oregon?) WA has number of resources keep track of behavioral trends of our young people. It helps direct resources, limited as they are. We know for instance alcohol is the #1 drug of choice for Washington’s youth. (Oregon) Young people will always believe that adults are just preaching to them when we tell them not to drink. However, there are incredibly important reasons to do everything we can to keep kids from drinking at least until legal age. On the average young people, begin drinking at 13, which is the average, some start younger. Ironically, sixth graders who drink, get half the alcohol at home with parents’ knowledge. Again, why should you care as law enforcement leaders? Alcohol is a factor in four leading causes of death ages 10 to 24: motor vehicle crashes, unintentional injuries, homicide and suicide. According to National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism those begin drinking by age 15 are four times as likely to become alcohol dependent than those who wait until age 21. Our kids are hammered with alcohol advertising even though the industry has regulations to direct them not to. The problem is they self enforced guidelines which they do not self enforce. Their guidelines are not protecting them at all. Twenty-five alcohol brands placed all of their magazine advertising in youth-oriented publications. The alcohol industry guidelines state that members will not advertise on programs where young people are the majority, or over 50%, of the viewing audience. The problem with this guideline is that it leaves 99% of television programs open to alcohol advertisements. Therefore, the industry’s voluntary guidelines prohibit alcohol ads on only about 1% of all network and cable programs. Youth saw more Television commercials for beer than for jeans, chewing gum, fruit juice, skin care products, cookies, crackers, or potato chips. In 2001 alcohol ads appeared on 13 out of the 15 television shows with the largest teen audiences. The story with radio ads for alcohol is much the same. Youth ages 12-20, heard more radio alcohol ads than people over age 21 in 2001 and 2002. That is because most radio alcohol ads were placed on stations with “youth” formats with music including hip-hop, rap, dance, house, alternative, and punk. Youth were 170 times more likely to see an ad promoting alcohol than an industry ad discouraging drunk driving. In addition, 93 times more likely to see an ad promoting alcohol than an industry ad discouraging underage drinking. Interestingly, adults were twice as likely to see the industry’s ads telling kids to wait until they are 21 to drink. All of these folks, the tobacco, alcohol and drug pushers know that if our kids do not start using their products before get through their teens they likely never will. Therefore, they have to get them early or they will not get them at all. It is clear that the alcohol industry, the tobacco companies and the drug pushers are all after the hearts, minds, bodies and souls of our kids. They use all of the means available from television to the Internet, rock concerts to movies to reach them. The point of all this is? With all of these enormous pressures and incredible efforts to hurt our kids, who is going to help them if we don’t? If we don’t, the likelihood that they will become your problem goes way up! The Center for Alcohol Marketing and Youth makes the point, “It won’t be experts in some far away place who will keep alcohol out of the hands of kids, it will be the person sitting in your chair”. I agree and I would add that it goes for drugs, tobacco and for parent bullying as well. One fact has not changed since 1950; the key to the success of a child is for someone to be actively and meaningfully involved in their lives. Keep them involved in something positive, sports, music, woodworking, and writing, helping with a non-profit organization in a nursing home or church. The children successful in face of diversity were analyzed to determine what common denominators could explain their success. They are as follows: care and support; someone like you or a mentor, high expectations; set the bar up their and help them meet it, and the opportunity to contribute meaningfully. Once again, get them involved in something positive. This research is referred to as resiliency. Helping kids to resist negative behavior and stand up against the incredible pressure and millions of dollars spent to steal their hearts and minds, bodies and souls is not something that is going to happen through osmosis. It will only happen when parents and grandparents, teachers and administrators, businesses and community leaders like you, recognize it is a mutual responsibility, to work together to challenge those who care more about money than people’s lives. We will never have as much money as the tobacco and alcohol companies and drug advocates have, but right can and will always win over the money if we give it a chance. Kids want to do right; they want to be given a chance. The effort and time that you invest today on behalf of kids is an investment in, not just their future, but yours and society’s as well. Thank you very much for allowing me to share my thoughts with you. I know that you have an incredibly difficult job to do. I can assure you that there are many who are grateful for what you do for all of us. Thank you.
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