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The television has been long called the “idiot box” by people and experts who believe that children who spend most of their time watching the tube do not get anything educationally nor physically beneficial for themselves. In my opinion, television watching could prove to be either detrimental or beneficial to children. But, that would all depend upon how the parents implement discipline regarding television watching time. Remember that anything in excess is considered harmful. Unfortunately, most parents, nannies, and caregivers consider the telly to be a highly effective method of controlling their wards. The mindless entertainment keeps their charges occupied, allowing them to attend to other chores. What they do not realize is that the children whom they entrust to the moving screen are at an impressionable age wherein they consider everything they see on television to be a part of reality because nobody is there to tell them otherwise.
Parents are usually very concerned about the amount of sexually or violence-oriented television existing on the airwaves. But, they do not try to limit nor screen the viewing habits of their children. We already know that sex and violence are stapled ingredients of most shows these days and that at least 61 percent will contain graphic and heavy violence. Statistics collated by Dr. Michael W. Smith for his article “Is TV So Bad For Kids,” which was published in 2002, gave horrifying statistics for how much violence we consciously expose our children to on a daily basis. He explained that according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, ” a child who watches three to four hours a day of non-educational TV will see about 8,000 small-screen murders by the time he or she completes grade school.” This means that our children waste about 15 hours a day watching television without really understanding nor asking their parents about what they are seeing. Television is a highly educational tool, and most children tend to believe everything they see on it because their logic and sense of reasoning do not really exist at such young ages.
In the year 2007, Dr. Aric Sigman authored a study that was published in the science journal Biology. He clearly listed at least 15 negative side effects that television viewing has on youngsters that range anywhere from short-sightedness, obesity, short attention spans, premature puberty, and in some severe cases, autism. Dr. Sigman shared that the only way to counter these dire effects is by “judiciously” allowing television watching time and calling the parent’s attention to the fact that they have been abdicating their parental responsibility of raising their child and will result in the worst kind of hands-off parenting. More disconcerting to me is the fact that an average six years old will have watched the equivalent of one year of unsupervised television and that unregulated viewing habits can cause the suppression of the melatonin hormone in the body, an important chemical that is necessary for the performance of the immune system and sleeps cycle.
Too much television watching also has severe negative effects on the psyche of a child. The violence he is exposed to causes inexplicable hostility, fear, anxiety, depression, nightmares, and post-traumatic stress disorders. How many times have we read about the horrifying school massacres that are enacted by seemingly nice kids who were being bullied in school? How many of them have decided that the best way to end the abuse was to do what they saw on television? Yes, loss of life is also a direct and horrific end result of too much television viewing. I believe that this is because there comes a time when children to are abused and bullied either at home or at school tend to tune out by watching television. This becomes their safe place, their best friend, and to a certain extent, their adviser about life as well. This goes on and on until such a time that they think to themselves that anything they see being done on television must be the right thing to do. Now, more than ever, it has become more important to regulate the television exposure of our children. There is enough sex and violence in the world, and the last thing we need is to have those vivid images influence the young minds who were born into this world as a blank slate, ready and willing to be written upon by the parents and other influential people. It saddens me that most of the information that gets listed on that slate is the wrong kind, the detrimental sort of information that will lead our children down the wrong road.
In the end, we all realize that television viewing is highly harmful to our children. But why do most parents choose to turn a blind eye to it? Then, later on, they cry out that they do not know why their children turned out a certain negative way? Television has existed for almost a hundred years now, and it will only continue to become a larger influence on the lives of future generations. The responsibility of limiting the negative effects of television watching will always rest on the shoulders of the parents. Therefore parents must make the extra effort to know the media their children watch and educate them regarding responsible television viewing.
Work Cited
Sigman, Aric. M.D. (2007). Children’s TV diet is more harmful than thought. news.com.au. 2008. Web.
Simmons, Dan. (2006). All work, no play harmful: TV passive, stunts imagination, early education experts say. LaCrosse Tribune.com. 2008. Web.
Smith, Michael W., M.D. ( 2002). Is TV really so bad for Kids?Foxnews.com. 2008. Web.
Strasburg, Victor, M.D. (2001). Study says children watch too much TV: What’s a parent to do?. wnbc.com. 2008. Web.
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