Television's Effects on Children and Adolescents

Introduction: Television's Reach and Influence

As one of the most easily accessible and affordable forms of entertainment, television is something people everywhere in the world have in common. Regardless of how television has been described over the decades since it entered ordinary households, anyone who has witnessed children watching TV knows that it captures their attention with exceptional force and holds the power to keep them glued to the screen. Even in 2014, when the internet claims a significant portion of the viewing time once dedicated to television, television is reported to have retained much of its influence. Parental control is therefore crucial to the way television shapes children's minds and development.

According to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, children in the United States watch an average of three to four hours of television a day (2011). Considering that this represents about two-thirds of the time children typically spend in elementary school, the amounts reported for daily television watching are quite significant.

Parents allow their children to watch television for various reasons: to keep them company, for educational purposes, for entertainment, and for information. Given these viewing figures, children are expected to be heavily influenced by television in their behavior, thinking, judgment, reasoning, worldview, interpersonal relationships, attitudes, and beliefs. Television influences every aspect of a child's life because of its persuasive language and a child's inclination to accept as reality the things, situations, arguments, and advice presented on screen.

Under ideal conditions, when a child watches television, a responsible adult should always be nearby to provide explanations and clarifications. Even in the case of TV shows a child has seen before, as the child grows older the questions will multiply and change; the child will become interested in different aspects of the same show. At the age of four, for example, many children are afraid of darkness, fantastical creatures, or the most unexpected things. Television often does not help them process these fears on its own. On the contrary, it can feed their feelings of insecurity and add to an overall sense of confusion.

Authors Barrie Gunter and Jill McAleer stress that there are various viewing patterns, and therefore the effects of television viewing on children and adolescents will vary considerably. Nevertheless, television watching increased steadily from the 1950s onward, only beginning to decline once the internet gained ground. The internet should not be regarded as a completely separate entity when analyzing the effects of television on young viewers; rather, it is a medium with many overlapping areas with television. Children and adolescents can go online and watch their favorite TV programs on a computer, tablet, or cell phone. The development of digital media devices has only helped television disseminate its content on a larger scale. Children and adolescents are no longer bound to a chair at home — they can now watch television programming virtually anywhere.

Viewing Patterns, Screen Time, and Health Risks

The time children and adolescents dedicate to television watching means less time for family interaction, exercise, play, learning, reading, and physical activity. The American Academy of Pediatrics notes that "studies have shown that excessive media use can lead to attention problems, school difficulties, sleep and eating disorders, and obesity." Doctors, scientists, researchers, teachers, and parents have more than half a century of television's effects to study in order to make informed decisions about how to handle children's and adolescents' television watching. Factors such as the type of program, content, frequency, duration, and time of day can all positively or negatively influence a young viewer's behavior. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no television watching for children under the age of two: "A child's brain develops rapidly during these first years, and young children learn best by interacting with people, not screens."

It is hard to ignore the fact that many children would happily spend time in front of a TV set rather than engage in other activities. Children as young as four have been reported to refuse activities such as drawing or being read to, asking instead to watch a TV program when at home. Dr. Adam Cox, a vocal adviser against excessive television watching by children and adolescents, raises the alarm about another potential risk: addiction. "Children are like a magnet for this type of gratification, and as most parents know, can become addicted to the neurological stimulation of television very quickly" (Cox, 2005).

Indeed, parents often confirm that children — especially very young children — exhibit a type of addictive behavior related to television watching. One mother reported that her five-year-old daughter would ask to watch television (the Disney Junior channel, in her case) at every opportunity: immediately after waking up, on mornings and afternoons alike, and on the way home from kindergarten. This type of behavior reflects a certain degree of addiction. Other parents similarly reported observing increases in their children's attention deficits or a decrease in their willingness to cooperate, and attributed these changes to time spent in front of the TV. They also noted that such problems were often resolved by simply switching off the television and other media devices for days or even weeks when necessary.

One of the most studied negative effects of television watching on children and adolescents is the increase in violent behavior. There is a high degree of controversy in this field because many variables must be taken into account, including prior violent behavior, violence in the family, neglect, poverty, child abuse, drug addiction, peer influence, and other factors that may increase the likelihood of violent manifestations in young people. These variables have been statistically analyzed, and researchers have done their best to exclude them so that the population samples used for testing are as homogenous as possible. Some researchers still claim that violent acts cannot be directly attributed to the amount of television watched during childhood and adolescence.

Television Addiction and Behavioral Changes

In his book Adolescents, Crime, and the Media, Christopher J. Ferguson discusses the correlation that specific studies have identified between the rise in popularity of violent TV programs and an increase in overall violence in the United States approximately twenty years later. The implication is that adults may have been affected by watching violent programs as children and adolescents. However, such conclusions depend heavily on the time frames researchers choose for comparing violent behavior in adults.

Historical context further complicates these analyses. The Civil War was one of the most violent events in the nation's history, and yet television did not exist at the time. The first half of the twentieth century witnessed two World Wars, making it difficult to use that era for studies of violent behavior in Europe or the United States. The second half of the twentieth century offers only a narrow window for comparison, adding further methodological limitations to media violence research.

The topic of television's influence on children and adolescents is complex, widely debated, and critically important. The future adults of today will carry the imprint of how much television they watched in their early years and what types of programs they were exposed to. Television can shape social behavior at any age, and children and adolescents are the most vulnerable in terms of opinion formation. Young children cannot even distinguish between commercials and regular programming; a commercial can therefore be taken as seriously as any other program. Additionally, young children are only beginning to learn how to tell the difference between reality and fiction.