Excessive and unsupervised television viewing can have negative effects on kids.

While the
American Academy of Pediatrics, or AAP, recommends that children older than 2 only watch
one to two hours of quality programming a day, the average 8- to-18-year-old kid watches
four hours of TV a day. To combat the negative effects of television, the AAP recommends
fast forwarding commercials, setting the parental controls on your television and talking
with your children about what they see on TV.

Violent Behavior

The average American child sees 200,000 acts of violence on TV before the age of 18, and these
acts may cause kids to become more aggressive or desensitized to violence, warns
KidsHealth.org. Television often fails to show the consequences of violent behaviors or the
violence is seen as justified when perpetrated by the good guy. Both fictional violence from
dramas and real life violence from the nightly news can scare children, leading to
nightmares and a fear of the world.

Nutrition and Obesity

Television often promotes unhealthy eating habits and excessive television viewing has been
linked to obesity. Children view an average of 15 food commercials every day and 98
percent of these commercials are for food of low nutritional value, cites a National Institutes
of Health-funded study from 2009 in the "Journal of Health Communications." The
commercials indicate that eating these foods makes you happy and cool. Additionally, kids
see unhealthy eating habits portrayed in their favorite TV shows. The hours spent in front of
the television are generally hours of inactivity and snacking.

Cigarettes, Alcohol and Drugs

Children see smoking, drinking and doing drugs glorified on television. Although cigarette ads
are banned on television, kids still see smoking in TV shows and the number of alcohol
commercials has increased by 30 percent from 2001 to 2006, according to a Center on
Alcohol Marketing and Youth study. Kids who watch five or more hours of television a day
are significantly more likely to start smoking than kids who watch less than two hours, cites
KidsHealth.org. Additionally, a longitudinal study cited by the AAP found a positive
correlation between television and music video viewing and alcohol consumption among
teens.

Sex

Television is one of the leading sources of information about sex for kids, says Dr. Hernan
Delgado, the lead author of a Children’s Hospital Boston study on television viewing and
sexuality. The longitudinal study, presented to the Pediatric Academic Societies in 2009,
found that the younger children are exposed to content intended for adults in television and
movies, the earlier they become sexually active during adolescence. TV shows often make
risky sexual behaviors seem cool and exciting, failing to address their real-life consequences.