Eating lots of fatty, sugary foods is bad for a child’s body. Getting repeatedly sunburned in childhood raises the risk of skin cancer later. Poorly run schools tend to put out poorly educated students.

Chances are that you agree with all of those statements.

The media that children are exposed to affects their moods, their ability to get along with other people, their self-image, and how they participate in society.

If you’re the average American parent, that statement might be surprising to you. In fact, you might disagree with it or ignore it altogether. Media is such a common part of life these days that most families accept it without question. In fact, it is estimated that 85% of children’s television watching is unsupervised, and only 38% of families have any rules at all about watching television. Though using video games is now almost universal among American kids, 19% of parents say that they never check the ratings of the games their kids play. (Amusingly, teenagers themselves report that their parents don’t check ratings 90% of the time.)

The fact is that the casual attitude of American parents toward the media their kids are exposed to does not match the results of numerous studies—starting with studies done in the infancy of television—that show that media does in fact affect kids.

I overheard a conversation recently that was typical of the casual attitudes we have. Two parents were discussing the movies their kids had seen. One of them said she was surprised at how well her young child had done at a movie with violence in it. “She seemed fine afterward,” the parent said. The other parent agreed and offered a similar example of how her young child had “done fine” watching violence on numerous occasions.

Studies of children and the effects of media are absolutely conclusive, with concurring opinions on the part of all of the organizations that study children’s health, including the American Medical Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Psychological Association, American Academy of Family Physicians, and American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. What children watch does affect them—it affects their feelings, the choices they make, their relationships, and even their physical health.

Violence as a test case
The most-studied aspect of media is violence. American children, who watch an average of 3 to 4 hours of television a day (and up to 6.5 hours per day of screen time including video games), watch numerous acts of violence with little or no parental monitoring.

“By the time a child is eighteen years old, he or she will witness on television (with average viewing time) 200,000 acts of violence including 40,000 murders,” states the National Institute on Media and the Family (NIMF).

Children who watch violence consistently show that it affects their psychological health, including feelings of anger and helplessness, more violent behavior toward peers, and a greater willingness to solve problems with confrontation rather than negotiation. Even though a child will not necessarily show a reaction to one act of violence in a movie, the cumulative effect of years of violence is striking.

“While most adults realize that media violence is fabricated, children are more vulnerable,” writes Mary Muscari in Pediatric Nursing. “Preschoolers cannot distinguish the difference between reality and fantasy.”

The NIMF points out that children “cannot easily discern motives” and “learn by observing and imitating,” which any parent knows by the time their baby is a few months old.
Considering that “violence (homicide, suicide, and trauma) is a leading cause of death for children, adolescents and young adults, more prevalent than disease, cancer or congenital disorders” (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2001), it is odd that our schools often emphasize education about drug use and healthy eating, yet largely ignore a major cause of violent behavior and psychological distress in our children.

Video games are not benign
The most recent form of media that has come into our children’s lives has superseded television and movies in its influence—video games. Though adults who don’t use video games are quick to point to them as destructive, two fascinating recent studies paint a more complicated picture.

A 2008 study just published in the journal Pediatrics is the first large-scale, multicultural study of the effects of violent video games on children. Taking into consideration the children’s previous tendencies toward aggressive behavior, researchers found that children in the United States and Japan, two very different cultures, had largely similar reactions to exposure to violent video games.

As a result of the study, reports the Washington Post, “The [American Academy of Pediatrics] now recognizes violence in media as a significant health risk to children and adolescents and recommends limiting screen time including television, computers and video games to one to two hours a day.”

That’s a pretty major change for families who allow the average screen time of 6.5 hours.

A study also released in 2008 by Pew Internet and American Life Project seems to paint an opposing picture of video game usage. In this study, researchers compared kids’ involvement in gaming environments with a “significant amount of social interaction” to those kids’ involvement in real-world civic activities.

The study found a strong correlation between social game-playing, where teens build worlds and play collaborative games with others, with their interest in politics, their participation in their local community, and their participation in civil protests.

Although these two new studies of video game usage focus on different aspects of gaming, they actually come to the same conclusion: the games your children play will clearly have a profound effect on their daily lives.

How parents can be involved
The striking thing about all the studies of American kids’ interaction with media is how little interest parents have in what their kids are watching. Parents who use videos as a babysitter while their children are small slowly allow more media with less oversight. By the time their children are older, they are comfortable with letting their kids tune into cable TV stations without monitoring their choices.

It doesn’t help that the media companies are trying harder to attract younger children to less appropriate programs and games, even marketing toys based on violent media to preschoolers, according to the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood. American parents trust that our government has the tight grip on media that it had when we were growing up, but that is increasingly not the case.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that parents set limits, plan what children are allowed to watch, join their children in watching to make sure the shows are appropriate, and look for media with positive messages for children.

And above all, parents need to remember that everything their children do affects them. Watching one act of violence won’t turn a child into a violent adult, but unmonitored exposure to media isn’t good for any child.


 Resources:
Center on Media and Child Health: cmch.tv
Parents Television Council: parentstv.org
Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood: commercialfreechildhood.org
American Academy of Pediatrics: aap.org

http://www.aap.org/publiced/BR_TV.htm
The Academy of American Pediatrics

The following are other ways you can help your children develop positive viewing habits:

   1. Set limits. Limit your children's use of TV, movies, and video and computer games to no more than 1 or 2 hours per day. Do not let your children watch TV while doing homework. Do not put a TV in your children's bedrooms.
   2. Plan what to watch. Instead of flipping through channels, use a program guide and the TV ratings to help you and your children choose which shows to watch. Turn the TV on to watch the program and turn it off when it is over.
   3. Watch TV with your children. Whenever possible, watch TV with your children and talk about what they see. If your children are very young, they may not be able to tell the difference between a show, a commercial, a cartoon, or real life. Be especially careful of "reality-based" programs. Most of these shows are not appropriate for children.
   4. Find the right message. Some TV programs show people as stereotypes. If you see this, talk with your children about the real-life roles of women, the elderly, and people of other races.
   5. Help your children resist commercials. When your children ask for things they see on TV, explain that the purpose of commercials is to make people want things they may not need.
   6. Look for quality children's videos and DVDs. There are many quality videos and DVDs available for children. Check reviews before buying or renting programs or movies.
   7. Give other options. Watching TV can become a habit for your children. Help them find other things to do like playing; reading; learning a hobby, a sport, an instrument, or an art; or spending time with family, friends, or neighbors.
   8. Set a good example. As a role model, limiting your own TV viewing and choosing programs carefully will help your children do the same.
   9. Express your views. When you like or do not like something you see on TV, make yourself heard. Stations, networks, and sponsors pay attention to letters from the public. If you think a commercial is misleading or inappropriately targeting children, write down the product name, channel, and time you saw the commercial and describe your concerns.
  10. Get more information. The following resources can provide you with more information about the proper role of TV in your children's lives:
    * Public service groups publish newsletters that review programs and give tips on how to make TV safe for you and your child.
    * You can ask the parent organization at your child's school.
    * Parents of your child's friends and classmates can also be helpful. Talk with other parents and agree to enforce similar rules about TV viewing.

Published online: 4/07
Source: Television and the Family (Copyright © 2007 American Academy of Pediatrics, Updated 2/07)

Suki Wessling is a local publisher, writer, and mother of two children.

Children and Media
Involved Parents Make Informed Choices

By Suki Wessling