Children And TV

Children and adolescence's spend almost 22-28 hours per

week watching television. This is a sad fact because this is the largest
amount of hours spent on any activity in your child's life, aside from
sleeping. Television has a large influence on children's attitudes, ideas,
and behaviors. Teens witness 10,000 murders, rapes and aggravated
assaults per year on TV, and four out of five Americans believe that
violence on television directly contributes to the way children view
violence. When children watch TV, they see other made up families, who
deal with their problems different from how anyone else would. Children
assume that this is how there life should be. We should teach out
children about the reality of TV because Television can affect the way a
child acts, thinks, and feels about different issues such as violence,
education/morality, and gender/racial stereotypes TV glorifies violence
and weapons, and teaches children that the easiest way of resolving
problems is through violence. Children's programs such a Power
Rangers or The X-Men portray world-saving heroes that children look up
to and admire. They assume that if the strong, invincible heroes are
around, the world is a safe place to be where they are free form harm.
When really, they don't understand these characters don't exist and can't
save them or the world from those that would hurt them. Parents must
teach their children that these people are not real, don't exist, can't save
the world, that it isn't possible for anyone to do this on their own, and
that at one time or another, everyone needs someone's help. TV
programs such as these shows also can frighten children too. They may
be frightened by the ugly, strong villains. We must teach children that all
villains are not scary, powerful or ugly but they do try to fool people,
young and old. It is very easy for children to lose their own sense of
reality while watching shows that contain violence. They must be taught
otherwise and how to be smart about TV and what they are watching.
Shows like Sesame Street and Mister Rogers Neighborhood have been
around since 1969. Not only that, these shows are very educational
programs designed for children. If children watch these types of shows,
they will also try to portray their favorite heroes such as the Power
rangers except now with no violence. A child's reaction all depends on
what they are exposed to. The age of the child also plays a large factor
on how a program teaches these children. For example, viewing
Sesame street at the age of 3-3 1/2 has a positive effect on a child's
vocabulary. Ages 5-7 require vocabulary at a higher level than what is
shown on sesame street. The effects of educational programs depend
on variables such as: a parents education, the family size, the sex of the
child, and parental attitudes. Television also plays a strong role on a
child's developing morality. Children who watch TV programs that
affect their morality such as Jerry springier may tend to have a
higher pregnancy or criminal rate than others who don't watch the
same shows. The nature of this kind of show, and their air times are
also problems because then children are able to watch these shows
without parental explanation to what they are seeing. These show
affect adults as well. If an adult can't handle them, how can children be
expected to? When children watch TV, they are strongly influenced by
racial stereotypes. Even though it's changed greatly over the past
decades, black people are usually still depicted negatively, as criminals
or as the victims. This has a great affect on a child of that race. When
people of their own race do not appear on television, these children may
feel as though they are not important in society. They may discover that
it is hard to find am appropriate role model of their on culture, this can
result in a negative effect on their developing self-esteem. There should
be people of all races included in TV programs interacting with each
other, rather than show Exclusively of white people or shows exclusively
of black people. Television Also affects children's gender stereotypes.
Males are typically depicted as Being more powerful, a competent than
females. They are also shown in Stereotypical occupations, whereas
women are largely portrayed as sex objects. In order to help resolve the
problems on TV, there are many steps parents can take to avoid them:
they can limit TV viewing by teaching children not to depend on TV as
they're only source of entertainment. Parents should limit viewing to 1-2
hours per day, and teach them to spend time talking or playing. You can
also monitor what your child is watching, by watching TV and movies
with your children and by discussing what is being seen, Teach your
child that violence on TV is not real and explain that in reality, people,
including children are hurt and killed by guns. Children must be guided
into doing the right thing by their parents instead of watching the
violence shown on TV because it shows how it is okay to use force to
solve their problems. TV also gives the impression to children that
education is not needed in order to succeed in life, and that stereotypes
are also shown to be considered that there is no harm in teasing others
that are different from themselves and different from what is the
accepted normality of society.