BY DAVE RICHARDS
dave.richards@timesnews.com [more details]

'Go to your room!"


Once upon a time, that classic parental bark struck fear in kids'hearts. But in an age when teens and preteens' bedrooms have become media play lands, they'd just as soon camp out there 24-7.


Just ask David Schick, a seventh-grader at Westlake Middle School.


He's got a world of fun in his bedroom: Nineteen-inch Panasonic television with cable. DVD, VCR. Sony PlayStation 2. Dell computer with Internet and CD burner. IPod shuffle. Cell phone. Stereo, too, though that's packed up, now that he plays most music via computer.


"I like having all this," said Schick, 14. "Usually, I have a lot of people over, and we all mess around with it. We're always on the computer playing games."


"I thought I'd never let him have all of this," said Michelle Robertson, David's mom, with a rueful laugh. "When cell phones started up, I was like, 'There's no way he's going to have a cell phone. I never had one, and there's no reason for it.' And he's got one, you know what I mean? I think he's spoiled!"


But he's on par with most kids today, according to Vicky Rideout of the Kaiser Family Foundation, which in March released "Generation M: Media in the Lives of 8-18 Year-olds," an in-depth media study.


According to the report, 68 percent of young people have a TV in their room. Another 49 percent sport a video-game system, while 37 percent have cable or satellite TV. Thirty-one percent have their own computer, which is up from 21 percent five years ago.


"In general, most U.S. kids inhabit rooms that seem to be as much media arcade as bedroom," researchers wrote.


"It's really common," said Rideout, the Kaiser Family Foundation vice president who directed the study. "A lot of kids have their own TVs, their own VCRs, their own video-game players and their own computers in their bedroom. It's becoming almost the norm. It's a widespread practice."


McDowell freshman Aubrey Humennyj says she practically lives in her bedroom. She spends most her time there, instant-messaging friends or listening to her stereo. She also has a TV with cable and VCR, and her own phone.


"I come home and go on my computer, so I'm in my room the majority of the time," she said.


Often, she' s multitasking.


"I'll bring my homework over and do it as I'm talking (online) and looking up my e-mail. Usually I'm listening to my music,"she said.


Schick also does several activities at once.


"I'm like playing PS2 and talking to people," he said. "I can't just sit around doing nothing. I have to be doing something. I'm just bored all the time. I don't like going on the phone and talking to people. Talking online is funny. And you can talk to 20 people at a time."


The Kaiser study was quantitative, not qualitative, which means it drew no conclusions about whether it's good or bad that 8- to 18-year-olds -- on average -- are exposed to 8.5 hours of media per day, much of it in the privacy of their own rooms.


"The sheer amount of time that kids are spending with the media is the equivalent of a full-time job," Rideout said. "That means we need to pay attention to the messages they are getting and the impact the media is having on them."


Erie social worker Jeff Natalie worries not only about questionable Internet or cable-TV content that young people might see, but also the sheer time they hole up in their rooms.


"Probably the most easily identifiable problem that families are facing is isolation," said Natalie, who also operates eriekids.com -- an educational program on mental health for kids.


"Of course, that same isolation leads to disintegration of a sense of community," he said.


Natalie is particularly concerned about kids who spend hours in chat rooms or instant messaging.


"It starts off so cute or harmless and develops into a pathological habit for these kids. IMing has almost completely replaced speaking on the phone,"Natalie said. "It's affecting a number of kids in terms of their social isolation. We're going to see a growing segment of society that has no social skills, that has been socialized to believe the way we interact with each other is electronically. I can't tell you how many kids I see who have these social phobias -- social anxiety disorder, school anxieties."


Ann and Greg Badach said they believed long ago that TVs or game systems might interfere with family life. They didn't allow their daughters -- Jessie, 17, and Abby, 16 -- to have them in their rooms.


"When Jessie and Abby came along, it was the time Nintendo and PlayStations were being developed," Ann Badach said. "Their young friends were getting them for Christmas, and I said, 'You'll never have one of those, so don't put it on the list for Santa.' They looked at us curiously, but we were open and honest with them. I knew they would spend more time in their room than in the heart of the family itself, with us and with one another. I never wanted our kids to engage in activities that would isolate them from others, as opposed to encouraging them to interact."


The Badachs' computer is on the first floor, available to everyone. Jessie, a senior at Villa Maria Academy, understands but concedes she's anxious for college.


"From my peers, I know many of them have had TVs or computers in their rooms for years already. Some of them had TVs in grade school and, of course, that made me insanely jealous," Jessie Badach said, "I'm going to college next year. I can't wait to have my own TV and my own computer in my room."


Jeff Linse, a senior at Cathedral Preparatory School, said he balances playtime and work time. He'd like to spend more time online or game playing, but responsibilities keep him busy.


"Half the time I'm either at school or I'm working," Linse said. "I'm not sitting on (the computer) for hours. I just don't have time."


Rules help, too. Humennyj, the McDowell freshman, must be off her computer by 10 p.m. and can spend only three hours on it per day.


Jeremy Kibler, also a McDowell freshman, must complete schoolwork or he hears about it. "If I don't get my homework done, and I'm still IMing people online," Kibler said, "then they'll make me get off."


Mary Beth Pinto, director of academic integrity at Penn State Behrend, also tries to strike a balance. Her daughter Emily, 15, has a computer in her room. But her son Adrian, 13, must wait. He has an iPod, stereo and cell phone in his room. But he can't IM during the week; his mom uninstalls that.


"He can't be doing that during our academic focus week. It gets too distracting," Pinto said. "My son says we're the strictest people he knows, and I'm always looking over his shoulder. He laughs. We call it POS -- parent over shoulder."


What she worries about, Pinto said, are late-night hours they spend on high-tech fun, like iPods.


"They're up so much later in their rooms, listening to music while on the computer," Pinto said. "I see that as an issue. I want them to go to bed, and they're still up."


Schick spends a lot of time online and playing games but also gets good grades and stays active. He plays football at Westlake and lifts weights at a buddy's house.


"I like being active," he said.


His mom said as long as David does well in school, the high-tech fun can stay, though she recently grounded him from having too many kids over.


"I told him before, if his grades are bad, then stuff is coming out of his room," said Robertson, Schick's mom. "And I get his report card, and it's good, so I can't really take anything away."


Robertson and Tim Weyand, her boyfriend, remember when kids had not much more than a bed, dresser and stereo in their rooms. But it's 2005.


"Times have changed,"Robertson said. "I was always in my room. We weren't allowed to talk back or anything."


"There was nothing in there," added Weyand. "Now, you go to a room, and there's a big party there."


"I like my room," Schick said.


DAVE RICHARDS can be reached at 870-1703 or by e-mail.