Why and to what extent should parents control their children's TV watching? There is certainly nothing inherently wrong with TV.
The problem is how much television a child watches and what effect it has on his life.
Television and Children?
Research has shown that as the amount of time spent watching TV goes up, the amount of time devoted not only to homework and study but other important aspects of life such as social development and physical activities decreases.
Television has a tremendous impact on a child, both in terms of how many hours a week he watches TV and of what he sees.
What about the family as a whole?
Is the TV set a central piece of furniture in your home!
Is it flicked on the moment someone enters the empty house?
Is it on during the daytime? Is it part of the background noise of your family life?
Do you demonstrate by your own viewing that television should be watched selectively?
Violence on Television
Experts agree that it's not good for a child to be exposed constantly, several hours a day, day after day. week after week, to television violence.
Research has shown that such exposure has at least four effects:
children may become less sensitive to the pain and suffering of others;
they may become more fearful of the world around them;
they may be more likely to behave in an aggressive manner toward other people;
they may get an unrealistic sense of the amount of true violence that exists in the world.
One interesting theory is that children choose active violent programs because it gives them a feeling of activity with all the sensations of involvement while enjoying the safety and security of total passivity.
They are enjoying a simulation of activity in the hope that it will compensate for the actuality that they are involved in a passive, one-way experience.