Children and The Media: Effects and Tips on cutting down

Susan Brannon
22 June 2011

Did you know that the average American 2-5 year old child watches 32 hours of TV each week? Ages 6-11 watches 28 hours.  71% of 8-18 year olds have a television in their bedroom, with 20% premium channels?  Considering the amount of Internet, I-Phones and iPods, the average youth pack in 10 hours and 45 minutes a day using multiple media resources. (Kaiser Family Foundation Study, January 2010 Generation M2. Media in the Lives of 8-18 year olds, p.2).Two-Thirds of the households have a television on during dinner -time and meals and 51% of the households the TV is on most of the time.

Now lets consider all media, mobile media from 8-18 years old went up from 39% (in 2004) to 79% in 2009 for cell phones; from 18%-76 percent for iPods.  They spend more time watching TV on their cell phones and iPods than talking on them. (Kaiser Family Foundation) (January 2010)  The Kaiser Foundation reported that the youth not only have a TV in their bedroom, but a cell phone, a computer, and ipod or ipad.  The cell phone is the last thing that they touch before going to sleep and the first thing when they wake up.

The age group with high levels of media consumption is those in their early teens, 11-14 year-olds.  The jump in media use for the early teens jumped more than three hours a day in time spent in total media use compared with other age groups.  The average is 8:40 hours per day, if we include multitasking they can pack in nearly 12 hours a day.

What are the effects of the increase in media use with the children?
Grades -The Kaiser studies show 51% of heavy users get A’s and B’s compared to 66% of light users.  Children with C’s or below is 47% for heavy users compared to 23% for light users.  Heavy users is considered those who consume more than 16 hours in a typical day whereas light users consume less than three hours per day. This shows that the youth who spend more time with media report lower grades. One study found that TV’s effects on education were long term even at the age of 26. Watching more television/media increased the chances of dropping out of school and decreased the chances of obtaining a college degree. (van der Molen JH, Bushman BJ. Children's direct fright and worry reactions to violence in fiction and news television programs. J Pediatr. 2008 Sep;153(3):420-4. Epub 2008 Apr 28.) 

Social- Heavy users are more likely to get into trouble a lot, are often sad or unhappy and are often bored. There were not controls for the study if the youth came for single parent or two parent households, so it is difficult to establish if there is a definite cause or relationship between media use and grades but both could have an effect simultaneously. Watching TV at age four was a factor to be associated with bullying in grade school. (Zimmerman FJ, Glew GM, Christakis DA, Katon W. Early cognitive stimulation, emotional support, and television watching as predictors of subsequent bullying among grade-school children. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2005 Apr;159(4):384-8.) 

Excessive media usage can contribute sleep problems, obesity, risky behavior and behavior problems.  Advertisers target kids and on average they can view tens of thousands of commercials each year., including, unhealthy snacks, drinks, and 2,000 beer and wine advertisements. 

Brain development- As listed earlier, the aver 2-5 year old watches 32 hours of TV each week.  This is during the most vulnerable time during a child”s brain development.  Some studies link early television watching to ADHD, however some researchers disagree with the results.  The American Academy of Pediatrics says: “Don’t do it!”  “The early years are crucial in a child’s development.  The Academy is concerned about the impact of increased television watching.  They strongly oppose targeted programs that is used to market toys, games, dolls, unhealthy foods and other products.

Sleep-Johns Hopkins Bloomberg reported that” children having a television in the child’s bedroom at 5.5 year of age was associated with behavioral problems and poor sleep.” 41% of the children studied had televisions in their bedrooms. (Johns Hopkins) They also added that children who reduced the amount of television watched were not at “greater risk for behavior and social problems.”

Attentional and ADHD -  The Kaiser Report in April 2004 showed that 2,500 children ages 1-3 and viewing television each day “were associated with Attentional problems like ADHD at age 7”  (Johns Hopkins)

Violence- The average American child will see 200,000 violent acts and 16,000 murders on TV by the age of 18. (University of Michigan Health Systems Report)   Two-thirds of programs contain violence. (Federman J, ed. National Television Violence Study. Vol 3. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage; 1998)
•    Programs designed for children more often contain violence than for adults (Federman;1998)
•    Most violent acts go unpunished on TB and are often accompanied by humor. The connection between human suffering and loss are rearely depicted.
•    Many shows glamorize violence, promotes violent acts and effectively projects you get what you want without consequences. (Federman;1998)

Thousands of studies have asked whether there is a link between media violence and violent behavior.  University of Michigan reports “All but 18 have answered “Yes”.  The evidence in the research is overwhelming.  The report states: “Violence can contribute to aggressive behavior, desensitization to violence, nightmares, the fear of being harmed, and having less empathy towards another”

A 15 year long study by University of Michigan, found that there is a link between childhood TV violence viewing and aggressive and violent behavior persists into adulthood.  Also, just having a TV in the home is linked to “more aggressive behavior in 3-year-olds regardless of the type of programming and regardless if the child was watching TV. (American Psychological Association)
 
Health- University of Michigan researchers discovered that being awake in the room with the TV for more than 2 hours a day put the child at risk for being overweight at the ages of three and four. (Rich M, Woods ER, Goodman E, Emans SJ, DuRant RH. Aggressors or victims: gender and race in music video violence. Pediatrics. 1998 Apr;101(4 Pt 1):669-74.)  Another study also found a correlation between how much television was watched as a child and adult health problems such as overweight, higher cholesterol, smoking, and poor fitness.

The recommended solutions are to: (Please note:  TV includes computer (social networking etc), video games and other media resources)
•    not have the TV on for the first few years of the Childs life, to enhance development. 
•    Reduce the amount of television and media resources down to 2 hours a day
•    take the televisions out of the childs’ bedroom
•    reduce the amount of time on the social networks on computers
•    turn off the cell phone at a decent hour in the evening 
•    promote physical exercise programs in ways such as role modeling. 
•    Turn off the television during mealtimes
•    Make rules such as: No TV during the week and limited weekend TV. This helps reduce rushed meals, to return to the program in the evenings, instead of doing homework.
•    Read to your child before bedtime.
•    Do Not use the TV as a reward or punishment
•    Go for walks, ride bikes, play basketball
•    Don’t use the TV as a distraction or babysitter for preschool children.

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