Broadcast television has become inappropriate for family viewing. Some of
the shows have become "too much" for general audiences. Television is pulling families
members away from each other. For example, mom is upstairs in her room watching
"Lifetime", dad is in the family room watching the football game, and the children are in
their own rooms watching "Cartoon Network". Parents are using the television to get a
break from their children. Television gradually becomes a powerful and disruptive
presence in family life . Children viewing hours continues to increase year
after year. Television is the most potent and pervasive offender. With
screens now as tall as an ostrich and twice as wide, television dominates the world of
whoever inhabits a room.
For many decades after television's introduction into American society, long after
view had come to take up more of the average child's waking time than any other single
activity, the most popular child-care manuals paid little attention to the medium and the
problems it has brought into the family.
Family watching television, c. 1958
English: Dog in front of television
Children watch television in a village in rural Ma...The few paragraphs they devoted to television,
referred only to the content of programs children were likely to watch. Excessive
violence and sex were the dangers parents were warned about, not the excessive viewing
that might adversely effect their children's mental and emotional development .
Television has an impact on children's and adults physical health. Television
Viewing might lead to obesity. If you are watching television, you are not doing
anything active. While watching television, you are likely to be snacking. Connected
with the rise in obesity is a nationwide rise in diabetes, another physical health
problem. A decline in overall physical fitness among American children has often been
attributed to excessive television watching.
It is undoubtedly easier to control children's television viewing if the parents
do not spend much...