KCCI.com
09-21-06
Anti-Drug Spots Run On YouTube
Experts Say Messages Supplement Parents Talking To Children
DES MOINES, Iowa -- Those who have teenagers might have heard about
YouTube.com.
It's a Web site where anyone can post video of almost anything for free.
YouTube has made bands famous and showcased reporters' bloopers, but is it
the right platform in which to fight the war on drugs?
Click here to find out more!
It's a hot spot for teens to visit online, and that's why the federal government
started posting public service announcements about the dangers of drugs.
"The PSAs, incidentally, are extraordinarily well done," said Michael Bugeja,
Iowa State University's journalism school director. The hope is that Web site
visitors will find anti-drug messages rather than videos of teens using drugs.
"If you have an anti-drug message where they are searching, might you not
reach them with an important message at an important time? " said Dale
Woolery, the director of the Iowa Office of Drug Control Policy.
"It is the wrong forum for a substantive discussion on alcohol, drugs, additions
and other social ills," Bugeja said. Bugeja has studied the effect of dealing with
social problems online. He said being cost-effective is not necessarily effective.
"Face-to-face contact is important. It happens to cost a little bit more. But the
investment, particularly in health care, is so worth the effort," Bugeja said.
Iowa's top drug fighters agree that one-on-one conversations with children are
most effective. The YouTube postings, they said, are simply supplements.
"Parents and others important in the lives of our children -- they really trump
everything else when it comes to having the influence over our young people,"
Woolery said.
The online effort is a federal move and not a state one.
The Iowa Office of Drug Control Policy said teens who get a constant message
from their parents that drugs are bad are 50 percent less likely to use drugs.