Screenblock™
rations your children's screen time.

 

Research data

Pediatrics - Volume 104, Number 2 - August 1999, pp 341-343 Media Education (RE9911) - AMERICAN ACADEMY OF PEDIATRICS
Currently, the average American child or adolescent spends >21 hours per week viewing television.⁶ This figure does not include time spent watching movies, listening to music or watching music videos, playing video or computer games, or surfing the Internet for recreational purposes
6. 1998 Report on Television. New York, NY: Nielsen Media Research; 1998
In fact, the average young viewer is exposed to >14 000 sexual references each year^7,1
7. Strasburger VC. Adolescents and the Media. Medical and Psychological Impact. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage; 1995
10. Strasburger VC. "Sex, drugs, rock 'n roll" and the media: are the media responsible for adolescent behavior? Adolescent Medicine: State of the Art Reviews. 1997;8:403-414
Increased television use is documented to be a significant factor leading to obesity¹⁴ and may lead to decreased school achievement as well.¹⁵
15. Morgan M. Television and school performance. Adolescent Medicine: State of the Art Reviews. 1993;4:607-622
http://www.aap.org/policy/re9911.html

BMJ 2001;322:313-314 ( 10 February ) Editorials ‘The obesity epidemic in young children’ - Reduce television viewing and promote playing Papers p 326
Bundred and colleagues report that among 3 to 4 year old English children there was a 60% increase in the prevalence of being overweight (having a body mass index >85th centile) and a 70% increase in the prevalence of obesity (body mass index >95th centile) between 1989 and 1998.⁴
4. Bundred P, Kitchiner D, Buchan I. Prevalence of overweight and obese children between 1989 and 1998: population based series of cross sectional studies. BMJ 2001; 322: 326-328
More than 60% of overweight children have at least one additional risk factor for cardiovascular disease, such as raised blood pressure, hyperlipidaemia, or hyperinsulinaemia, and more than 20% have two or more risk factors.⁶
6. Freedman DS, Dietz WH, Srinivasan SR, Berenson GS. The relation of overweight to cardiovascular risk factors among children and adolescents: the Bogalusa heart study. Pediatrics 1999; 103: 1175-1182
Most cases of type 2 diabetes in children and adolescents are attributable to obesity.⁷
7. Fagot-Campagna A, Pettit DJ, Engelgau MM, Rios Burrows N, Geiss LS, Valdez R, et al. Type 2 diabetes among North American children and adolescents: an epidemiologic review and a public health perspective. J Pediatr 2000; 136: 664-672
Although television viewing seems to cause obesity in children in the United States it is not clear how many of these other factors promote obesity in young children.¹⁰
10. Dietz WH, Gortmaker SL. Do we fatten our children at the TV set? Obesity and television viewing in children and adolescents. Pediatrics 1985; 75: 807-812
Television advertising of food directed at young children may help explain why reduced television viewing reduces rates of weight gain.¹⁶
16. Robinson TN. Reducing childrens' televison viewing to prevent obesity: a randomized trial. JAMA 1999; 282: 1561-1567
Reducing the amount of time that children are allowed to watch television is one strategy that offers children opportunities for activity

‘Children’s TV stuffed with junk food adverts’ – Sean Poulter (Consumer affairs correspondent) – Daily Mail, July 9, 2001
More than 90 per cent of food products advertised during breaks in cartoons and quizzes contain alarming levels of fat, salt and sugar.
More than 11 per cent of British children are overweight, a figure which is rising sharply, while 53 per cent have tooth decay.

BMJ 1995;311:1568-1569 (9 December)  - Letters - Authors' reply
Data from the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys quoted in a recent report on obesity show that overweight (body mass index 25-30) increased from 33% to 42% in men and from 24% to 29% in women between 1980 and 1991-2.¹ The total number of overweight and obese people combined (that is, those with a body mass index of >25) rose from 39% to 54% in men and from 32% to 45% in women
1. Department of Health. Obesity: reversing the increasing problem of obesity in England. London: DoH, 1995

Physical activity levels in Oxford school children – CJK Henry, JD Webster-Gandy, M Elia
They concluded that (based on heart rate monitoring) the children studied had ‘surprisingly low levels of activity’
Physical activity levels in British children have concerned many researchers and health professionals, especially as PE lessons, and in particular competitive sports, are becoming a smaller part of the school day. Significantly, television, computer games and sedentary hobbies are becoming increasingly popular pastimes
Dietz & Gortmaker, 1985: Do we fatten our children at the television set? Obesity and television viewing in children and adolescents
Report requested by Clinton after CDC found youth obesity had reached epidemic proportions in Us. Doubling in percentage out of young people since 1980

BMJ 2001;322:193 ( 27 January ) ‘Spare the television and improve the child’ - Scott Gottlieb New York
Kill your television
"Do you know we are ruled by T.V."
-- from the poem An American Prayer by Jim Morrison
"By the start of the year 1993, 98% of U.S. households own at least one TV set, 64% have two or more sets."
-- Advertising Age
"I thank the Congress for reducing the chances that the hours spent in church or synagogue or in discussion around the dinner table about right and wrong and what can and cannot happen in the world will not be undone by unthinking hours in front of a television set."
-- President Bill Clinton upon signing the Telecommunications Act of 1996 on the V-chip, designed to help parents block out violence on television.
"Children cannot learn to read by watching television. Television is just background noise and a distraction."
-- First Lady Laura Bush during the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia, July, 2000    

The Impact of Television & Video Entertainment on Student Achievement in Reading and Writing. By Ron Kaufman
A study released in November, 1999 revealed that most children between 2 and 18 years old are exposed to an average of 6 1/2 hours of daily media exposure, of which television is the most dominant. The study, sponsored by the Kaiser Family Foundation, shows that 88 percent of all U.S. households have two or more television sets; 60 percent have three or more sets; and 53 percent of all children have a TV set in their room. The report states that about 7 out of 10 households with children under 18 own a computer and 45 percent of those have Internet access

The report found that "youngsters who scored at the 'less contented' end of the index reported more media exposure than those who scored at the more contented end"
Do children come home from school and do their homework, or just play video games with their friends all night? How much time do most children today spend being creative by themselves?
‘American youth spend more time with media than with any single activity other than sleeping’   How Television Images Affect Children by Ron Kaufman
Fifty-seven percent of television programs contain "psychologically harmful" violence, according to a study funded by the cable television industry. The study, released February 7, 1996, tracked 2,500 hours of television programming. This was the largest sample ever analyzed by researchers.
Television programs have the power to influence a child's entire daily schedule
A widely quoted figure is that, on average, a child watches between four and five hours of television each weekday, and ten hours on Saturday and Sunday. In a July, 1996 speech, President Bill Clinton noted that, "a typical child watches 25,000 hours of television before his or her 18th birthday. Preschoolers watch 28 hours of television a week."
25,000 hours = 3.8hrs a day since born!
28hours = 4hrs a day

The typical child sits in front of the television about four hours a day
In either case, the child spends more time with TV than he or she spends talking to parents, playing with peers, attending school, or reading books. TV time usurps family time, play time, and the reading time that could promote language development
With funding from the National Cable Television Association, a group of researchers at the University of California at Santa Barbara reported in February, 1996 that 57 percent of TV programs contained violence
The researchers warned that "the risks of viewing the most common depiction of televised violence include learning to behave violently, becoming more desensitized to the harmful consequences of violence and becoming more fearful of being attacked
Viewing large amounts of TV violence does not necessary cause a child to act more violently, but it can contribute to promoting a view that violence is commonplace in everyday life as well as creating a heightened fear of being assaulted on the street
The UCLA report also concluded that television shows:

• Perpetrators of violent acts go unpunished 73 percent of the time.
• About 25 percent of violent acts involve handguns.
• Forty-seven percent of violent situations present no harm to the victims and 58 percent depict no pain.
• Only 4 percent of violent programs show non violent alternatives to solve programs.
• Premium movie channels such as Time Warner's HBO and Viacom's Showtime had the highest proportion (85 percent) of violent programming. The broadcast networks had a much lower percentage of violence (44 percent).

Awareness that excessive TV viewing is not benign and can have serious effects on a child's behavior and attitude is important. Obviously, turning off the set is the best solution
FCC Chairman Newton Minow called television a "vast wasteland." Thirty years later, he spoke of the medium again: "In 1961 I worried that my children would not benefit much from television, but in 1991 I worry that my grandchildren will actually be harmed by it
"Television offers neither rest nor stimulation," Mander says. "Television inhibits your ability to think, but it does not lead to freedom of mind, relaxation or renewal. It leads to a more exhausted mind. You may have time out from prior obsessive thought patterns, but that's as far as television goes.
"The mind is never empty, the mind is filled. What's worse, it is filled with someone else's obsessive thoughts and images … Why do you think they call it programming?
http://www.turnoffyourtv.com/

SouthCoast Today – 8/8/99 by Danielle Duclos
Cartoons aren't necessarily "safe" programming either. Some, such as "Tom and Jerry," contain gratuitous violence. The characters fall off cliffs and blow up their enemies with dynamite, yet emerge from these catastrophes unscathed.
"Parents don't understand that developmentally, kids can't figure out what's real and not real
Pediatricians say that although parents should regulate what youngsters watch, the TV has become an electronic baby sitter in some homes, replacing human contact.
"The kids who watch more TV are less social in the office and tend to have a few more behavioral problems," Dr. Chesney said. "I can tell the kids who've had more parental interaction."
http://www.s-t.com/daily/08-99/08-08-99/a01lo006.htm  

'Monkey see, monkey do' debate targets sex, violence - By Julia Keller - Dispatch Television Critic
The average prime-time show, Levine charges, has five violent acts per hour; cartoons have an average of 25 per hour.
By early adolescence, she says, children have viewed more than 8,000 killings and 100,000 other violent acts on television
In a study released last month to the Ohio Department of Mental Health, Professors Mark I. Singer and David B. Miller of Case Western Reserve University reported that children in grades three through eight who watch significantly more television than their peers display the highest propensity toward psychological trauma
The Kaiser Family Foundation, a California advocacy group, analyzed prime-time programs from the 1996-97 season and found that three of four programs had sexual content and 30 percent made sex a primary focus.
http://www.dispatch.com/news/special/tvkids/monside3.html    

Huston, et al., Big world, small screen, page 100
"Heavy-television viewers (four hours a day or more) expend less effort on school work, have poorer reading skills, play less well with friends, and have fewer hobbies and activities than light viewers.
http://www.sccs.swarthmore.edu/users/97/jahall/thesis/rships/ebabysit.html

Children, Adolescents, and Television (RE0043) - AMERICAN ACADEMY OF PEDIATRICS
According to recent Nielsen Media Research data, the average child or adolescent watches an average of nearly 3 hours of television per day.² This figure does not include time spent watching videotapes or playing video games³ (a 1999 study found
that children spend an average of 6 hours 32 minutes per day with various media combined).⁴ By the time the average person reaches age 70, he or she will have spent the equivalent of 7 to 10 years watching television.⁵ One recent study found that 32% of 2- to 7-year-olds and 65% of 8- to 18-year-olds have television sets in their bedrooms.⁴ Time spent with various media may displace other more active and meaningful pursuits, such as reading, exercising, or playing with friends
1.American Academy of Pediatrics, Task Force on Children and Television. Children, adolescents and television. News and Comment. December 1984;35:8
2.1998 Report on Television. New York, NY. Nielsen Media Research; 1998
3. Mares ML. Children's use of VCRs. Ann Am Acad Pol Soc Science. 1998;557:120-131
4. Roberts DF, Foehr UG, Rideout VJ, Brodie M. Kids and Media at the New Millennium: A Comprehensive National Analysis of Children's Media Use. Menlo Park, CA: The Henry J Kaiser Family Foundation Report; 1999
5. Strasburger VC. Children, adolescents, and the media: five crucial issues. Adolesc Med. 1993;4:479-493
Children and adolescents are particularly vulnerable to the messages conveyed through television, which influence their perceptions and behaviors.⁶ Many younger children cannot discriminate between what they see and what is real
6. Gerbner G, Gross L, Morgan M, Signorielli N. Growing up with television: the cultivation perspective. In: Bryant J, Zillmann D, eds. Media Effects: Advances in Theory and Research. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum; 1994:17-41
As much as 10% to 20% of real-life violence may be attributable to media violence.²² The recently completed 3-year National Television Violence Study found the following: 1) nearly two thirds of all programming contains violence; 2) children's shows contain the most violence; 3) portrayals of violence are usually glamorized; and 4) perpetrators often go unpunished.²³
22. Comstock GC, Strasburger VC. Media violence: Q & A. Adolesc Med. 1993;4:495-509
23. Federman J, ed. National Television Violence Study. Vol 3. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage; 1998
A longitudinal study found a positive correlation between television and music video viewing and alcohol consumption among teens.²⁹
29. Robinson TN, Chen HL, Killen JD. Television and music video exposure and risk of adolescent alcohol use. Pediatrics [serial online]. 1998;102:e54. Available at: http://www.pediatrics.org/cgi/content/full/102/5/e54. Accessed May 2, 2000 http://www.aap.org/policy/re0043.html

A Parent’s guide – use TV to your child’s advantage - Dorothy G. Singer, Ed.D, Jerome L. Singer, Ph. D., Diana M. Zuckerman, Ph.D.
Research on children and television cited in the book:
-Children who watch a lot of television spend less time in conversation with parents and other family members.
-Children who watch a lot of television have difficulties developing imagination and a playful attitude.
-Children who are heavy television viewers are often more aggressive and have difficulties with day-to-day behaviors in kindergarten
The average number of hours spent viewing television varies from about 3 hours a day for preschoolers to 5 hours a day for elementary-school-aged children. In addition, for a large segment of the school-aged population, more time is spent in front of the screen than in school
Studies conducted by the Yale Family Television Research and Consultation Center have found that:
-Children who watched more fantasy-violent programs were described by their teachers as less cooperative, less successful in their relationships, less happy, and less imaginative, regardless of their IQ scores.
-Children who watched more cartoons were rated by their teachers as unenthusiastic about learning.
-Heavy television viewers were found to be more restless and showed more behavior problems in school.
-Children who watched less TV tended to have more interest and participate in more activities where they can learn to get along with other children, as well as family members.
http://npin.org/library/1998/n00049/n00049.html

The Journal of Psychology, July 1997 v131 n4 p411(5) - Children's attitudes toward violence on television. - Kirstin J. Hough; Philip G. Erwin. Full Text: COPYRIGHT 1997 Helen Dwight Reid Educational Foundation
On British television, for example, an estimated average of one violent scene occurs every 16 min (Barlow & Hill, 1985).
Children who spend more time watching television, especially violent programs, are also more likely to show later aggression, restlessness, and a belief in a "scary world" (Singer, Singer, & Rapacynski,1984).
Somewhat less encouraging are reports that parental control over children's viewing has decreased over the past several decades and that those children who are less subject to parental control (and more able to avoid it) may be the ones who need it most (Barlow & Hill, 1985).
http://www.sou.edu/library/instruct/core/article4.htm

The Message of Television - Written by Deb Linder -1998 Spring Term, EdTec 653, San Diego State University
The average American child spends between twenty-five and thirty hours of a week watching television, playing Nintendo, or using the computer.
Introducing television made young people more aggressive, harmed the acquisition of reading skills, decreased creativity scores, and cut participation in non-TV leisure activities (Redford, 1995).
http://edweb.sdsu.edu/Courses/EDTEC653/EDTEC653s98/TVMSG.htm  

Lifestyle patterns in children aged 5-7yrs. By S. Perwaiz, J. Warren, S. Bradshaw, C.J.K. Henry – Local survey in Oxford!
68% of children watched TV in the morning before school and 44% of children watched 1-2hrs TV each weekday evening. Over all the weekend the average television viewing was 10hrs. Overall average daily television was calculated to be 2.5hrs, similar to recently reported figures (Livingstone & Bovill 1999)  

The Oxford Times – 29 June 2001-09-27
The researchers claim obesity could become a national epidemic if nothing is done to curb children’s unhealthy lifestyles.  

What’s on, who’s watching, and what it means – G. Comstock, E Scharrer – 1999
Children and teenagers who watch a great deal of TV perform poorly on standardized achievement tests, and among the reasons are the usurpation of time spent learning to read and the discouragement of book reading.  

Film violence and young offenders – A Pennell, K Browne – 1999
Ways in which screen violence can effect behaviour include:
-imitation of violent roles and acts of aggression
-triggering aggressive impulses in predisposed individuals
-desensitizing feelings of sympathy towards victims
-creating an indifference to the use of violence
-creating a frame of mind that sees violent acts as a socially acceptable response to stress and frustration  

Diet Watch article
Fat children are likely to become fat adults, which increases their risk of gallstones, arthritis, diabetes, breathing difficulties and hernias, not to mention the potentially fatal trio of strokes, heart diseases and cancer.
Dr. Derrick Cutting has suggestions for getting children to substitute one of their four hours of television viewing each day – on average – into one of exercise. Global Realisation The cost of America’s obesity epidemic extends far beyond emotional pain and low self-esteem. Obesity is now second only to smoking as a cause of mortality in the United States. The CDC estimates that about 180,000 Americans die every year as a direct result of being overweight. Obesity has been linked to heart disease, colon cancer, stomach cancer, breast cancer, diabetes, arthritis, high blood pressure, infertility and strokes. A 1999 study by American Cancer Society found that overweight people had a much higher rate of premature death. Severely overweight people were four times more likely to die young than people of normal weight. Moderately overweight people were twice as likely to die young – The message is we’re too fat and it’s killing us
The British now eat more fast food than any other nationality in Western Europe. They also have the highest obesity rate  

Profile: The Armchair Sportsman – The Sunday Telegraph, 8^th July 2001
Fatter and less active than any other generation in history, we haul our blubbery hides into once pleasant pubs, where grown men in greasy soccer shirts howl like dogs at television sets.

It may be too early to craft an image of 21^st-century man, but he is likely to have advanced spine curvature and both hands on the remote control.

"Ohm-Pah, Ohm-Pah, Doob-Tah-Dee-Dee.
What do you get from a glut of TV?
A pain in the neck, and an IQ of 3."
-- sung by the elfin helpers of Willie Wonka in the movie Charlie And The Chocolate Factory

Reducing Childrens’s Television Viewing to Prevent Obesity – A randomized controlled trial – by Thomas N. Robinson
…As a result, there is a need for innovative approaches to prevent obesity
There is a widespread speculation that television viewing is one of the most easily modifiable causes of obesity among children. American children spend more time watching television and video tapes and playing video games than doing anything else except sleeping⁶
6. The Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. Television in the Home: The 1997 Survey of Parents and Children. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania; 1997.
Two primary mechanisms by which television viewing contributes to obesity have been suggested: reduced energy expenditure from displacement of physical activity and increased dietary energy intake, either during viewing or as a result of food advertising.
Cross-sectional epidemiological studies have consistently found relatively weak positive associations between television viewing and child and adolescent adiposity.
…previous prevention interventions that have attempted to increase physical activity and decrease dietary fat and energy intake have been relatively ineffective t reducing body fatness ^4,5. In contrast, this intervention targeting only television, videotape, and video game use produced statistically significant and clinically significant relative changes in BMI, triceps skin fold thickness, waist circumference, and waist-to-hip ratio over a period of 7 months. The changes occurred over the entire sample…
4. Resnicow K. School-based obesity prevention: population versus high-risk interventions. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 1993;699:154-166
5. Resincow K, Robinson TN. School-based cardiovascular disease prevention studies: review and synthesis. Ann Epidemiol. 1997;7(suppl 7):S14-S31.
… this study indicates that reducing television, videotape, and video game use may be a promising, population-based approach to help prevent childhood obesity.
Conclusion: Reducing television, videotape, and video game use may be a promising, population-based approach to prevent childhood obesity.  

Results from the 3^rd National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 1988-1994 – Crespo, Smit, Troiano, Bartlett, Macera, Andersen
The prevalence of overweight continues to increase in the US adult population.^1-3 In the 12 years between the Second National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey the prevalence of overweight in US adults increased from 25% to 33%.²
1.(Names) Overweight prevalence and trends for children adolescents: the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys, 1963 to 1991. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 1995;149:1085-1091
2. (Names) Increasing prevalence of overweight among US adults: the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys, 1960 to 1991. JAMA. 1994;272:205-211
3. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. Youth risk behaviour surveillance – United States, 1995. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 1996;45:1-63
Overall, 26% of American children reported watching 4 or more hours of television per day; the rate was lower in girls (23%) than in boys (29%).
Our report shows that television watching was associated with increased skin fold thickness and BMI among US youth.
Strasbourg²⁸ has calculated that the average high school graduate will likely spend 15000 to 18000 hours in front of a television but only 12000 hours in school. Next to sleeping, television watching occupies the greatest amount of leisure time during childhood.²⁷ We found that skin fold thickness increased in both boys and girls as the amount of television watched increased. This finding is consistent with an earlier study that found a significant relationship between television watching and the prevalence of obesity in children. ²⁶
28. Strasbourg VC. Children, adolescents, andtelevision. Pediatr Rev. 1992;13:144-151
27. Dietz WH, Strasbourg VC. Children, adolescents, and television. Curr Probl Pediatr. 1991;1:8-31
26. Dietz WH, Gortmaker SL. Do we fatten our children at the television set? Paediatrics. 1985;75:807-812
Overweight children are more likely to become overweight adults than their leaner counterparts.^32-34
32. (Names) Do obese children become obese adults? Prev Med. 1993;22:167-177
33. (Names) The predictive value of childhood body mass index values for overweight at age 35. Am J Clin Nutr. 1994;59:810-819
34. (Names) Predicting obesity in young adulthood from childhood and parental obesity. N Engl J Med. 1997;337:869-873
Furthermore, the risks of obesity in adulthood appear to be greater in persons who were overweight during childhood and adolescents.^{35. 36}
35. (Names) Relationship of childhood weight status to morbidity in adults. Public Health Rep. 1971;86:273-284
36. (Names) A 40-year history of overweight children in Stockholm: lifetime overweight, morbidity, and mortality. Int J Obesity 1994;18:585-590
…children who watched the most television had more body fat and greater BMIs than those who watched less than two hours per day. This underscores the work of Epstein and colleagues, ³⁷ who reported that decreasing sedentary behaviours is a key ingredient to the successful treatment of childhood obesity. Moreover, repeated exposure to television commercials for food may prompt children to increase food consumption, which ultimately leads to weight gain. ³⁸
37. (Names) Effects of decreasing sedentary behaviours on activity choice in obese children. Health Psychol. 1997;16:107-113
38. (Names) The development of children’s eating habits: the role of television commercials. Health Educ. 1982;9:78-93
One quarter of all US children watch 4 or more hours of television each day…Hours of television watching is related to both BMI and skin fold thickness.
Results: The prevalence of obesity is lowest among children watching 1 or fewer hours of television a day, and highest among those watching 4 or more hours of television a day.
Television watching was positively associated with obesity among girls, even after controlling for age, race/ethnicity, family income, weekly physical activity, and energy intake.
Conclusion: As the prevalence of overweight increases, the need to reduce sedentary behaviours and to promote a more active lifestyle becomes essential.

Reducing Television Viewing to Prevent Childhood Obesity - Principal Investigator: Thomas Robinson, M.D., MPH, Other Investigators: Joel D. Killen, William L. Haskell, Helena C. Kraemer, Donna Matheson, Leslie A. Pruitt - Funding Agency: National Institutes of Health, Duration: 4/1/99-3/31/02
There is a pressing need for innovative interventions to prevent obesity. There has been widespread speculation that television viewing might be one of the most easily modifiable causes of obesity among children

Excess Television Viewing Linked to Obesity in Children – Lisa Hark,
The prevalence of obesity among children and adolescents continues to rise, similar to the increase seen in adults, where 33% of the population is obese. At present more than 11 million children and teenagers are overweight,
In the most comprehensive study of its kind (3^rd National Health and… ) … consistent with previous findings, television viewing was overall very high among children: 67% watched at least 2 hours per day, and 26% watched 4 or more hours of television per day.
www.heartinfo.org/nutrition/tvkids4698.htm

Watching too much TV can increase your risk of heart disease – Lisa Hark
Did you know that one third of US households have three or more TV sets? This makes the number of TV sets close to the population of people! Average TV viewing time for adults is over four hours a day and over three hours a day for children.

TELEVISION AND SOCIETY: - Viewing Ourselves in a Box - Shannon Kennedy
Given the average viewing time per-day, per-home is 6 hours, 47 minutes and the statistics and effects of television watching, it is easy to understand how our viewing habits are hindering our health.^1
1 Statistics on Television's Impact. [cited March 31, 1998]. Available from World Wide Web @http://www.essential.org/orgs/tvfa/stats.html (Link down!)
Not only is watching television physically and mentally detrimental, but also time consuming. If you multiply the total hours of television watched annually by $5, time is money in the grand total of 1.25 trillion dollars.^2
2 Ibid.
Television is a drug. Television is addictive. Television is a destroyer of lives
Not unlike drugs or alcohol, the television experience allows the participant to blot out the real world and enter into a pleasurable and passive mental state. The worries and anxieties of reality are as effectively deferred by becoming absorbed in a television program as by going on a 'trip' induced by drugs or alcohol. And just as alcoholics are only vaguely aware of their addiction, feeling that they control their drinking more than they really do ('I can cut it out any time I want-I just like to have three or four drinks before dinner'), people similarly overestimate their control over television watching
99% of the homes in the United States have at least one television set, while 66% homes have three or more sets. There are 2.24 sets in an average household, with 54% of American children having television sets in their bedroom.^7
7 Statistics on Television's Impact. [cited March 31, 1998]. Available from World Wide Web @http://www.essential.org/orgs/tvfa/stats.html
Before the time a child enrols in elementary school, they will have viewed around 8,000 murders, and by the age of eighteen they will have seen 200,00 acts of violence and 40,000 murders.^11
11 Television's Impact on Health. [cited March 31, 1998]. Available from World Wide Web @http://www.essential.org/orgs/tvfa/health.html
Some children have been known to build up an "immunity" to the horror of violence, gradually accepting violence as a way to solve problems, and identify with certain characters, victims and/or victimizers.^12
12 Children and TV Violence. [cited March 31, 1998]. Available from World Wide Web @http://www.cmhcsys.com/factsfam/violence.htm
"The impact of TV violence may be immediately evident in the child's behaviour or may surface years later, and young people can even be affected when the family atmosphere shows no tendency toward violence."^14
14 Children and TV Violence. [cited March 31, 1998]. Available from World Wide Web @http://www.cmhcsys.com/factsfam/violence.htm
Not only are there emotional and psychological side effects of television watching, but there are also many physical side effects as well. Obesity, sleep deprivation, and sensory development are only some, and while each may only have a slight impact, the cumulated effect is life altering.
Television watching not only slows the body's metabolism but also increases the desire to snack and consume foods of all types, mostly ones advertised during the commercials. On average, one-third of American adult are overweight, while there are 4.7 million severely overweight children between the ages of six and seventeen.^16
16 Television's Impact on Health. [cited March 31, 1998]. Available from World Wide Web @http://www.essential.org/orgs/tvfa/health.html
Research has even concluded that while a person is watching television, the body's metabolism is 14.5% lower than while the person is sleeping.^17
17 Hardebeck, Daniel J. Television Facts. [cited March 31, 1998]. Available from World Wide Web @http://othello.localaccess.com/hardebeck/killtv2.htm
Children of all ages are staying up later and later in order to watch television, with children as young as eight staying up until 11:30 p.m. on school nights. How are these late nights affecting the children? The late nights are causing them to fall asleep during class, thus limiting their attention span, and ultimately hindering the child's learning ability
Lack of sleep hinders the immune system's ability to fight unwanted cells, allowing the cells to multiply, divide and disperse into the body.
When a child sits, silently, mesmerized by the television set, they are not exercising their vocal cords, thus affecting their language and speech development. Not only is their speech development hindered, but since a child, or adult for that matter, can not verbally interact with the television set, their communication skills and verbal fluency are not maturing and becoming proficient as they normally should
Staring endlessly into a screen of flashing pictures also decreases the eye's ability to focus resulting in blurred vision. While viewing, the eyes are practically motionless and 'defocused' in order to take in the whole screen. Constant movement is required for healthy eye development. Visual exploration is necessary for developing the senses of depth and perception. Since the sense of sight is maturing through age twelve, excessive television viewing can seriously impair a child's observational skills
Over the past thirty years, the Unites States has endured a declining literacy rate, which for the most part began when television came into popular and wide spread use.^18
18 Green Mountain Waldorf School. "un-TV" guide. [cited March 31, 1998]. Available from World Wide Web @http://netletter.com/GMWS/unTV/research.htm
Television has crept into every facet of our lives and although it feels like there is no way to escape its control and effects, there is still a way
Fight the Addiction and Turn Off the Set
http://www.loyola.edu/dept/philosophy/techne/tvkenedy.htm  

Children's Television Viewing And Obesity And Aggression - Broadcast Monday 4 June 2001 with Norman Swan
“What we found is over just a seven month period of time, so really from the beginning to the end of a single school year in these kids, kids in a school that received the curriculum, reduced their body mass index, which is a measure of body fatness controlling for height or adjusting for height, by about a half of a body mass index unit and for a kid of average height in this class, that averaged out to about 2 pounds (about a kilo)”.
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/8.30/helthrpt/stories/s307657.htm  

Does Television Cause Childhood Obesity? - Thomas N. Robinson, MD, MPH
Extrapolation of current viewing data (Nielsen Media Research, Written Communication, February 1997) reveals that, between the ages of 2 and 17 years, US children spend an average of more than 3 years of their waking lives watching television, not including time spent watching videos, playing video games, or using a computer
Two primary mechanisms have been proposed to link television viewing and body fatness: reduced energy expenditure from displacement of physical activity, and increased dietary energy intake, either during viewing or in response to food advertising
http://jama.ama-assn.org/issues/v279n12/ffull/jed80013.html  

Relationship of physical activity and television watching with body weight and level of fatness among children: results from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey - Andersen RE, Crespo CJ, Bartlett SJ, Cheskin LJ, Pratt M
Overall, 26% of US children watched 4 or more hours of television per day and 67% watched at least 2 hours per day
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/htbin-post/Entrez/query?db=m&form=6&Dopt=r&uid=9544768

Do we fatten our children at the television set? Obesity and television viewing in children and adolescents - Dietz WH Jr, Gortmaker SL
significant associations of the time spent watching television and the prevalence of obesity were observed. In 12- to 17-year-old adolescents, the prevalence of obesity increased by 2% for each additional hour of television viewed
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/htbin-post/Entrez/query?db=m&form=6&Dopt=r&uid=3873060  

Television viewing as a cause of increasing obesity among children in the United States, 1986-1990 - Gortmaker SL, Must A, Sobol AM, Peterson K, Colditz GA, Dietz WH
We observed a strong dose-response relationship between the prevalence of overweight in 1990 and hours of television viewed. The odds of being overweight were 4.6 (95% confidence interval, 2.2 to 9.6) times greater for youth watching more than 5 hours of television per day compared with those watching 0 to 2 hours
The adjusted odds of incidence were 8.3 (95% confidence interval, 2.6 to 26.5) times greater for youth watching more than 5 hours of television per day compared with those watching for 0 to 2 hours. Estimates of attributable risk indicate that more than 60% of overweight incidence in this population can be linked to excess television viewing time
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/htbin-post/Entrez/query?db=m&form=6&Dopt=r&uid=8634729

The development of children's eating habits: the role of television commercials - Jeffrey DB, McLellarn RW, Fox DT
A number of self-report, survey, and correlation studies have found that children watch on the average 28 hours of TV a week, see over 11,000 low-nutrition "junk" food ads a year on TV
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/htbin-post/Entrez/query?db=m&form=6&Dopt=r&uid=7169326  

eFOOD RAP, Volume 11, Number 6, March 16, 2001 - Elaine Lipscomb, William D. Evers, PhD, RD
The researchers stated that their observations were consistent with those of previous observations of older children. Food preferences of preschool children tended to reflect the television commercials they viewed. As a result of their study, the researchers recommended that nutritionists and health educators should advise parents to limit their children's exposure to television commercials.
http://www.cfs.purdue.edu/extension/efr/efr11-06.htm

CNN - Television's effects on kids: It can be harmful, August 20, 1999
The average child in the United States spends about 25 hours a week in front of the television (including the use of VCR), according to the latest annual Media in the Home survey, conducted by the Annenberg Public Policy Center
Children under age 2, they say, should not watch television at all, and older kids should not have televisions in their bedrooms.
Why such seemingly tight limitations? Over the past several decades a number of studies have shown that there are several ways that television can be harmful to the mental and physical health of children. That's not to say that all television is bad for kids. In fact, a number of quality children's shows…engage kids in positive ways. However, when children watch television frequently and indiscriminately, the effects can be detrimental.
More time spent watching these shows is linked with poorer school performance overall and decreased scores on standardized tests. This makes sense when you consider that more time spent in front of a television means less time spent on homework or having stimulating interactions with adults or other children. In addition, late-night TV watching tires kids out so that they can't pay attention in school. Also, television hands kids all the answers, promoting passive learning and short attention spans. As a result, kids have difficulty concentrating and working hard to solve a problem
The Media in the Home survey found that 28 percent of all children's shows contained four-or-more incidents of violence per show
Heavy TV viewing, heavy kids - In fact, this past March the American Medical Association held a special briefing in New York City to alert parents about the well-proven link between TV viewing and obesity
But the effects are reversible: Three studies have demonstrated that overweight children lost weight as they decreased their TV viewing
http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/9908/20/kids.tv.effects/

TV cited as kids' obesity doubles – by LOIS BAKER
If there seem to be a lot more fat kids around than, say, 20 years ago, it is not an illusion, and it should come as no surprise that television-watching appears largely to blame.
A study in the current issue of Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, authored by a UB epidemiologist, found that obesity among children between the ages of 8 and 16 has more than doubled in one generation.
The findings also showed that children who watched the most television were the fattest
…said Carlos Crespo, associate professor of social and preventive medicine and first author of the study. "At the same time, we should have a national health objective of limiting children to two hours or less of television watching a day."

• Nearly half of U.S. children between the ages of 8 and 16 watch more than two hours of television a day.
• The prevalence of obesity increased as hours of TV watching increased.
• The number of calories consumed increased as the number of hours of TV watching increase

http://www.buffalo.edu/reporter/vol32/vol32n24/n3.html  

SATURDAY MORNING CHILDREN'S TELEVISION SHOWS MAY ENCOURAGE POOR EATING HABITS
Children in the United States spend more time watching television than any other single activity except sleeping. By the time they are 70, today's children will have watched television for a full seven years of their lives
It's estimated children view as many as three hours of food commercials a week, says Struempler (Dr. Barbara Struempler, an Extension nutritionist with the Alabama Cooperative Extension System)
http://www.aces.edu/dept/extcomm/newspaper/sattv.html

USA TODAY - Fight childhood obesity: Turn off the TV - By Dr. Jonathan Sackier and John Morgan
Nielsen Media Research indicates that children typically spend nearly four hours a day in front of the set. That's almost two months of non-stop TV per year. Aside from sleeping, they're watching television or playing video games more than any other single activity in their lives. And the more they watch, the fatter they get
Tele-chubbies - In a study recently released in the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers at Stanford University demonstrated a direct link between watching television and body weight
Kids who reduced their television involvement exhibited statistically significant decreases in measures of obesity
Numerous studies show that obesity is linked to life-threatening conditions known as co-morbidities. These include high blood pressure, Type II diabetes, colon cancer and elevated cholesterol levels. While these factors are generally associated with sedentary adult lifestyles, experts are alarmed by the growing incidence of these conditions in children
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta (CDC), obesity will contribute to about 300,000 deaths this year. "It's probably only exceeded by smoking in its contribution to death," says CDC director Dr. Jeffrey Koplan
Instead of lighting up, perhaps they should set fire to their remotes and joysticks
With 55% of Americans overweight and costs associated with obesity skyrocketing, this is a fiscal crisis that America's strained health system an ill-afford. So if you're overweight, there has never been a better time to kill your TV (throw the remote in the trash and take a walk)
http://www.usatoday.com/life/health/doctor/lhdoc069.htm

News Channel5 – Study: Children watch too much television
Researchers found that one-quarter of children under 3 years old and 40% of 2-year olds watch at least three hours of television a day.  

TV Watching, Childhood Obesity Linked - The Journal of the American Medical Association (1998;279(12):938-942, 959-960)
A study by researchers at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, along with experts at the CDC and the National Institutes of Health, concludes that a child's weight increases with the number of hours he or she spends watching television each day
The study also showed that 26% of US children watched 4 or more hours of television per day
The study's authors point out that the average high school graduate will likely spend 15,000 to 18,000 hours in front of a television but only 12,000 hours in school
http://www.mercola.com/1998/mar/30/tv_and_obesity_in_children.htm  

Washington State University - Research Review: Television and Violence, Issue #3 Fall 1994
Research has been conducted for over thirty years on the effects of viewing violent acts on television and its influence on aggressive behaviour
More children have television in their homes in the U.S. than they have indoor plumbing (Dorr, 1986).
The American Pediatric Association (1990) states that at the time a child graduates from high school in the U.S. they will have spent more time watching television than any other single activity, other than sleeping.
According to a study by the American Psychological Association (1992), the average American child watches 8,000 murders and 100,000 other assorted acts of violence before finishing elementary school
Television should be a way to entertain, educate, and teach our kids how to grow, not a way to teach them how to shoot to kill. - Hon. Ernest Hollings U.S. Senator (Democrat, South Carolina)
American Pediatric Association. (1990). Policy statement: Children, adolescents and television. Pediatric, 85, 1119-1120
Dorr, A. (1986). Television and children: A special medium for a special audience. Newbury Park, CA: Sage

Television Violence and Behavior: A Research Summary. ERIC Digest. - THIS DIGEST WAS CREATED BY ERIC, THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER.
A Washington Post article (Oldenburg, 1992), states that "the preponderance of evidence from more than 3,000 research studies over two decades shows that the violence portrayed on television influences the attitudes and behaviour of children who watch it."
Oldenburg, D. (1992, April 7). Primal screen-kids: TV violence and real-life behaviour. WASHINGTON POST, p. E5
"Aggressive behaviour is related to the total amount of television watched, not only to the amount of violent television watched (Eron & Huesmann, 1986; Wright & Huston, 1983)" (p. 65).
Of these, Signorielli (1991) considers the third scenario to be the most insidious: "Research...has revealed that violence on television plays an important role in communicating the social order and in leading to perceptions of the world as a mean and dangerous place. Symbolic victimization on television and real world fear among women and minorities, even if contrary to the facts, are highly related (Morgan, 1983).
http://www.ed.gov/databases/ERIC_Digests/ed366329.html

‘Family and Relationships’ - Children and Television Violence
By observing these youngsters until they were 30 years old, Dr. Eron found that the ones who'd watched a lot of television when they were eight years old were more likely to be arrested and prosecuted for criminal acts as adults
said Dorothy Cantor, PsyD, former president of the American Psychological Association. "We live in an era where both parents are often working and children have more unsupervised time. Parents need help in monitoring the amount of television
http://helping.apa.org/family/kidtvviol.html

Public Affairs - Violence on Television
Children may become less sensitive to the pain and suffering of others
Children may be more fearful of the world around them
Children may be more likely to behave in aggressive or harmful ways toward others.
http://www.apa.org/pubinfo/violence.html

Television Violence: Content, Context, and Consequences. ERIC Digest
According to Eron (1992), "there can no longer be any doubt that heavy exposure to televised violence is one of the causes of aggressive behaviour, crime, and violence in society. The evidence comes from both the laboratory and real-life studies. Television violence affects youngsters of all ages, of both genders, at all socio-economic levels and all levels of intelligence. The effect is not limited to children who are already disposed to being aggressive and is not restricted to this country"
Eron, L. D. (1992). The impact of televised violence. Testimony on behalf of the American Psychological Association before the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, CONGRESSIONAL RECORD, June 18, 1992
http://www.ed.gov/databases/ERIC_Digests/ed414078.html  

Two New Studies on Television Violence and Their Significance for the Kids' TV Debate -The UCLA Television Violence Monitoring Report (September 1995) UCLA Center for Communication Policy, National Violence Study (February,1996) Mediascope, Inc.
Perpetrators go unpunished in 73% of all violent scenes
One out of four violent interactions involve the use of handguns.
Only 4% of violent programs emphasize an anti-violent theme
http://www.cep.org/tvviolence.html  

National Television Violence Study, Year One: 1994-95
This study is the most elaborate and comprehensive assessment ever conducted of the context in which violence appears on TV
The analysis identified three primary types of harmful effects associated with viewing violence:
Learning aggressive attitudes and behaviours
Becoming desensitized to real world violence
Developing a fear of being victimized by violence
Perpetrators go unpunished in 73% of all violent scenes
In all 47% of violent interactions show no harm to victims, and 58% show no pain.
A total of 25% of violent interactions on TV involve handguns.
Only 4% of violent programs emphasize an anti-violence theme
The "industry norm" for violence on TV is 57% of programming, but there are notable differences in how violence is presented across TV channels - Premium cable channels: 85% of programming is violent, with the highest risk of harmful effect
http://www.media-awareness.ca/eng/med/home/resource/ntvs.htm#over

IMPACT OF TELEVISED VIOLENCE - by John P. Murray, Ph.D (Professor and Director, School of Family Studies and Human Services - Kansas State University)
(Nielsen, 1988), the typical American household has the television set on for more than seven hours each day and children age 2 to 11 spend an average of 28 hours per week viewing (Andreasen, 1990; Condry, 1989; Liebert & Sprafkin, 1988
A recent survey by the Center for Media and Public Affairs (Lichter & Amundson, 1992) identified 1,846 violent scenes broadcast and cablecast between 6 a.m. to midnight on one day in Washington, D.C
The weight of evidence from correlational studies is fairly consistent: viewing and/or preference for violent television is related to aggressive attitudes, values and behaviours
In summarizing the extent of the effects, we agree with Comstock (Comstock & Paik, 1991) that there are multiple ways in which television and film violence influence the viewer
most researchers would agree with the conclusion contained in the report by the National Institute of Mental Health (1982), which suggests that there is a consensus developing among members of the research community that "...violence on television does lead to aggressive behavior by children and teenagers who watch the programs. This conclusion is based on laboratory experiments and on field studies.
Although there are differing views on the impact of TV violence, one very strong summary is provided by Eron (1992) in his recent Congressional testimony:
               “There can no longer be any doubt that heavy exposure to televised violence is one of the causes of aggressive behavior, crime and violence in society. The evidence comes from both the laboratory and real-life studies. Television violence affects youngsters of all ages, of both genders, at all socio-economic levels and all levels of intelligence. The effect is not limited to children who are already disposed to being aggressive and is not restricted to this country. The fact that we get this same finding of a relationship between television violence and aggression in children in study after study, in one country after another, cannot be ignored. The causal effect of television violence on aggression, even though it is not very large, exists. It cannot be denied or explained away. We have demonstrated this causal effect outside the laboratory in real-life among many different children. We have come to believe that a vicious cycle exists in which television violence makes children more aggressive and these aggressive children turn to watching more violence to justify their own behavior." (p. 1)
So too, the recent report by the American Psychological Association Task Force on Television and Society (Huston, et al., 1992) adds: "...the behavior patterns established in childhood and adolescence are the foundation for lifelong patterns manifested in adulthood" (p. 57).
Comstock, G. & Paik, H. (1991). Television and the American child. San Diego, CA: Academic Press
Eron, L. (1992). The impact of televised violence. Testimony on behalf of the American Psychological Association before the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, June 18, 1992
National Institute of Mental Health (1982). Television and behavior: Ten years of scientific progress and implications for the eighties (vol. 1), Summary report. Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office
Paik, H. & Comstock, G. (1994). The effects of television violence on antisocial behavior: A meta-analysis. Communication Research, 21 (4), 516-546.
http://www.ksu.edu/humec/impact.htm  

Influence of Television Violence on Children
Some researchers and theorists believe that violence on television is inextricably linked to human aggression while do not believe a conclusive body of evidence exists to justify this view.  In a recent study in the Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media (1995), it was found that good characters, or heroes, commit 40% of violent acts; More than one third of programs feature bad characters who aren’t punished and physical aggression that is condoned; and that more than 70% of aggressors show no remorse for their violence and experience no criticisms or penalty when violence occurs
In sum, according to the social learning theory, television violence has an impact on expressed levels of aggression in children by the following process; children learn to be aggressive by watching actors on television and then model the actors aggressive behaviours. Television violence can make children more accepting of aggressive behaviour, that is, they become desensitised to the effects of violence (possibly through habituation). (Lande, 1993). The theory and research supporting a bidirectional relationship between television violence and aggression is consistent with social learning theories which articulate the reciprocal effects of environmental variables and qualities of the individual. (Mischel, 1979).
Lande, G. R., (1993) The Video Violence Debate. Hospital and Community Psychiatry, 44, 347-351
Mischel, W. (1979). On the interface of cognition and personality: Beyond the person-situation debate. American Psychologist, 34, 740-754.
http://members.internettrash.com/gnomespapers/psy_TelevisionViolenceOnChildren2.htm

How Television Images Affect Children - by Ron Kaufman
Fifty-seven percent of television programs contain "psychologically harmful" violence, according to a study funded by the cable television industry. The study, released February 7, 1996, tracked 2,500 hours of television programming. This was the largest sample ever analyzed by researchers.
When a child is placed in front of the television his focus cannot be diverted and his gaze cannot be broken. That child only has eyes for the video screen. The bright colors, quick movements and sudden flashes capture the child's attention. Only the rare child finds the television completely uninteresting. Even if only cartoons are watched, most children find the images presented on the television set mesmerizing.
Television programs have the power to influence a child's entire daily schedule
A widely quoted figure is that, on average, a child watches between four and five hours of television each weekday, and ten hours on Saturday and Sunday. In a July, 1996 speech, President Bill Clinton noted that, "a typical child watches 25,000 hours of television before his or her 18th birthday. Preschoolers watch 28 hours of television a week."
writes Moody. "The typical child sits in front of the television about four hours a day -- and for children in lower socioeconomic families the amount of time thus spent is even greater. In either case, the child spends more time with TV than he or she spends talking to parents, playing with peers, attending school, or reading books. TV time usurps family time, play time, and the reading time that could promote language development."
"Just like the operating room light, television creates an environment that assaults and overwhelms the child; he can respond to it only by bringing into play his shutdown mechanism, and thus become more passive," states a pediatrician quoted in the Moody book
But if the most recent survey is accurate, the odds are that what children are watching is probably violent. With funding from the National Cable Television Association, a group of researchers at the University of California at Santa Barbara reported in February, 1996 that 57 percent of TV programs contained violence.
The researchers warned that "the risks of viewing the most common depiction of televised violence include learning to behave violently, becoming more desensitized to the harmful consequences of violence and becoming more fearful of being attacked."
This is an important point. Viewing large amounts of TV violence does not necessary cause a child to act more violently, but it can contribute to promoting a view that violence is commonplace in everyday life as well as creating a heightened fear of being assaulted on the street.
The UCLA report also concluded that television shows:

• Perpetrators of violent acts go unpunished 73 percent of the time.
• About 25 percent of violent acts involve handguns.
• Forty-seven percent of violent situations present no harm to the victims and 58 percent depict no pain.
• Only 4 percent of violent programs show non violent alternatives to solve programs.
• Premium movie channels such as Time Warner's HBO and Viacom's Showtime had the highest proportion (85 percent) of violent programming. The broadcast networks had a much lower percentage of violence (44 percent).

With the government finally taking steps to improve children's television, the focus then must turn to parents. Awareness that excessive TV viewing is not benign and can have serious effects on a child's behaviour and attitude is important. Obviously, turning off the set is the best solution
http://www.netreach.net/~kaufman/children.html

Reducing children's television viewing to prevent obesity
It has been speculated that television viewing is one of the most easily modifiable causes of obesity among children. Television viewing may reduce energy expenditure and increase dietary energy intake.
http://www.jr2.ox.ac.uk/bandolier/booth/hliving/ObTV.html  

Why parents say they don’t limit TV - by Christine Della Maggiora, Consultant to LimiTV
if you’ve conditioned your children to watch TV so that they leave you alone, it means they haven’t learned how to play independently
"Academic achievement drops sharply for children who watch more than 10 hours a week of TV, according to the report "Strong Families, Strong Schools," from the U.S. Department of Education, December 1994
American children spend more time watching TV than they do in school, according to Drs. Sege and Dietz in Pediatrics, October 1994.
North Carolina fourth graders watch an average of four hours of TV per day, and 25% of the children watch six hours or more. (1992 Study.)
http://www.limitv.org/why.htm  

The Reflection on the Screen: Television's Image of Children - by Katharine Heintz-Knowles (Assistant Professor of Communications - University of Washington)
By the time a child today graduates from high school, he or she will have spent more time in front of a television set than in a classroom
Unfortunately, experts agree that television can have a negative effect on children, encouraging anti-social behaviour such as dishonesty or violence
Television lags behind, however, in portraying children from minority groups, with fewer than 3% of child characters on commercial television being Hispanic/Latino. The absence of minority characters could leave children from these groups without significant role models, and could lead children of all ethnic groups to form a skewed vision of their community and their place in it
http://www.childrennow.org/media/mc95/content_study.html

May 4, 2001 - TV Networks "Family Hour" Has Least Diverse Prime Time Programming
“Television programming is not accurately depicting the benefits that diversity brings to out culture and society,” said Patti Miller, director of Children Now’s Children & The Media program. “In particular, by both the type and frequency of minority portrayals, prime time television and political life,” she said.
http://www.laprensa-sandiego.org/archieve/may04/family.htm  

Top-selling Video Games ‘Unhealthy’ for Girls, Study Shows Parents cautioned about game content
Of the games that contained female characters:
38% displayed those characters with significant body exposure: 23% exposed breasts or cleavage, 31% exposed thighs, 15% exposed behinds and 31% exposed stomachs or midriffs.
In addition, 38% of female game characters had "large" breasts and 46% had "unusually small" waists.
54% involved those characters "fighting" or "being violent." Overall, 46% of games included violence
In 1999, video and PC games sales in the United States totalled $6.1 billion, according to the Interactive Digital Software Association, an industry group. This year, the estimated percentage of female games console users was 30%. Last year children spent an average of one and a half hours a day using computers or video games, according to research by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
http://www.childrennow.org/newsroom/news-00/pr-12-12-00.htm  

THE INFLUENCE OF TELEVISION ON CHILDREN’S GENDER ROLE SOCIALIZATION: A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE by Susan D. Witt, Ph.D. - The University of Akron
The gender biased and gender stereotyped behaviors and attitudes that developing young people are exposed to on television will have an impact on their perception of male and female roles in our society
Television, however, is perhaps the form of media most influential in shaping ideas of appropriate sex roles (Lauer & Lauer, 1994)
Studies have shown preschoolers spend an average of nearly 30 hours a week watching television; it is suggested children spend more time watching television than they spend on anything else except sleeping (Aulette, 1994; Kaplan, 1991; Anderson, Lorch, Field, Collins & Nathan, 1986).  Nielsen Media Research has found that by the time children are sixteen years old, they have spent more time watching television than going to school (Nielsen Media Research as cited in Basow, 1992).
By the time children graduate from high school, they have witnessed 13,000 violent deaths on television (Gerbner & Gross, 1980). 
If the child frequently is faced with gender biases and gender stereotypes, this knowledge will be incorporated and influence perceptions regarding men and women.  Keeping in mind young children with developing minds watch many hours of television, and recalling television reinforces gender stereotypes, it is not surprising children come away from this television experience with firmly held beliefs
It is also true children who view pro social behaviors on television are likely to  exhibit those types of behaviors themselves.  Young children will imitate and repeat behaviors they see on television.   Because children are influenced by gender stereotyped role models they see on television, they will also exhibit gender biased behaviors and develop gender biased attitudes that they see modelled on television.
the National Institute of Mental Health has determined: In male-female interaction, men are usually more dominant. For men, the emphasis is on strength, performance, and skill; for women, it is on attractiveness and desirability.
(National Institute of Mental Health as cited in Lauer & Lauer, 1994, p. 73).
A study of Saturday morning cartoons found females were pictured less often than males,  were less active than males, played fewer roles than males, played fewer lead roles than males, and worked primarily in the home (Streicher, 1974). 
Those who make decisions regarding children’s programming have determined action and violence should dominate children’s television (Watson as cited in Basow, 1992).
About two-thirds of characters in television programs are male.  From the 1950s through the 1990s, this figure has remained stable (Seidman, 1999; Huston, Donnerstein, Fairchild, Feshbach, Katz, Murray, Rubenstein, Wilcox, & Zuckerman, 1992; Condry, 1989)
Men are twice as likely as women to be shown as competent and able to solve problems (Boyer, 1986). 
Frequently women are portrayed as objects of lust (Seidman, 1999; Basow, 1992).  Women are four times more likely than men to be provocatively dressed (Atkin, Moorman, & Lin, 1991); while men are almost always fully clothed (Tavris & Wade, 1984).
Another aspect of television advertising which is overwhelmingly a masculine province is voiceovers and narration, in which 83-90% of the voices are male (Basow, 1992).
Because children model behavior they see on television, they are likely to perpetuate gender stereotypes they view (Strasburger, 1995; Basow, 1992).
Research indicates that television has a socializing influence on children regarding their attitudes toward gender roles.
Anderson, D. R., Lorch, E. P., Field, D. E., Collins, P., & Nathan, J. G. (1986).     Television viewing at home: Age trends in visual attention and time with TV.   Child Development, 57, 1024-1033.
Atkin, D. J., Moorman, J., & Lin, C. A. (1991).  Ready for prime time: Network series   devoted to working women in the 1980s.  Sex Roles, 25, 677-685.
Aulette, J. R. (1994).  Changing families.  Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing    Company
Basow, S. A. (1992).  Gender stereotypes and roles, 3rd ed.  Pacific Grove, CA:   Brooks/ Cole Publishing Company
Boyer, P. J. (1986).  TV turns to the hard boiled male.  New York Times, February 16,  p. H1 and H29
Condry, J. (1989).  The psychology of television.  Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum
Gerbner, G. & Gross, L. (1976).  The scary world of TV’s heavy viewer.  Psychology   Today, April, 41-45
Huston, A. C., Donnerstein, E., Fairchild, H., Feshbach, N. D., Katz, P., Murray, J. P., Rubenstein, E. A., Wilcox, B. L., & Zuckerman, D. (1992).  Big world, small   screen: The role of television in American society.  Lincoln: University of    Nebraska Press.
Kaplan, P. (1991).  A child’s odyssey.  St. Paul: West Publishing Co.
Lauer, R. H. & Lauer, J. C. (1994).  Marriage and family: The quest for intimacy.    Madison, WI: Brown & Benchmark
Seidman, S. A. (1999).  Revisiting sex role stereotyping in MTV videos.  International Journal of Instructional Media, 26, 11-22
Strasburger, V. C. (1995).  Adolescents and the Media.  Newbury Park, CA: Sage
Streicher, H. (1974).  The girls in the cartoons.  Journal of Communication, 24, 125-  129
http://ibelgique.ifrance.com/sociomedia/THE%20INFLUENCE%20OF%20TELEVISION%20ON%20CHILDREN.htm

February 1999 Bulletin - Television’s Effects on Children
More than 30 years of research has shown that excessive TV watching by children can interfere with the development of intelligence, thinking skills and imagination; it can slow down the development of reading and speaking skills; it can cultivate violent or aggressive behavior; and may even contribute to ADD/ADHD
http://www.ncpta.org/Bulletin/FEB99/feb99tveffects.html

Effects of Television on Children – Dale Carnegie & Associates, Inc.
The typical American household has a TV turned on for about 7 hours each day
By the time youngsters graduate from high school, they will have spent 11,000 hours in school, but over 15,000 hours watching TV
20-25 violent acts occur each hour on Saturday morning “children’s programs”
before children complete elementary school, many will see about 20,000 murders and more than 80,000 other assaults Hate on the Internet – by Dr. Karen Mock and Lisa Armony
Unfortunately, the very mechanisms that make the Internet an exciting educational tool also render it a dangerous, albeit efficient means or promoting hatred against racial and religious minorities
Television, video cassettes, video tape recorder/players, video games, and personal computers all form an encompassing electronic representational system whose various forms “interface” to constitute an alternate and absolute world that uniquely incorporates the spectator/user in a spatially decentred, weakly temporalized and quasidisembodied state Number Of Homes 'On-Line' Continue To Rise
Almost four million homes have connected to the Internet in the past twelve months according to Oftel's latest quarterly research published today.
Conducted in May 2001, the survey reveals that 10 million homes now have an Internet connection, a rise from six million in May 2000 and eight and a half million in February 2001. An increasing number of UK homes are also choosing fully un metered products with 24% of households connected to the Internet in this way compared with 18% in February 2001
http://www.mori.com/polls/2001/oftel.shtml

Two-fifths (40%) of UK households now have internet access. This amounts to 10m homes, up from 6m a year ago. Around a third (35%) of households use some kind of un metered access product, such as BT Anytime or AOL
The triceps skin fold thickness (used to estimate fatness) rose, in England, by a tenth in boys and by half as much (5%) in girls. In all, a third of children are overweight and one in 10 is obese
Children spend up to 70 hours a week online
Just fourteen per cent of parents ban the use of the internet as a form of punishment, compared with twenty eight per cent for grounding, eighteen per cent for "no treats", sixteen per cent TV banning, ten per cent withholding pocket money and five per cent chores
http://www.mori.com/digest/2001/pd010803.shtml

Children & Television: Frequently Asked Questions  1. How much TV do most children watch?
Most children watch an average of 3 to 4 hours of TV per day, approximately 28 hours each week.
Watching TV is the #1 after-school activity for 6 to 17 year olds.
Each year most children spend about 1500 hours in front of the TV and 900 hours in the classroom.
By age 70, most people will have spent about 10 years watching TV.
  2. How much TV violence do most children watch?
By the time children complete elementary school, the average child will witness more than 100,000 acts of violence on TV, including 8,000 murders.  These numbers double to 200,000 acts of violence and 16,000 murders by the time they graduate from high school. Prime-time TV contains about 5 violent acts per hour compared to an average of 26 violent acts per hour during Saturday morning children's TV.
 3. What effect does TV violence have on children?
Children who watch a large amount of violent programs tend to favor using aggression to resolve conflicts.
The more violence children watch on TV, the more likely they are to behave in aggressive or harmful ways toward others, become less sensitive to other's pain and suffering, be more fearful of the world around them, and increase their appetite for violence in entertainment and in real life.
 4. How much are children exposed to commercial messages?
The average child sees more than 20,000 commercials each year.  By age 21, the average viewer will have seen 1 million TV commercials.
Children see at least an hour of commercials for every 5 hours of programs they watch on commercial TV.
 5. Why is there a concern about children watching commercials?
Most children younger than 6 do not understand that the purpose of advertising is to sell a product.
Children who watch 4 or more hours of TV a day are more likely to believe advertising claims than children who watch TV less often.
9 out of 10 food ads on Saturday morning TV are for sugary cereals, candy, salty snacks, fatty fast foods and other junk food.
Teens see 100,000 alcohol commercials before they reach drinking age.
Children and teens are also targeted by interactive advertisers in cyberspace to develop "brand loyalty" as early as possible.
  6. Are there any health risks linked to children's TV watching?
According to the American Medical Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Psychological Association and others, viewing TV violence can have lifelong harmful effects on children's health.
Children who watch a lot of TV have a greater risk of obesity, increased alcohol and drug use, and earlier involvement in sexual activity.
  7. What other effects are related to children's TV watching?
Children who watch 4 or more hours of TV per day spend less time on school work, have poorer reading skills, play less well with friends, and have fewer hobbies than children who watch less TV.
http://www.cme.org/children/kids_tv/c_and_t.html

Summary of Research on the Effects of Television Viewing
U.S. surveys indicate that 7-17 year olds average between 25-30 hours per week, while pre-schoolers may be viewing up to 60 hrs/wk. In 1971 average viewing time for pre-school children was 34 hrs/wk
Surveys further indicate that by the time children graduate from high school, they will have spent more hours in TV viewing than in school. Assuming an average of 3 hrs/day, children view 20,000 commercials a year. By age 16, they will have witnessed 200,000 violent acts, including 33,000 murders
By its very nature, TV is an impoverished sensory environment. In a recent study comparing TV viewing with laboratory simulated sensory deprivation, researchers found that 96 hours of laboratory induced sensory deprivation produced the same effects on the person as only a few minutes of TV viewing. Normal sensory experience is vital to maintaining a balanced state of mind and body.
While viewing, the eyes are practically motionless and `defocused' in order to take in the whole screen. Constant movement is required for healthy eye development
The two-dimensional screen does not facilitate such development The sense of sight is maturing through age 12. Excessive TV viewing, one of the most passive visual activities, can seriously impair a child's observational skills. Viewing affects not only eye mechanics, but also the ability to focus and pay attention
Since TV is more visual than auditory, children's sense of hearing is not being fully exercised. Active listening is a skill that needs to be developed
Also, when TV is constantly on, the sense of hearing may be dulled by the persistent background noise.
The subtle rhythms and patterns of life's wonders which can only be appreciated through patient observation and experience will hold little interest for a child given a steady diet of TV. The fast paced, action-packed, high drama which is programmed to keep viewers tuned in does not accurately represent the natural world, yet it is what children come to expect. Real experiences, therefore, can't compete with TV and the child's sense of wonder is dulled
Because of the activities it displaces, TV viewing certainly impacts motor coordination, balance, and general level of fitness
Elevated cholesterol and obesity are two of the most prevalent nutritional diseases among U.S. children today. TV viewing has been found to be associated with both of these conditions
Many studies indicate that children are staying up late to watch TV. One reported that children as young as eight were still watching TV at 11:30pm on school nights. Teachers comment that children are too tired and irritable to work well after late night viewing. Sleep is a physical necessity, required to build up the growing organism. It is also a psychological necessity, the prerequisite for dreaming. Yet dreams after TV viewing may be disturbed, with vivid TV images resurfacing and causing nightmares
Numerous child development and educational experts express great concern with television's numbing effect on children's brains. Many reports suggest that our children's minds are not developing the way they should, and this is attributed in large measure to excessive TV viewing
In the early years, when the brain is so malleable and sensitive, TV viewing prolongs the dominance of right brain functions which induce a trance-like state. When viewed for more than 20 hours per week, TV can seriously inhibit the development of verbal-logical, left brain functions. The patterning that the brain needs for language development is hindered by viewing during this language sensitive period of infancy, and it may be more difficult to acquire speech later on. Studies document that general word knowledge and vocabulary are not effected either positively or negatively by TV, but that creative verbal fluency is lower for children who watch TV more because it does not offer time for interactive play and conversation
There are more videotape stores than book stores in the U.S. today. A great many studies have documented declining literacy rates over the last thirty years. TV viewing is an easier and preferred activity compared to the challenge of book reading, especially for children who have not yet developed fluent reading skills
Television trains short attention spans, while reading trains long attention spans. Studies suggest that light viewers learn to read more easily than heavy viewers. Research into brain wave patterns confirm these differences. Studies of both children's and adults' brain wave patterns while viewing TV confirm that brain activity switches from beta (indicating alert and conscious attention) to alpha waves within thirty seconds of turning the set on. Greatly increased alpha waves resulted regardless of whether children were interested in the program or not
Boredom is the empty space necessary for creativity. With TV filling a child's leisure moments, the necessary void is never experienced
With pre-determined themes and ready-made playthings, little is left to the imagination.
Furthermore, when children are bombarded with TV images, their own ability to form imaginative pictures becomes severely impaired. This process of generating internal pictures is critical to the development of dendrites and neural connectors which lay the foundation for intelligence and creativity. Studies which have investigated how TV viewing affects performance in creative problem solving suggest that excessive viewing may lead to decreased attention, persistence, and tolerance
Over thirty years, findings have consistently demonstrated that violence on TV correlates with subsequent aggressive behavior. Recent evidence from an extensive longitudinal study carried out in four different countries suggests there is a sensitive period that begins before age eight when children are especially susceptible to the effects of violence shown on TV
Heavy TV viewers develop a distorted sense of reality. Most notable may be an exaggerated perception of the prevalence of violence in society, which comes from an over-representation of violent acts in programs
Pervasive sex-role and racial stereotyping further perpetuates a distorted view
http://www.sover.net/~gmws/untv/research.htm

Understanding the Impact of Media on Children and Teens
Kids see characters on screen smoking and drinking. Advertising and movies send kids the message that smoking and drinking make a person sexy or cool and that "everyone does it." Advertising also sways teens to smoke and drink. Teens who see a lot of ads for beer, wine, liquor, and cigarettes admit that it influences them to want to drink and smoke. It is not by chance that the three most advertised cigarette brands are also the most popular ones smoked by teens
Children learn their attitudes about violence at a very young age and these attitudes tend to last
From media violence children learn to behave aggressively toward others. They are taught to use violence instead of self-control to take care of problems or conflicts.
http://www.aap.org/family/mediaimpact.htm  

Television and the Family
Family is the most important influence in a child's life, but television is not far behind
Studies show that TV viewing may lead to more aggressive behavior and less physical activity
Children in the United States watch about 4 hours of TV every day. Watching movies on tape and playing video games only adds to time spent in front of the TV screen
Children who watch too much television are are more likely to be overweight. They do not spend as much time running, jumping, and getting the exercise they need
If your child watches 3 to 4 hours of non educational TV per day, he will have seen about 8,000 murders on TV by the time he finishes grade school.
TV programs and commercials often show people who drink and smoke as healthy, energetic, sexy, and successful.
The average child sees more than 20,000 commercials each year. Commercials are quick, fast-paced, and entertaining
Too much television can negatively affect early brain development. This is especially true at younger ages, when learning to talk and play with others is so important
Until more research is done about the effects of TV on very young children, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) does not recommend television for children age 2 or younger.
http://www.aap.org/family/tv1.htm

American Child's Weekly Hours Of Activity
According to the survey the average American child spends a minimal amount of time one-on-one with his/her parents, a ridiculous 0.5 hours with his/her father and 2.5 hours with his/her mother. Time spent with homework is 4 hours, and 0.5 hours on non-school reading. A child spends 4 hours using the Internet, 7 hours playing video games, and a whopping 25 hours watching television (Ostdick)
http://207.62.229.2/classes/english20ls/Previous/sp99/20Projects/children-violence/piegraph.htm

How much television are children watching?
American children spend more time watching TV than any other activity, besides sleeping. In fact, by the time the average American child is six, she will spend more time watching TV than talking to her own father in her lifetime.
By the time children are in school, television watching becomes their primary activity between after school and dinnertime. They watch an average of four hours a day, 28 hours a week, and 2,400 hours a year. By the time they’re in high school they will have spent 18,000 hours watching television compared to spending only 13,000 hours in school.
Aggressions with children by TV consumption? A composition of current contributions in the WWW – Professor Dr. H. Rueppell
The media, in particular the television, exert an extremely negative influence on the society in this relationship. In each week in the television films an immense number by crime, murders, rapes etc. are shown. Often the actual purpose of these films seems to be lining up from force scenes to. The consequences of regular and excessive consumption of such forces representations can for the particular – with children as also with adults – substantial loads cause and strengthen.  

Effects of Computers on Pre-school Aged Children - by Christine Seniuk (cmseniuk@acs.ucalgary.ca)
Other educators are against the use of new technology at this age. They feel the child misses the more interactive and intimate relationship with other children and instead are sitting alone with the computer. Some children may get very attached to the computer, especially if they are having a hard time relating to adults. (Campbell, Fein 46) The computer provides an escape and is harmful if it is used as a tool of escaping at such a young age
http://www.ucalgary.ca/~dabrent/380/webproj/cms.html#campbell

Children and the media - Psychosocial Paediatrics Committee, Canadian Paediatric Society (CPS). Approved by the CPS Board of Directors in 1999
Paediatrics & Child Health 1999; 4(5):350-354
Current literature suggests the following
            There is a relationship between watching television and an increase in the violent behaviour of children (4).
            Television contributes to the increased incidence of childhood obesity (5).
            Television may have a deleterious effect on learning and academic performance (6).
            Irresponsible sexual behaviour may be encouraged by television (7)
If a child today continues to watch television at the same rate over a lifetime, he or she will have spent about seven years watching television by age 70 years
Television viewing frequently limits children’s time to develop vital activities such as playing, reading, learning to talk, spending time with peers and family, storytelling, participating in regular exercise, and developing other necessary physical, mental and social skills
The amount of violence on television is on the rise. The average child sees 12,000 violent acts on television annually, including many depictions of murder and rape. More than 1000 studies confirm that exposure to heavy doses of television violence increases aggressive behaviour, particularly in males (15-17).
Because television takes time away from play and exercise activities, children who watch a lot of television are less physically fit and tend to snack more regularly. Television viewing makes a substantial contribution to obesity because prime time commercials promote unhealthy dietary practices (22).
The number of hours of television viewing also corresponds with an increased relative risk of higher cholesterol levels in children (5).
The average teenager views more than 14,000 sexual references annually (1). Television exposes children to adult sexual behaviours in ways that portray these actions as normal and risk-free, sending the message that because these behaviours are frequent, ‘everybody does it’. Sex between unmarried partners is shown 24 times more often than sex between spouses (23,24),
On an annual basis, teenagers see between 1000 and 2000 beer commercials carrying the message that ‘real’ men drink beer. Convincing data suggest that advertising increases beer consumption (25). In countries such as Sweden, a ban on alcohol advertising has led to a decline in the alcohol consumption rate (26).
A number of studies have documented that children under the age of eight years are developmentally unable to understand the difference between advertising and regular programming (8,28,29). The average child sees more than 20,000 commercials each year (8). More than 60% of commercials promote sugared cereal, candy, fatty foods and toys (8). Cartoon programs based on toy products are especially attractive.
Up to 75% of videos contain sexually explicit materials (30), and more than half contain violence that is often committed against women. Women are portrayed frequently in a condescending manner that affects children’s attitudes about sex roles.
Many of the concerns about the negative effects of television (eg, inactivity, asocial behaviour and violence) also apply to excessive exposure to video games
The amount of time spent watching television and sitting in front of computers can affect a child’s postural development (31). Excessive amounts of time at a computer can contribute to obesity, undeveloped social skills and a form of addictive behaviour
4. Josephson WL. Television violence: A Review of the Effects on Children of Different Ages. Ottawa: National Clearinghouse on Family Violence, 1995.
5. Dietz WH Jr, Gortmaker SL. Do we fatten our children at the television set? Obesity and television viewing in children and adolescents. Pediatrics 1985;75:807-12.
6. Strasburger VC. Does television affect learning and school performance? Pediatrician 1986;38:141-7.
7. Stasburger VC. Adolescent sexuality and the media. Pediatr Clin North Am 1989;36:747-73.
15. Comstock G, Strasburger VC. Deceptive appearances: television violence and aggressive behaviour. J Adolesc Health Care 1990;11:31-44.
16. Green RG. Television and aggression: recent developments in research and theory. In: Zillman D, Bryant J, Huston AC, eds. Media Children and the Family: Social, Scientific, Psychodynamic and Clinical Perspectives. Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1994:151-62.
17. Huston AC, Donnerstein E, Fairchild H, et al. Big World, Small Screen: The Role of Television in American Society. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1992.
22. Ostbye T, Pomerleau J, White M, Coolich M, McWhinney J. Food and nutrition in Canadian "prime time" television commercials. Can J Public Health 1993;84:370-4.
23. Greenberg BS, Stanley C, Siemicki M, et al. Sex Content on Soaps and Prime Time Televisions Series Viewed by Adolescents. Project CAST (Children and Sex on Television), Report no 2. East Lansing: Michigan State University Department of Telecommunication, 1986.
24. Lowry DT, Towes DE. Soap opera portrayals of sex, contraception and sexually transmitted diseases. J Communication 1989;39:76-83.
25. Strasburger VC. Adolescents, drugs and the media. Adolesc Med 1993;4:391-416.
26. Romelsjo A. Decline in alcohol-related problems in Sweden greatest among young people. Br J Addict 1987;82:1111-24.
28. Atkin CK. Television advertising and socialization to consumer roles. In: Pearl D, Bouthilet L, Lazar J, eds. Television and Behavior: Ten Years of Scientific Progress and Implications for the Eighties. Rockville: National Institutes of Health, 1982:191-200.
29. Liebert RM, Sprafkin JN. The Early Window: Effects of Television on Children and Youth, 3rd edn. New York: Pergamon Press, 1988
31. Salter RB. Textbook of Disorders and Injuries of the Musculoskeletal System: An Introduction to Orthopaedics, Fractures and Joint Injuries, Rheumatology. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins, 1983
http://www.cps.ca/english/statements/PP/pp99-01.htm#Television

Washington File: Research on Children, Learning and Computers
The report cautions that if children spend excessive leisure time in front of the computer screen they may risk obesity due to inactivity, repetitive motion injuries, hampered social development, depression and loneliness. "The Future of Children" recommends that parents monitor what children are doing on the computer, and how much time they're spending there
According to the journal, the amount of time children spend on line may come at the expense of other healthy activities, such as outdoor play and social interaction. On average, children spend approximately 34 minutes per day using a computer, but when combined with use of other "screen technologies," such as television and video games, children with access spend an average of five hours a day in front of a screen. Potential risks associated with excessive use include:
-- risk of obesity
-- repetitive strain injuries and harm to vision
-- hampered social development
-- links to greater depression, loneliness
http://www.usis-australia.gov/hyper/2001/0130/epf206.htm

THE RSI NETWORK - People Concerned About Tendinitis, Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, and Other Repetitive Strain Injuries (Issue 42, January 2000) KIDS AND COMPUTERS: EYES AND VISUAL SYSTEMS by Dr. Jeffrey R. Anshel, OD, Corporate Vision Consulting, Encinitas, California
According to the AOA definition, Computer Vision Syndrome (CVS) is "the complex of eye and vision problems related to near work which are experienced during or related to computer use." The symptoms that most often accompany this condition are eyestrain, headaches, blurred distance or near vision, dry or red eyes, neck and/or back ache, double vision, and light sensitivity
The potential impact of computer use on children's vision involves the following factors: Children often have a limited degree of self-awareness. Many children keep performing an enjoyable task with great concentration until near exhaustion (e.g., playing video games for hours with little, if any, breaks). Prolonged activity without a significant break can cause eye focusing (accommodative) problems and eye irritation
Accommodative problems may occur as a result of the eyes' focusing system "locking in" to a particular target and viewing distance. In some cases, this may cause the eyes to be unable to focus smoothly and easily on a particular object, even long after the original work is completed
Eye irritation may occur because of poor tear flow over the eye due to reduced blinking. Blinking is often inhibited by concentration and staring at a computer or video screen. Compounding this, computers usually are located higher in the field of view than traditional paperwork. This results in the upper eyelids being retracted to a greater extent. Therefore, the eye tends to experience more than the normal amount of tear evaporation, resulting in dryness and irritation
Recent international research suggests screen-based work can have short-term but potentially serious effects on eyesight. A survey by Dollond and Aitchison, Europe’s largest optical group, found over 70% of those questioned expressed concerns that prolonged computer work could affect their eyesight. Four out of 10 computer users stated that they had experienced sore eyes from staring at computer screens for too long
http://www.ctdrn.org/rsinet/archive/rsinet42-jan00.html#Classroom

The Impact of Home Computer Use on Children's Activities and Development – by Kaveri Subrahmanyam bio, Robert E. Kraut bio, Patricia M. Greenfield bio, Elisheva F. Gross bio
In 1999, an estimated 67% of households with children had a computer game system such as Sega or Nintendo,¹ 60% had home computers, and 37% had home access to the Internet—more than twice the percentage with access in 1996.²
Parents reported in a 1999 survey that children between ages 2 and 17 with access to home computers and video games spent an average of 4 hours 48 minutes per day in front of a television screen or computer monitor
Another national survey of children ages 2 to 18 found that total reported screen time averaged 4 hours 19 minutes per day, excluding use of the computer for schoolwork. Reported screen time varied greatly by age, however, ranging from 2 to 3 hours per day for ages 2 to 7, to nearly 6 hours per day for ages 8 to 13 (see Figure 1).¹¹ Sedentary pursuits, such as watching television and using the computer, are believed to be an important environmental factor contributing to the fact that 25% of children in the United States are overweight or obese.¹²
evidence does exist that obesity in children is linked to excessive television watching, that is, five or more hours per day.¹³ As children spend increasing amounts of time in front of computer monitors—in addition to time spent in front of a television screen—they are likely to be increasing their risk of obesity.¹⁴
some research suggests that playing computer games may trigger epileptic seizures in certain users.¹⁸ …It appears that the “flicker frequencies,” or quickly flashing images, in some video games can trigger seizures in patients with photosensitive epilepsy
concerns have been raised that children who form “electronic friendships” with computers instead of friendships with their peers might be hindered in developing their interpersonal skills.⁴³ More than one-fifth of all children between ages 8 and 18 report having a computer in their bedroom,¹¹ suggesting that the computer often may be used in solitude, robbing children of time for other social activities and interfering with the development and maintenance of friendships.
It has been suggested that spending a disproportionate amount of time on any one leisure activity at the expense of others will hamper social and educational development. ⁴⁷
those who reported playing arcade video games or programming their home computer for more than an hour per day, on average, tended to believe they had less control over their lives compared with their peers.⁴⁸

Several experimental studies suggest that playing a violent game, even for brief periods, has short-term transfer effects, such as increased aggression in children's free play,⁵⁸ hostility to ambiguous questions,⁵⁹ and aggressive thoughts.⁶⁰
Studies of television have found that continued exposure to violence and aggression desensitizes children to others' suffering,⁶²
Among both teens and adults in the HomeNet project, greater use of the Internet during the first year of access was associated with small but statistically significant declines in social involvement as measured by communication within the family, size of social networks, and feelings of loneliness.⁶⁶
HomeNet results suggest that using the Internet in itself caused the declines in social well-being.⁶⁷
computer games are most likely to lead to negative effects when the content of the games is violent. Online communications may cause loneliness and depression when they involve “weak tie” relationships
increased access to sexual content via the Web may encourage premature sexual activity
Computerized games and the Internet move users into a world where the distinction between real life and simulation may not be clear, especially for children.
one noted researcher, Sherry Turkle, found that some children may have difficulty understanding the boundaries between real and artificial life when engaged in simulation computer games.⁷⁸
The evidence on physical effects links the sedentary nature of computer use to an increased risk of obesity
Stanger, J.D., and Gridina, N. Media in the home 1999: The fourth annual survey of parents and children. Philadelphia: Annenberg Public Policy Center, University of Pennsylvania, 1999.
Turow, J. The Internet and the family: The view from the parents, the view from the press. Philadelphia: Annenberg Public Policy Center, University of Pennsylvania, May 1999.
Roberts, D.F., Foehr, U.G., Rideout, V.J., et al. Kids and media at the new millennium. Menlo Park, CA: Kaiser Family Foundation, November 1999.
Hill, J.O., and Peter, J.C. Environmental contributions to the obesity epidemic. Science (1998) 280:1371–74; see also U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Physical activity and health: A report of health of the surgeon general. Atlanta: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, 1996.
Gortmaker, S.L., Must, A., Sobol, A.M., et al. Television viewing as a cause of increasing obesity among children in the United States, 1986–90. Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine (April 1996) 150:356–62; Dietz, W.H., Jr., and Gortmaker, S.L. Do we fatten our children at the television set? Obesity and television viewing in children and adolescents. Pediatrics (1985) 75:807–12; Andersen, R.E., Crespo, C.J., and Bartlett, S.J. Relationship of physical activity and television watching with body weight and level of fatness among children. Journal of the American Medical Association (1998) 279:938–42.
See note no. 12, Hill and Pete See Glista, G.G., Frank, H.G., and Tracy, W.F. Video games and seizures. Arch Neurology (1983) 40:588; see also Edson, A.S., Harding, G.F.A., Fylan, F., et al. Pattern sensitive mechanisms in computer game seizures. Seizure (1996) 5:160.
Griffiths, M.D. Friendship and social development in children and adolescents: The impact of electronic technology. Educational and Child Psychology (1997) 14:25–37; see also Dworetzky, J. Child development. 6th ed. Saint Paul, MN: West Publishing Company, 1996.
See note no. 43, Griffiths.
Wiggins, J.D. Measured self-esteem and locus of control of students related to video game, home computer, and television viewing involvement: Final report-AACD Foundation Research Project. Alexandria, VA: American Association of Counseling and Human Development Foundation, 1985
Dietz, T.L. An examination of violence and gender role portrayals in video games: Implications for gender socialization and aggressive behavior. Sex Roles (1998) 38:425–42
Graybill, D., Kirsch, J.R., and Esselman, E.D. Effects of playing violent versus non-violent video games on the aggressive ideation of aggressive and non-aggressive children. Child Study Journal (1985) 15:199–205
Rule, B.G., and Ferguson, T.J. The effects of media violence on attitudes, emotions, and cognitions. Journal of Social Issues (1986) 42:29–50; see also Drabman, R.S., and Thomas, M.H. Does media violence increase children's toleration of real-life aggression? Developmental Psychology (1974) 10:418–24
The study included measurements of the number of minutes members of the panel reported talking to other household members, the number of people they reported keeping up with (both locally and nationally), and their levels of daily-life stress, depression, and social support.
Results show that the variables of social involvement and psychological well-being measured before respondents got their Internet connections did not predict how much they subsequently used the Internet. Because initial social involvement and psychological well-being were generally not associated with subsequent use of the Internet, these findings imply that the direction of causation is more likely to run from use of the Internet to declines in social involvement and psychological well-being, rather than the reverse.
Turkle, S. Life on the screen: Identity in the age of the Internet. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1995, pp. 88–95. http://www.futureofchildren.org/information2826/information_show.htm?doc_id=69826  

‘Moneypenny test Computer Clear’ - The Times, 23^rd August 2001, by Zoe Bran
In 1990 the United States Environment Protection Agency stated that "there is evidence of a positive association between exposure to magnetic fields and specific cancers, namely leukaemia, cancer of the central nervous system and, to a lesser extent, lymphomas"  

Understanding TV's effects on the developing brain - by Jane M. Healy, Ph.D. - ARTICLE REPRINT • From the May 1998 AAP News
Neuroscientists have shown that environmental experiences significantly shape the developing brain because of the plasticity of its neuronal connectivity. Thus, repeated exposure to any stimulus in a child's environment may forcibly impact mental and emotional growth, either by setting up particular circuitry ("habits of mind") or by depriving the brain of other experiences
environments that encourage intellectual passivity and maladaptive behavior (e.g., impulsivity, violence), or deprive the brain of important chances to participate actively in social relationships, creative play, reflection and complex problem-solving may have deleterious and irrevocable consequences
An "epidemic" of attention deficit disorder, behavioral problems, faltering academic abilities, language difficulties (which extend to reading comprehension as well as oral expression), and weak problem-solving skills are reported by teachers across the United States. Of course, parents' rushed life-styles and societal changes are partially responsible, but a growing body of research on television viewing clearly supports its causation role
Too much television — particularly at ages critical for language development and manipulative play — can impinge negatively on young minds in several different ways including the following
Higher levels of television viewing correlate with lowered academic performance, especially reading scores. This may be because television substitutes for reading practice, partially because the compellingly visual nature of the stimulus blocks development of left-hemisphere language circuitry
The nature of the stimulus may predispose some children to attention problems. Even aside from violent or overly stimulating sexual content, the fast-paced, attention-grabbing "features" of children's programming were modelled after advertising research
Such experiences deprive the child of practice in using his own brain independently, as in games, hobbies, social interaction, or just "fussing around."
The brain's executive control system, or pre-frontal cortex, is responsible for planning, organizing and sequencing behavior for self-control, moral judgment and attention. These centers develop throughout childhood and adolescence, but some research has suggested that "mindless" television or video games may idle this particular part of the brain and impoverish its development
http://www.aap.org/advocacy/chm98nws.htm

Visual Media and Children's Attention Spans by Gloria DeGaetano, M.Ed.
Dr. Jane Healy states in Endangered Minds:
"A 'good' brain for learning develops strong and widespread neural highways that can quickly and efficiently assign different aspects of a task to the most efficient system...Such efficiency is developed only by active practice in thinking and learning which, in turn, builds increasingly stronger connections. A growing suspicion among brain researchers is that excessive television viewing may affect the development of these kinds of connections. It may also induce habits of using the wrong systems for various types of learning." (Healy, p. 183)
Recent research at the National Institute of Mental Health conducted by Peter Jensen concluded, "Extensive exposure to television and video games may promote development of brain systems that scan and shift attention at the expense of those that focus attention." (Jensen, p. 46)
To many parents and teachers this is not a new revelation. In countless homes, child care centers, and classrooms, we see children with more impulsive behaviors, less willing and able to persevere through challenging mental tasks, hyperactive, reactive, with little or no impulse control. Research confirms that children who watch TV or play video games for more than two hours daily will most likely exhibit one or more of these characteristic
But, in over 90% of American homes, the television is on for 7 hours and 44 minutes each and every day!! A major distraction from the internal landscape! As young children try to focus their budding attention on a mental challenge in the 3-D world, the 2-D world blares and beckons. It's so easy for the youngsters to continually stop what they are doing and look at the screen
In their book, Television and the Quality of Life, Robert Kubey and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi point out:
"A child who is left for hours in front of a television set with nothing else to do, a child who has never been encouraged to independently create information--who does not know how to draw, how to make music, how to pretend, or even how to read--such a child cannot be expected to turn the set off. The child is condemned to develop a viewing habit, the choices determined by the poverty of the environment." (p. 201)
Research demonstrates that the viewing habits of toddlers and preschoolers will likely become their viewing habits as adults. It is imperative to start teaching healthy TV habits early
"The normal course of human brain development naturally leads to a well-developed attention span." Let's make sure we give our children brain-compatible activities on a regular basis, no matter how challenging that is for us. It's sure worth our effort
http://www.growsmartbrains.com/pages1/article1.html    

"The Impact of Television: A Natural Experiment in Three Communities"
edited by Tannis MacBeth Williams - (To do with the Notel survey in British Columbia that introduced the TV into a primitive town)
The researchers thought that TV hindered the acquisition of reading skills simply because it took up so much time. Reading is a difficult skill, after all, and doesn't become pleasurable or useful until you're good at it. If TV distracts you from practising it in that crucial stage, you may never get good reading habits
the introduction of television made kids more aggressive, harmed the acquisition of reading skills, decreased creativity scores, and cut participation in non-TV leisure activities
http://world.std.com/~jlr/comment/tv_impact.htm

Television Facts
"By the time most Americans are 18 years old, they have spent more time in front of the television set than they have spent in school, and far more than they have spent talking with their teachers, their friends or even their parents." Quote from Abandoned in the Wasteland: Children, Television and the First Amendment, by Newton Minnow, former Chairman of the FCC, and Craig LaMay, 1995
"Television provides an escape from reality not unlike that of drugs or alcohol. A person can slip away into the fantasy world offered by television programs and effectively impede the pressures and anxieties of their own lives. This is similar to 'going on a trip' induced by drugs or alcohol." Quote from The Plug-In Drug by Marie Winn, 1985There is a direct correlation between the amount of time a child spends watching TV and their scores on standardized achievement tests - the more TV watched, the lower the scores. Source: 1980 study by the California Department of Education which studied the TV habits and test scores of half a million children "We suspect that television deters the development of imaginative capacity insofar as it pre-empts time for spontaneous play." Quote from a publication distributed by the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry
"Every day, all across the United States, a parade of louts, losers and con-men whom most people would never allow in their homes enter anyway, through television." Quote from Abandoned in the Wasteland: Children, Television and the First Amendment, by Newton Minnow, former Chairman of the FCC, and Craig LaMay, 1995
"Unsupervised television is like letting your children play out on the street at any hour of the day or night with whomever they come across." Quote by University of Massachusetts psychology professor Daniel R. Anderson in his 1988 study of TV's influence on children's education
"The primary danger of the television screen lies not so much in the behavior it produces - although there is danger there- as in the behavior it prevents: the talks, the games, the family festivities and arguments..." Quote from The Plug-In Drug by Marie Winn, 1985 On prime-time TV, men outnumber women at least 3 to 1, while in the real world, there are actually slightly more women in the population. Source: 15-year study by Dr. George Gerbner, Dean of the Annenburg School of Communications at the University of Pennsylvania
On prime-time TV, there are significantly smaller proportions of young people, old people, blacks, Hispanics, and other minorities than in the U.S. population at large. Source: 15-year study by Dr. George Gerbner, Dean of the Annenburg School of Communications at the University of Pennsylvania
Crime is at least 10 times as prevalent on TV as in the real world. Source: 15-year study by Dr. George Gerbner, Dean of the Annenburg School of Communications at the University of Pennsylvania
The typical American child will witness 8,000 murders and 100,000 acts of televised violence in his lifetime. Source: American Psychological Association.
"Preschoolers have difficulty separating the fantastic from the real, especially when it comes to television fare; its vividness makes even the fantastic seem quite real." Quote from "Monitoring TV Time," by Lillian G. Katz, Parents, January 1989
"Much of what they (children) see on TV represents violence as an appropriate way to solve interpersonal problems, to avenge slights and insults, make up for injustice, and get what you want out of life." Quote by University of Michigan psychologist Dr. Leonard Eron, whose landmark 22-year study of TV's effects tracked more than 800 people from age 8 to adulthood.
More than 3,000 studies over the past 30 years offer evidence that violent programming has a measurable effect on young minds. Source: Christian Science Monitor, July 6, 1993
In 1980, the most violent prime-time show on TV registered 22 acts of violence per hour. In 1992 the most violent prime-time show (Young Indiana Jones) registered 60 acts of violence per hour. Source: National Coalition on Television Violence
In 1992, WGN's "Cookie's Cartoon Club," Fox's "Tom and Jerry Kids," and Nickelodeon's "Looney Tunes" averaged 100, 88 and 80 acts of violence per hour, respectively. Source: National Coalition on Television Violence
Half of North America's murders and rapes can be attributed directly or indirectly to television viewing. Source: Seven-year statistical analysis study by Dr. Brandon Centerwall at the University of Washington
After the introduction of television in South Africa in 1974, the murder rate among the white population increased by 56 percent over the next nine years. Source: Seven-year statistical analysis study by Dr. Brandon Centerwall at the University of Washington
Body metabolism (and calorie-burning) is an average of 14.5 percent lower when watching TV than when simply lying in bed. Source: Study by Robert Klesges at Memphis State University
Men who watch television 3 or more hours a day are twice as likely to be obese than men who watch for less than an hour. Source: 1989 study by Larry Tucker at Brigham Young University.
http://othello.localaccess.com/hardebeck/killtv2.htm

FactSheets – Television’s effect on reading and academic achievement
The average child and adolescent spends between 21 and 28 hours per week watching television (Bryant, 1994).
Children spend more time watching television than any other activity except sleeping
These same studies further show that children who watch cartoons or other purely entertainment television shows during their pre-school years, do poorer on pre-reading skills at age 5 (MacBeth, 1996).
Children between the ages of 3 and 5 are at a critical stage in brain development for the development of language and other cognitive skills. The extent to which heavy television viewing can influence the development of brain neural networks, and displaces time the child would spend in other activities and verbal interactions, influences early cognitive development
When television displaces the time a child would otherwise spend on reading practice, that child is delayed in acquiring reading skills (Comstock, 1991).
http://www.mediafamily.org/research/fact/tveffect.shtml

CRETV - Research Articles - Television in the Lives of Children By Cyndy Scheibe
In general, the effects of television on viewers can be divided into two different types: 1) direct effects due to the content of what is seen (in the programs or commercials); and 2) indirect effects due to the activity of watching TV, regardless of what is being watched. This second type of effect is very important, because it usually means that the more time children spend watching TV, the less time they are spending doing other important activities (like reading, talking with others, getting exercise, playing games, being outdoors, etc.). A lot of the negative effects of TV, like lower reading scores, obesity, and poor physical fitness, seem to be due to these indirect effects. Because of that, it's probably important to set some limits on the amount of time your child spends watching TV, regardless of what shows you allow them to watch. Remember, four hours of Sesame Street is still four hours of television.
The psychological research that has been done in this area over the last 20 years has shown three general effects of watching TV violence: 1) children may become less sensitive to the pain and suffering of others, both on television and in real life; 2) children may be more fearful of the world around them; and 3) children may be more likely to behave in aggressive or harmful ways toward others
http://www.ithaca.edu/cretv/research/tv_lives.html

What Do Parents Need To Know About Children's Television Viewing?
Studies on television viewing reveal that the amount of violence on television is increasing. Viewing violent programs can make children afraid, worried, or suspicious and may increase tendencies toward aggressive behaviour
Research has found that the amount of time a child spends on homework is significantly related to how well he or she does in school. Since television viewing can interfere with the completion of homework assignments and reduce the amount of sleep a child gets, excessive viewing could affect your child's grades and alertness in school
http://www.kidsource.com/kidsource/content/TV.viewing.html

Your child’s brain wasn’t built for all that TV
TV Interferes with the development of intelligence, thinking skills and imagination. A crucial element of thinking is extrapolating from what you know and figuring out how it applies in a new situation. School requires this, TV does not
G. Solomon who found that children socialized to learn from TV had lower than normal expectations about the amount of mental effort required to learn from written texts, and tended to read less and perform relatively poorly in school

Watching TV Impedes the growth of longer attention spans
The Wall Street Journal, February 10, 1994 relates the experience of professional story teller Odds Bodkin, who performs before some 10,000 people a year, most of them children. After about seven minutes, he says, restlessness sets in as their inner clocks anticipate a commercial break.
Schools expect kindergarten through second graders to have short attention spans
Watching TV Interferes with the development of reading skills.
Watching TV decreases the time for developing speaking skills.
A child rarely develops proficiency with speech simply by getting older. A child spending four or more hours a day watching TV loses the time needed for conversation, and may well find difficulty becoming articulate and fluent, and be less able to speak and write in complete sentences than the child who, it seems, "just never stops talking."
Certain types of TV cultivate aggressive or violent behavior in children.
http://www.limitv.org/kids.htm    

Chilling Television Statistics
"Academic achievement drops sharply for children who watch more than 10 hours a week of TV, according to the report "Strong Families, Strong Schools," from the U.S. Department of Education, December 1994
American children spend more time watching TV than they do in school, according to Drs. Sege and Dietz in Pediatrics, October 1994.
North Carolina fourth graders watch an average of four hours of TV per day, and 25% of the children watch six hours or more. (1992 Study.)
http://www.limitv.org/stats.htm

Television Violence: A Review of the Effects on Children of Different Ages
This 70 page report was prepared by Wendy L. Josephson, Ph.D. ,for the Department of Canadian Heritage, February 1995.
The viewing patterns children establish as toddlers will influence their viewing habits throughout their lives. Since toddlers have a strong preference for cartoons and other programs that have characters who move fast, there is considerable likelihood that they will be exposed to large amounts of violence
Preschoolers behave more aggressively than usual in their play after watching any high-action exciting television content, but especially after watching violent television.
However, they are especially likely to show increased aggression from watching violent television if they believe the violence reflects real life, if they identify with a violent hero (as boys often do), or if they engage in aggressive fantasies.
However, to the extent that they are desensitizing themselves to fear and violence, they are also very likely becoming more tolerant of violence in the real world.
It is certainly true that television violence does not account for all the causes of children's aggression, and it is also true that some children are a great deal more likely to be affected by television violence than others, and that it is these children who are likely to be potentially more aggressive anyway. But the effect of television violence leads these "at-risk" children to be even more aggressive than they would otherwise be. And although the group especially at risk might be a minority of viewers, they are likely to be the majority of aggressors. This fact makes them, and the violent content of television, worthy of our attention
Psychological research has found that televised violence has numerous effects on the behaviour of children of different ages. These include the imitation of violence and crime seen on television (copycat violence)(1), reduced inhibitions against behaving aggressively(2), the "triggering" of impulsive acts of aggression (priming)(3), and the displacing of activities, such as socializing with other children and interacting with adults, that would teach children non-violent ways to solve conflicts(4). Television violence has also been found to have emotional effects on children. Children may become desensitized to real-life violence(5), they may come to see the world as a mean and scary place(6)
1-for example, Bandura, 1965.
2-for example, Bandura, 1973.
3-for example, Josephson, 1987.
4-for example, Joy, Kimball and Zabrack, 1986.
5-for example, Thomas, Horton and Lippincott, 1977.
6-for example, Singer, Singer and Rapaczynski, 1984
By the time they are three years old, most children have a favourite program(3). They watch an average of two hours of television a day and show significant loyalty to particular types of programs
Preschoolers overwhelmingly prefer and pay close attention to cartoons(33) – a format that is particularly violent. Saturday-morning cartoons, for example, have 20 to 25 violent acts per hour compared with five violent acts per hour in prime time programming.(34)
Based on their viewing patterns, it has been estimated that, by the time they start school, children will have seen an average of 8,000 murders and 100,000 assorted other acts of violence and destruction on television.(35)
Preschool-age children have been found to behave more aggressively than usual in their play after watching high-action television with no violence in it at all.(39) It has been found that high excitement level alone is sufficient to increase their aggression, and that vivid formal features produce such levels of excitement. It has also been demonstrated that violent content produces substantial effects over and above those brought about by excitement alone.(40)
33See, for example, Argenta, Stoneman and Brody, 1986; Caron and Croteau, 1991; Caron, Nardella, et al., 1993; Huston, Wright et al., 1990; Jaglom and Gardner, 1981; Kodaira, 1992.
34Huston, Donnerstein et al., 1992.
35Huston, Donnerstein et al., 1992
39Huston-Stein et al., 1981; Greer et al., 1982.
40Potts, Huston and Wright, 1986; Josephson, 1987.
41See, for example, Feshbach, 1976; Hapkiewicz and Stone, 1974; Huesmann, Eron et al., 1983 It is the amount of mental effort children invest that determines whether they will use their cognitive abilities and critical skills to process television information deeply, or merely react to it in an unfocused, superficial way.(15)
it is more common for children to watch for relaxation, amusement or just to pass the time(18) and hence process the information superficially and uncritically.
it is surprising to find children adopting such one-dimensional heroes, given how much more complex and sophisticated their perceptions and mental processes are supposed to have become by this age. One explanation may be that television provides children with rather narrow and stereotypical characters, so that they have relatively little opportunity to express their increased sophistication if they choose television characters as heroes.(36)
It appears that watching violence on television makes it more likely that children will later create violent fantasies
Eight-year olds who watch a great deal of violent programming have been found to create more aggressive-heroic fantasies when they are ten.(42) Children who do create violent or heroically aggressive fantasies43 and who identify with aggressive heroes(44) are the ones most likely to be affected by violent television.(45)
Since the 1970s, researchers have known that children who watch a great deal of television see the world as a meaner, scarier, and more dangerous place than children who do not watch a lot of television.(54)
15Salomon, 1981, 1983
18See, for example, Rubin, 1977; Atkin, 1985
36French and Pena, 1991. See also Babrow et al., 1988
42Valkenburg et al., 1992-93.
43Huesmann and Eron, 1984.
44Huesmann et al., 1983.
45A similar pattern has been found among Finnish children, especially among boys (Viemero and Paajanen, 1992).
54See, for example, Gerbner, Gross, Eleey et al., 1977, and Singer, Singer and Rapaczynski, 1984, in the United States; McIlwraith and Schallow, 1982, in Canada
But the effect of television violence leads these "at-risk" children to be even more aggressive than they would otherwise be. And although the group especially at risk might be a minority of viewers, they are likely to be the majority of aggressors. This fact makes them, and the violent content of television, worthy of our attention.
The large majority of scholars who have studied this body of research have concluded that television does increase children's aggression and fears
television violence and video-game violence are sufficiently similar that one would expect to find children becoming increasingly aggressive from playing violent video games. In fact, one would expect children to become more aggressive from playing video games than from watching television because in playing video games, children are rewarded for being symbolically aggressive.(3)
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http://www.cfc-efc.ca/docs/00001068.htm

The growing power behind technology – Annabelle Philips, MORI (Jan 2000)
Currently at the staggering rate of 12,000 new internet joiners a day in Britain

Children and the internet – Anne Verrept, Leo Burnett and Denise Gardiner (Jan 2000)According to Youth TGI, 55% of children aged 7-14 live in a home where there are three or more televisions and only 0.1% have none at all … 63% of children 7-14 have a television in their roomWhich medium would you keep?

UK (%) US (%) Magazines 8 4 Internet 18 26 Radio 12 30 Television 59 37 Newspapers 3 2

 

Watching with mother is best for TV children – Alexandra Frean, Social Affairs Correspondent (The Times?)
Professor Charlton said that in Britain, according to recent figures, more than half of children under 16 had a television in their bedroom

Everybody say ‘Uh-oh’ – Ros Coward – The Guardian
Children are spending more and more time watching television; two thirds have a TV in their bedroom.
Parents are particularly anxious because they feel they are losing control over their children’s viewing.
Two thirds of British children now have a TV in their bedroom, which is double the number of European children.
Television provides imaginary and artificial experiences which take the place of children’s direct experience of the natural world, and, even the social world of their own households.

Do not watch this alone – Jennifer Cunningham – The Herald (30/4/01)
A generation of anti-social nerds who lack physical ability but are fascinated by violence and sexual perversions is the most alarming prospect to emerge from recent surveys of young people’s access to electronic media. The majority of children now have a TV set in their bedroom, while one in four also have a video recorder, and one in six their own computer, according to the market research agency ChildWise.
Dr. Moira Bovil of the LSE said the growth of a personal media environment for young people has coincided with a decrease in unstructured play and social activity outside for children

‘Electronic Children’ by Tim Gill - Children watching television, Introduction
On one side, many psychologists assert that there is clear evidence that exposure to violent images from television and video does make some children more violent. Thus in a recent review, Ellen Wartella writes: ‘there is evidence … that heavy viewing of television violence in the early grade school years is associated with criminal behaviour among young adults’. (1995)
According to Wartella ‘current theorizing suggests that portrayals of violence operate to encode, maintain and evoke violent ideas, thoughts and behavioural scripts in heavy viewers which are later acted out in a variety of settings’
‘Video violence and the protection of children’ – Elizabeth Newson
Evidence of professional concern
It now seems that professionals in child health and psychology underestimated the degree of brutality and sustained sadism that film-makers were capable of inventing and willing to portray, let alone the special-effects technologies which would support such images
There must be special concern when children are repeatedly exposed to images of vicious cruelty in the context of entertainment and amusement.
Michael Medved makes the point ‘Not only do these films suggest that brute force is a prerequisite for manliness, that physical intimidation is irresistibly sexy, and that violence offers an effective solution to all human problems; today’s movies also advance the additional appalling idea that the most appropriate response to the suffering of others is sadistic laughter.’ (1992)
The child viewer receives distorted images of emotions that he/she has not yet experienced so must accept – especially dangerous where love, sex and violence are equated The equation between viewing violence and change in attitudes or behaviour
The principal that what is experienced vicariously will have some effect on some people is an established one.
Professors Sims and Gray (Professors of Psychiatry and Paediatrics respectively) were able to point to ‘a vast world literature, more than 1,000 papers, linking heavy exposure to violence with subsequent aggressive behaviour’ in their document presented to the Broadcasting Group of the House of Lords in September 1993
They made two particularly important points … and that ‘watching specific acts of violence on the media has resulted in mimicry by children and adolescents of behaviour that they would otherwise, literally, have found unimaginable.
George Comstock, Professor of Communications at Syracuse University, New York, reviewed 190 research projects over 30 years on the impact of television violence; he found ‘a very solid relationship between viewing anti-social portrayals or violent episodes and behaving anti-socially’ in both boys and girls (Comstock, 1991).
Huesmann and Eron at Illinois published a 20-year follow-up of 400 children, and found that heavy exposure to television violence at age eight (again remembering that violence was by no means as extreme then as now) was associated with violent crime and spouse or child abuse at age 30
..and quoted George Steiner ‘if serious literature and the arts can educate sensibility, exalt our perceptions, refine our moral discriminations, they can, by exactly the same token, deprave, cheapen and make bestial our imaginings and mimetic impulses.’ (quoted in Billington 1994)
advertisers will pay more for a TV advertisement than for a black and white ad in a newspaper.
The correlations between violent images and mimicry of violence are in fact rather stronger and more consistent than those between smoking and cancer.
Dr. Catherin Itzin – ‘Correlation does not prove causality. It never can. Causality is a standard of proof that rarely, if ever, can be achieved, and is barley, if ever, required. However correlation itself is evidence. Correlation demonstrates a relationship between one thing and another; it establishes a connection. Thus, while there is no proof that smoking causes lung cancer (because there are also other variables and factors affecting the health of an individual over a lifetime), the correlation between smoking and lung cancer has been established repeatedly in different research over a long period of time. In  the case of smoking, the correlations have been regarded as sufficient evidence to suggest that it is highly likely that a causal link exists between smoking  and lung cancer. The medical profession has long been convinced by this evidence, and more recently the Government: only the tobacco industry still argues that there is no proof, and it is motivated by profit to maintain this position. (1991)
Parental Regulation
All the parents used homework as a way of limiting viewing, although the number of children with televisions in their own rooms made this more difficult.
Parents are not so worried about children watching unsuitable material, but more so about the amount of social interaction within the family that is greatly reduced.
Conclusion
… there is need for parental education … but the most effective medium would be television itself and I believe that it is time that television companies come forward and invest in supporting families’ already extensive efforts at regulating children’s television viewing.
Is electronics entertainment hindering children’s play and social development? – Elizabeth Stutz
Children are helped in their social development, and in picking up many life skills, through the socialising element and imagination which is contained in play; and how this is endangered by some of the destructive concepts and the ‘hype’ with which children and young people are bombarded by electronic entertainment today.
Yet in short years … these games (hopscotch, marbles, leapfrog etc.) have disappeared, or almost disappeared, from school playgrounds, streets and open spaces. There have been complaints from schools in all parts of this country to the effect that children are bored and no longer know how to occupy themselves and that the play of boys is becoming increasingly violent.
Liberating and wonderful as technology can be, it must remain an instrument, and never become a substitute for real play or real life. The child should experience actual reality, not virtual reality.
Saturation entertainment
Saturation entertainment has taken over children’s playtime and home life, so that they suffer the consequences of being overwhelmed and brutalised by entertainment, and are exposed to concepts totally unsuitable for and inimical to their stage of development. These present a distorted view of the world; children are robbed of the carefree hours in which they could be enjoying the nourishing and creative forces of play.
The electronic industries decide what children will play, read, eat, wear, admire, hate, how they behave to each other, to their parents and authority and who their role models are to be; this contrivance is the sold as the youth culture.
For many people what is being pursued in the video game is not just a score, but an altered state . (Turkle 1984)
Video films
The effect on children of what they saw on screen was enormous. I was struck by the seriousness with which they took their entertainment, the intensity, viciousness and explicitness, which was worse than I had anticipated.
Screening Reponses – control and regulation in the home
‘Good’ parents, it is argued, are those who restrict their children’s viewing, and prevent them from gaining access to material that will disturb or corrupt them.   Pupils 'made disruptive by summer spent alone' - By Nicole Martin (Filed: 03/09/2001)
THOUSANDS of children will return to school tomorrow ready to cause trouble in the classroom after a holiday spent languishing in front of television and computer screens, according to a study published today
Of the 1,000 pupils questioned, around a half said they had spent most of their summer holiday alone surfing the internet or playing computer games.
Only one in eight of the children surveyed said he had spent most of his summer holiday playing at home or outside with friends.
Dr Aric Sigman, a psychologist who analysed the results, said a rise in the number of children with televisions in their bedrooms could be to blame for their solitary lifestyles
A recent study found that more than a third of children under the age of four had their own television set. The figure rose to more than a half for children under 16.
"They are not learning how their behaviour affects real people, only virtual or television characters. This prevents them from developing impulse control and so there's an inevitable clash of cultures when they return to the classroom where they are required to conform and consider other people."

Children viewing 25 hours a week - By Nicole Martin - Friday 21 April 2000
SIX in 10 children spend more than 25 hours a week watching television or playing computer games, according to a survey yesterday. It found that 20 per cent of children aged between seven and 15 preferred their own company, while less than 10 per cent were described by their families as sociable, confident and skilled
Diala Sanbar, the website's co-founder, said that spending excessive time in front of a television screen made a child "numb and less sociable"
Valerie Riches, director of Family and Youth Concern, said the danger was that children became "isolated" from the "family commune". She said: "Communication is vitally important within the family."
She said: "Television and computer games do have a role to play. They provide a source of relaxation for children and can open their eyes to a wider world. But they need to be used in moderation and in balance with other activities, especially outdoor activities."
‘Nintendo’ recruits not fit enough for army training
Geoff Hoon, Defence Secretary, said the “Nintendo generation” was not fit and was having to be encouraged to get into shape before joining up.

Kids.net - Introduction
4.8 million children are now on-line, representing 64% of the population aged 7-16, nearly twice the number in October 1998 (31%)

NOP Research group - Internet Surveys

Internet: Kids more alert to "stranger danger" - Date: 29 July 2001
1 in 10 young users tells us that they have found something on the Internet that upset or embarrassed them  

'Survey shows that five year-olds are 'switched on' to new technology - Date: 9 December '99
Up to four out of ten (40 per cent) five year-old boys and more than three out of ten (34 per cent) five year-old girls have a TV in their bedrooms, according to the findings of an NOP survey published today
In addition, almost two-thirds (65 per cent) of boys aged fourteen have a games console in their bedrooms, compared to only a fifth (21 per cent) of girls  

Over four out of ten British kids now online - Date: 24 June 1999
More than three million children aged under 17 in Britain are now using the Internet, according to the findings of a survey published today by the NOP Research Group. This represents an increase of 12 per cent in just six months
The last six months have also seen a significant increase - from 20 per cent to 33 per cent - of children using the Internet who have found something that has 'upset' or 'embarrassed' them  

LSE - FAMILIES AND THE INTERNET - THE RESEARCH PROJECT
At the same time, pessimists lament the end of childhood, innocence and respect for authority. In particular, many have posited that ICTs will lead to decreasing rates of traditional print literacy among children who use it extensively, will increase social isolation and a tendency toward passivity for heavy user groups, will threaten childhood innocence by providing access to pornographic and/or exploitative conversations and materials, will increase social class and gender inequalities as job requirements increasingly demand a technological fluency to which social groupings have differential access.  

Sonia Livingstone & Moira Bovill - London School of Economics and Political Science
Two in every three have TVs in their bedroom, including half of 6-7 year olds
It finds that young people use the media for around five hours each day and points to the dominance within the UK of 'screen-entertainment culture'. Television occupies about half of this time and is named as the medium which young people 'would miss most'
Those who have access to a PC are twice as likely to use that as a source of information than turn to a book
When parents were asked to choose which change in society they would most like to see, the largest number, 63%, said 'more emphasis on family life'  

The Times – Solitary summer of computer children – by Alexandra Frean
Children are finding it harder to cope with the return to school after the summer because they spend too much time alone during the holidays, a new study claims
Headteachers' say that children’s ability to play and socialise has deteriorated in recent years
Aric Sigman, a psychologist and author who compiled the research said “They are simply not learning to consider others’ needs and not developing the same  depth of empathy”
A quarter of the 1,000 children aged 7 to 12 who completed questionnaires listed “playing computer games alone” as their principal summer activity. A fifth listed watching television alone and 4 per cent listed reading.