Children learn not only through real life experience, but vicariously through media exposure which defines our culture and shapes our norms. Exposure to television programming profoundly affects how children view their world. Adults who care about children developing positive life skills need to be aware of the various messages and ideals being conveyed to children.
As early as 1984, the American Academy of Pediatrics cautioned adults concerning the potential of television viewing to promote violence, obesity, sexual activity, drug use, and ethnic stereotyping. The Academy’s Policy Statement in 1995 confirmed that frequent viewers become desensitized to violence and believe that violence is a justifiable response to problems, and that television viewing is related to obesity and lower academic performance.
According to the Academy, by age eighteen the average American teenager will have spent more time watching television than learning in the classroom. In addition, they will have seen an estimated 360,000 advertisements that are often misleading and exploitive.
The following are some negative messages being transmitted to our children via television programming and commercials:
Character
Be selfish, not generous or cooperative
Be insensitive rather than empathic
Show contempt rather than respect for adults
Expect instant gratification instead of being patient
Value things instead of relationships with others
Violence/Fear
Be aggressive rather than using self-control
Use violence instead of negotiating a solution
Feel anxious and fearful, not safe and secure
Moral/Sexual
Use profanity instead of decent language
Be abusive rather than caring
Be promiscuous, not chaste
Drugs/Health
Use drugs without regard to risks instead of saying no to harmful substances
Eat junk food, not healthy food
Take pills to feel better rather than taking responsibility to be fit
Through constant, unsupervised media exposure children are being socialized to be self-centered, unthinking, dissatisfied, impulsive, disrespectful, sexualized, violent, scared and alienated.
Help your children create a program evaluation scale (perhaps a 1 to 5 point scale from worthless 1, positive entertainment 3, educational 5). Have them keep a television viewing diary for a night or a week using their scale to evaluate each program.
Encourage your children to be critical of food commercials which appear on television. Have them name food items they have seen advertised. Then have them view a food commercial together, and answer the following questions:
- “What is the name of the item?”
- “What did the ad say about the product?
- “What nutritional information was given about the product?”
- “How did the ad make you feel?”
To encourage healthy eating habits ask your children to keep a food diary of everything they consume in a day or week. Using the Food Guide Pyramid or another viable source, have them judge their eating choices..
Parents, become aware of the harmful effects of unsupervised television!
