Television and Children

Healthy Living
Children/Teens

Parental guidance is required

The invasion of cable TV, DVD and Direct to Home (DTH) TV in our family lives, especially in the context of children, has spread more ills than the benefits they can offer.

To safeguard your kids from these ills, parents should take the rating of programmes more seriously and be selective about which channels and programmes their kids can watch and how much. They should try to even discipline the child with regard to the array of programmes shown on television.

Broadly Speaking…

Even though television can be an excellent medium to entertain and educate children, yet it too has a bad side to it. Unless the children are selective with regard to what they should view and are disciplined enough to know when to stop, the whole gamut of television viewing can take the form of a gigantic menace.

It’s the parents who should take the initiative of working out a healthy as well as an educative schedule for the children to follow. However, the first basic step for a parent should be to gain adequate confidence of the child about the intent and purposes of the whole exercise. And as far as possible, the parents should present themselves as role models as far as their own taste and disciplinary acumen is concerned.

What could be the ill effects?

It is believed that a normal child spends, on an average, about four hours a day viewing television. The time duration may vary depending on the environments in which the children grow up.

TV’s bad influences on the children can give rise to any (or all) of the following:

• The more the child gets to watch television, the less time he gets for the other activities such as playing with friends, physical exercise, doing homework, interacting with family members and helping in household chores.

• The main casualty of TV has been the habit of reading. Reading, which warrants much thinking on the part of the reader, can contribute greatly to a healthier brain in children.

• Excessive viewing can lead to apparent negligence in studies and then to poor grades in the school.

• Undue interest in television can give rise to a host of health complications including obesity, sleep disorders and behavioral problems. • Programmes depicting violence, cruelty and callousness can result in increasing indiscipline amongst children. Violence, particularly, can leave a long-term effect on the mind of children making them more aggressive in their adulthood.

• Scenes showing the acts of smoking, drinking and sexual excesses can play havoc with the minds of children. Studies also reveal that addiction to alcohol and nicotine in the adolescent and adult ages could be attributed to the excesses of these vices witnessed on the screen in the childhood days.

• Children feel traumatized after seeing horror movies/serials in the TV. Trauma can have a negative impact on all aspects of mental health in children.

• TV commercials may prompt children to opt for things that may be harmful for them.

• Too much of television for kids aged below three years is likely to slow down development of their brain.

• And a better know evil is the impact of TV viewing on the eyesight of children.

It is not all bad

Though one may go on counting the ill effects of TV, but there are many healthy aspects too:

• TV can be a very great source of entertainment for everyone – children are no exception.

• Educate children tremendously by opening a whole new world before their eyes.

• Sitting at home, the child can take a tour through the entire globe within a matter of hours and get to know about the cultures all around the world.

• TV shows on novel ideas and inventions can make children immensely innovative.

• Coverage on the lives and deeds of the great people can positively influence the children’s attitudes and behaviour.

Striking a Balance

Since you would not like to deprive your children from the benefits of TV, banning it not what we advise. If you follow the following guidelines, you could turn that idiot box into an entertaining educator for your children:

Be selective about what your children can view on TV. Unsubscribe the channels which may not be suitable for your kids and take the message of “viewer discretion advised” seriously.

Involve kids in the process of selection. Educate them about which programmes are good and which are bad for them. Give them reasons for the selection else they will be more curious to watch what they are asked not to. A suitable menu of programmes may be prepared for them.