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Posts tagged ‘Effects of TV’

Children and TV

calorielab.com

In the article Children and Watching TV, The American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry argues the effects that television has on children and the family structure. The article argues that children spend a majority of their time watching TV; this can be detrimental to the child’s development. Though TV can be fun and keep kids occupied, it can have adverse effects. Watching a lot of TV can harm children’s school work, family relationships, and social development. They can learn bad things from TV as well. The article states that children have a problem with identifying fantasy from reality. TV has a lot of violent and sexually explicit material that may be too much for children. The writers believe that parents should take a more active role in what their kids watch. Parents should do this by sitting down and watching TV with their kids. They could  limit the amount of TV and censor the shows kids watch.  The American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry believes the amount of TV should be limited and parents should play a more active role in their children’s lives. This article is coming from Doctors perspective geared towards parents. These psychiatrists are trying to tell these parents what they should be doing to help with child development. In Ray Bradbury’s “The Veldt”, it was about a house that did everything for the family inside of it. After realizing their kids were reading stories of Africa and created a “veldt”, the parents became concerned about the house and it’s effects on their children. The mother felt as if she was no longer a mother figure to her kids since the house did everything a mother should do; the father had these same feelings as well. The parents were no longer playing an active role in their kids lives and the house had taken their responsibility. The house and the TV are the same in this argument. The house and the TV are being used as “babysitter” for kids. You can basically throw your child in front of a TV and they will be fine. It’s teaching them, it’s entertaining them; it takes responsibility away from parents. The house had the same effect; the parents no longer felt like they were being parents because the house took care of the kids. I do not believe that the effects of TV on children have changed very much from years ago. There is more media for children to view now than before, but; media still has it’s same effect on children whether new or old. TV is still a heavily debated  one for kids. It still has it’s same influences on children and parents still react the same to it. TV is always going to be the same and you can only limit a child for so long.