What About our Children’s Viewing Habits? (The Effects of TV)

Did you know that by the time our children are 70 they will have watched 7 to 10 years of television? Not only that, but, in a recent poll taken here were the stats: 65% said TV is worse than it was 10 years ago. 87% said they believe that material on TV contains more sex and violence than 10 years ago. 71% said they think the more explicit portrayal of sex and nudity on TV encourages immorality. 70% said they believe TV violence causes aggressive behavior in those who watch it.

For more than a decade, the American Academy of Pediatrics has been warning parents about television’s effects on children. Even, so, it has been pointed out that most American children spend more hours in front of the TV than performing any activity other than sleeping.

The following are alarming trends in children who watch television:

(1) desensitization to violence
(2) obesity
(3) teen pregnancy
(4) use of alcohol and drugs

According to another report, American teens see an estimated 14,000 sexual references and innuendos per year on TV, yet only 150 of these references deal with sexual responsibility, abstinence or contraception.

With these statistics in mind, it would seem that many parents would want to curtail TV watching. What can a parent do? Here is what one parent did. In 1961, when Newton Minow became head of the Federal Communications Commission, he immediately declared television a “vast wasteland.” He banned TV on school nights in his own home. His daughter, Nell, was 9. Now Nell Minow has two children, 12 and 9, and they are not allowed to watch TV at all. “When we were growing up, TV was not as treacherous as it is today. ‘That Girl’ and her boyfriend, Donald, didn’t sleep together. Samantha didn’t take off her shirt. Today, TV isn’t a vast wasteland. It’s a toxic-waste dump,” Nell says.

WHAT ARE YOUR CHILDREN WATCHING ON TV? How much time are they spending watching TV?