Questions to Ponder:
1.  What do you like to watch on TV?
2.  How many hours a week do you think preschool kids watch TV?  School age kids?  Adolescents?
        (Answers, 30 hours, 26 hours, 27 hours)
3.  What are some ways that television influences children?  Positive?  Negative?

The Statistics
1.  The average child is likely to have watched 8,000 TV murders and more than 100,000 acts
    of violence on TV by the end of sixth grade.

2.  The most violent period of daily TV programming is 6:00 to 9:00 a.m.
    Next most violent time is 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.

3.  Cartoons contain about 25 acts of violence per hour.

4.  The average TV viewing child sees 30,000 commercials each year.

5.  Up to 80% of prime time shows have violent episodes.

6.  At the end of your life you will have spent about 10 years watching television.

Note - Television exists primarily to sell us products.
The first television ad was shown at the end of the 1940s and cost $9.00.
Last year’s Superbowl ads cost $1.5 million for 30 seconds.

    Decades of research from sources such as the Surgeon General, National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence, National Institute of Mental Health, American Medical Association, U. S. Centers for Disease Control, American
Psychological Association, among others, have found links between screen violence and violent behavior.

    We have to keep in mind that children are taking in information all the time.  The child who is exposed to violence is more likely to behave in an aggressive way.  While television alone cannot be said to be the cause of violent behavior, but children who may be exposed to violence in the home, live in an area where violence occurs, watches violence on television and in the movies is a child who is at much greater risk for behaving violently than children who do not experience these things.

    We also have to keep in mind that because children spend so much time watching TV, it is a big influence on their attitudes and beliefs.  Children who watch violent programs have been found to behave and play more aggressively with siblings, friends, classmates.  Children see on television that it is all right to use violence if you are a police officer or super hero or power ranger.  And that it is all right to break moral codes if you are fighting against evildoers.  On television children see that it takes only 30 or 60 minutes to sort through a problem and solve it.

    Advertising that encourages heavily sugared foods has an adverse effect on children’s nutritional beliefs and diets.  Young children do not understand that sugary foods are detrimental to health; they also do not understand disclaimers in ads (i.e., that you should eat this food as part of a balanced breakfast - they don’t know what “balanced breakfast” means).  Young children can’t tell the difference between the program and the commercial.

     Children who watch a lot of television don’t read as much as other children and don’t spend as much time on homework.  Television is partially blamed for lower scores on national achievement tests and the fact that kids don’t do as well in math or reading as they did in years past.  Children who sit in front of the television usually eat while they do this; generally snacks that are high in sugar and are empty calories.  While watching television the child is passive, not getting any exercise of burning off energy.

Note - Before people in the Fiji Islands got TV (fairly recently), the girls had rounded bodies and were happy with their bodies; since TV, Fiji Islanders are seeing many incidences of eating disorders, dissatisfaction with their bodies among its younger women and girls.

Note - There was a documentary on TV in the 1970s about the last town in North America to get television.  Before TV, people spent time out on their porches at night, talking and interacting with the neighbors, lots of community interaction, kids did well in school.  After TV introduced, people stayed in their homes at night, much less interaction with neighbors, more isolation, children’s grades started falling.

The portrayal of families, minorities, and women on TV is sometimes very unrealistic.  There is less dignity shown to minorities; women in music videos are frequently shown as sexual objects or as victims or with the threat of violence menacing them.  We have to realize that children are developing beliefs partly from what they see on TV.

    Research has also shown that viewing SS between 3 and 5 years of age leads to improved vocabulary.  Children learn the most from segments that give them time to respond, clap, or sing along; from segments that are repeated in a show and throughout the season; and from those skits that the find entertaining.

    Watching programs such as SS, Barney, Mr. Rogers Neighborhood has been shown to increase impulse control and concentration among preschoolers. When children view prosocial behaviors on television, they are likely to repeat those behaviors among their friends, classmates, siblings.

-Susan D. Witt, Ph.D.