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 What if you had an item that is harmful to your children- right in your own home? You would want to know what it was, wouldn’t you? Well, you probably know that television, video games, and computers are not very good for anybody, but they may be more harmful than you expect. Television is a part of the daily lives of people living in this generation. It is very hard to avoid it. In fact, Liebert and Joyce Spraflein, the authors of The Early Window, estimate that in the first 18 years of their lives, the activity that kids spend the most time doing (besides sleeping) is watching TV. In a normal day, seventy percent of child care centers in the US use televisions. During one year, the average child spends 1,023 hours watching TV compared to the 900 hours that they are in school. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) found that kids watch about four hours of TV everyday. But, the AAP believes that children over two should get no more than one to two hours of quality programming a day. As you can tell, the average child is not within that range. Also according to the AAP, children under two shouldn’t watch any television at all. Television may stop them from learning new things that are important to them, such as exploring and discovering new things on their own. It is important for them to physically touch items at this age rather than watch them on a television screen. Infants usually have to use effort to watch a television because their attention spans are much shorter than the average adult or child. At the age of two and a half, research has found that children begin to pay more attention to the TV, and they start to find meaning in the shows or movies. The period where children are about two to three years old is an important part of their life. Their television viewing habits as children sometimes influence how much they view TV for the rest of their lives. If they are allowed to watch a lot of TV during their youth, they tend to watch more TV as adults, and vice versa. That probably doesn’t mean much to you. You might be thinking “why does it matter how much TV kids watch?” Health or mental problems may be caused because of too much exposure to television, so some people believe that watching TV is bad for you. Too much exposure to television can turn to health or mental problems. As the saying goes, “Too much of a good thing is a bad thing”. First of all, television involves little mental thought. When children could be doing something that “exercises their brains”, they decide to watch television instead. In order to solve this problem, parents can restrict the time that children spend watching television. Technology can also be a good thing, though. If children do not use technology too much, it may actually help them learn. However, the programs, websites, TV shows, video games, movies, and music that a child uses greatly affect them, sometimes in harmful ways and sometimes in helpful ways. A very good substitute for some of the things that kids watch or listen to is educational technology. Seventy percent of computer owners that have young children have bought educational software for their kids. According to that data, most parents are trying to use technology to children’s advantage. There are also many channels on the television that can help kids learn things, no matter what age. Young children can watch programs that teach them the alphabet, their numbers, and much more. Older children can watch shows that teach them more advanced things, such as the news or any other educational TV. Instead of doing that, however, most teenagers watch shows that may teach them things, but they are definitely not what a good parent would want them to learn. The same goes for most other technologies. Many CDs that are popular today have inappropriate lyrics in them. That can be a bad influence on children. If they hear someone they idolize using bad language, and talking about violence or drugs, they may think its cool and start to act violent, do drugs, or use bad language. However, contrary to popular beliefs, children over eight years old usually don’t act violent if they see that action on TV and know it’s evil. However, if they see a character that they idolize and think is “good”, they might imitate their violent actions. One aspect of technology that affects children greatly is advertisements shown on the television and computer. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) believes that children are urged to buy violent products from advertisements. Although movies, music, and video games all have rating systems, some children and parents ignore them. The FTC did a year-long study on the advertisement of content rated seventeen years or older. They studied 44 movies, 118 video games, and 55 music recordings. They found that about sixty-six percent of rated R movies, over fifty percent of rated M video games, and twenty-five percent of music recordings with stickers marking inappropriate lyrics were marketed to children. Eighty-five percent of kids that took part in the survey were allowed to buy M-rated movies. (click here for rating info) The companies that do this know that kids are the easiest target. They purposely go after the people who are easier to influence, and believe more of what they hear without questioning. Some teenagers also enjoy doing things that their parents will disapprove of. When they are always exposed to products that their parents disapprove of, they are more likely to consider buying them. I took a poll of a group of seventh and eight grade students at my school. When asked what the highest rated movie they could watch was, only about one and a half percent answered PG. About nineteen percent could only watch PG-13 movies, but an astounding seventy-nine percent could watch Rated R movies. When asked the same question about video games, most students were allowed to play Rated M video games. Twenty-two percent could play Adult Only rated games. Seventy-one percent of students found that violent movies were more appealing than other types of movies. Although the students that were polled had television viewing habits that were mostly within the AAP guidelines on weekdays, most of them were not on weekends. On an average weekend, fifty-eight percent of the students said that they spent four to five hours watching TV. Sixty-eight percent of students said that they get distracted by technology while doing homework. In order to fix problems that can be caused by children viewing inappropriate shows, video games, movies, or songs, parents should regulate how often and what programs their children watch. There are rating systems on products for a reason, yet some parents just simply ignore them. There are some video
games that are good for you, though. Some video games actually
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 Along with many other things, computers can cause health problems. Repetitive stress injuries (also known as repetitive strain injuries) can form if a child or adult uses a computer for too long at one time. Pew Internet and American Life did a Study on American children 12 to 17 and their computer use. They found that over eighty percent use the internet, and more than fifty percent log on daily.
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The bottom line is that problems people get from technology can be avoided. Using technology as little as possible is the easiest solution. However, technology can also help people learn, but exposure to too much technology can be a bad thing. Click here to go to the New Technology page Click here to go to the Food and Nutrition page Click here to go to the Sports and Exercise page Online Encyclopedia Subject: Video games affect kids Title of encyclopedia: Grolier Online Date Retrieved:2-28-08 Online Periodicals Author: Bakalar, Nicholas Date of publication:1-1-08 Title of article: Better That the Couch, But Not Equal to the Court Title of
periodical: Ebsco
Author: Lee, Bonnie Date of publication: Jan/Feb 2008 Title of article: Fun & Games Title of periodical: Ebsco Website URL: http://web.ebscohost.com/src/detail?vid=5&hid=7&sid=740f6f48-3727-4e57-a674-5cd8ca5b41ad%40sessionmgr9 WWW Author: Olsen, Stefanie Name of website: cnet news.com Page or article title: Is Tech Injuring Children? Date of posting or revision: 5-19-06 Company name: CNET Networks, Inc. Date visited: 2-28-08 Website URL: http://www.news.com/Is-tech-injuring-children/2009-1041_3-6073730.html
Name of website: NAECY Page or article title: Technology and Young Children- Ages 3 through 8 Company name: NAECY Date visited: 2-28-08 Website URL: http://www.naeyc.org/about/positions/PSTECH98.asp
Author: Gavin, Mary Name of website: Page or article title: How TV Affects Your Child Company name: The Nemours Foundation Date of posting or revision: February 2005 Date visited: 2-28-08 Website URL: http://www.kidshealth.org/parent/positive/family/tv_affects_child.html
Author: Josephson, Wendy Name of website: Media Awareness Network Page or article title: Television Violence: A Review of the Effects on Children of Different Ages Company name: Media Awareness Network Date of posting or revision: February 1995 Date visited: 2-28-08 Website URL: http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/resources/research_documents/reports/violence/tv_violence_child.cfm
Author: Hirsch, Larissa Name of website: Teens Health Page or article title: Repetitive Stress Injuries Company name: Nemours Foundation Date of posting or revision: October 2006 Date visited: 3-5-08 Website URL: http://www.kidshealth.org/teen/safety/first_aid/rsi.html Books Author: Sullivan, George Title: Screen Play Place of publication: New York, New York Publishing company: Frederick Warne and Co, Inc. Copyright date: 1983
Author: Liebert, Robert and Sprafkin, Joyce Title: The Early Window Place of publication: Great Britain Publishing company: Pergamon Books Inc. Copyright date: 1988
Author: Fox, Roy Title: Harvesting Minds Place of publication: West Port, Connecticut Publishing company: Praeger Publishers Copyright date: 1996 Anthology Author: Hamilton, James Book Name: Is Media Violence a Problem? Chapter Title: Violence On Television Is A Serious Problem Pg 18-23 |
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