Too much TV for tots - How much do *your kids* watch ?

[Jolie Rouge]

Too much TV for tots
by Brent Bozell

The more Americans live the fast-paced, overworked life,
the more their young children are over-entertained. It
isn't that parents intend to introduce their children to
the world by having them gaping blank-faced into a TV
screen. But when there's work to be done or just noise
to be muffled, parents can see the benefits of young
children glued to the TV, quiet and still.

At least that's how I would defend myself, if challenged
to explain why my children watch more TV than they should.
In the final analysis, however, this exercise in parental
laxity is not only indefensible, it's now out of control.

The Kaiser Family Foundation has just released a new study
showing just how much electronic media has become a central
focus in the lives of many of our youngest children. It
conducted a telephone survey of more than 1,000 parents in
four large cities with children between six months to six
years old, and what the foundation learned is alarming.

To put it mildly, our dependency on what Kaiser calls
"screen media" is strong, and our resistance to over-
entertaining our children is weak. In a typical day, 83
percent of children under the age of six use "screen
media," averaging about two hours a day. But it's even more
surprising that the parents surveyed report that 61 percent
of babies one year and younger are put in front of a glow-
ing screen for an average of 80 minutes per day.

It gets worse.

Many parents have created homes where the TV is a nearly
constant presence, all around the house. Almost half the
children (43 percent) aged 4 to 6 have a TV in their
bedroom. Even more shocking, there's an idiot box in 19
percent of the rooms with babies one year or younger.

Why do they do this? It's not surprising that the most
common reasons parents give for putting a TV in their
child's bedroom is to free up other TVs in the house so
the parent or other family members can watch their own
favorite shows (55 percent) or to keep the child occupied
so the parent can do things around the house (39 percent).
But in this environment, it's hard to see how parents
really can monitor what exactly their very young children
are watching, and they don't.

One mother surveyed in Denver decided she needed to be
more vigilant after she found her son quoting a movie on
the Sci-Fi channel. You could tell it was a cheesy horror
movie just from the title: "Mansquito." On the other hand,
some allow their tots to join them in front of adult
programming. A mother in California watches "CSI," replete
with some of the most savage violence and grotesque imagery
ever shown over the broadcast airwaves, with her daughter
in the one-to-three age range. "I don't know how harmful
it is to her. It's something gory, but it doesn't seem to
bother her. She hasn't had any nightmares from it," she
claimed.

We live in the age of the TV-drenched child. A third of
children under six in the survey live in homes where the
TV is on all (13 percent) or most (19 percent) of the time.
One mother in Columbus, Ohio said their family had five TV
sets, and "at least three of those are usually on." Turning
on the TV is a way to say "good morning," and 30 percent
of parents surveyed say they put a TV in their child's
bedroom so it's the last thing to talk at their children
as they go to sleep.


Many parents suggest the trend isn't so problematic if the
TV program is healthy or educational. After all, "The
Wiggles" is a lot more friendly to toddlers than "CSI." But
at some point, parents ought to wonder if swallowing six
boxes of granola in one sitting is still healthy eating.

Regardless of what self-interested TV titans tell parents,
there is no V-chip or any other artificial, technological
solution to keep your children's TV intake safe and
reasonable.

The solution is human, not technological. It's parental
engagement.

Several years ago, on one of those televised weekend
chatter-talk shows, host Robert Beckel was leading a
discussion on this very topic and concluded the segment
by challenging his panelists to recommend their favorite
programs for children. One cited a sporting venue, two
others named their preferred entertainment shows. The
final answer came from ever-prescient columnist Mona
Charen, who delivered one of the best one-liners I've
ever heard. "I'd have them read Thucydides in the original
Greek." But I wonder how many children have books in their
bedrooms.

http://blog.gophercentral.com/conservative.html


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We have two TV's - one in the den, one in the livingroom; none in the bedrooms. No cable, the kids mainly watch PBS or vids that I choose.

What is the norm at your house ?

When tutoring for the Kindergarten class at my children's school I found a kid that never saw Seseme Street - but the favorite show was "Jackass". Any surprise that he was almost 7, and could not recognise the letters of his own name ?

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[stresseater]

We have tv's in almost every room and the one in the living room never goes off. My kids have been watching tv most of thier lives and while they did start off on PBS aand do still watch some PBS they also watch CSI and other "adult" shows. Both of my kids are way above the curve in school. They both know more about life as well. They watch the news and know what's going on in the world better than some who frequent the boards I do. They watch everything from horror movies to documentaries. I'm sorry, I don't buy into the whole concept that tv makes them dumb, I also don't buy into the video games makes them violent. That may be because they don't own grand theft auto (or anything like that). From what I can tell all the games have done is improve thier eye hand coordination and give them another alternative when it's raining and they can't go outside.

[Jolie Rouge]

How old are your kids ? My are 4, 8, and 11 - so while it is fine to let a 15 year old watch CSI and play Grand Theft Auto; it would not be appopriate to let my 4 year old do the same.

[stresseater]

The ones that are still at home are 10 and 8. I'm not saying I wouldn't let them play it when they are a bit older. I'm saying that I figured someone would say I don't believe games cause violence because my kids aren't playing these kinds of games yet. I see nothing wrong with the games personally.