Each year, most children spend about 1,500 hours in front of the television and 900 hours in the classroom. Television may have the most influence in children's lives today. For example, the average child sees more than 20,000 commercials each year. Children see at least an hour of commercials for every five hours of programs they watch. Because television is the best way to sell consumer goods, many advertisers spend roughly $700,000 a year to make sure their pitches are aimed at a large number of children. More than 60% of the ads are for sugared cereal, candy, fatty fo

Some academicians, such as George Gerbner, former dean of the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School of Communication and now a professor at Temple University, argue that the "repeated violence on news and entertainment programs transforms heavy television watchers into cowering loners, irrationally afraid to trust others."4 Gerber thinks that even the violence in children's cartoons is a problem. "For children, violence is violence," Gerber says, "and every incident they see gets piled on all the others, creating a sense of a world that is far more violent than the real world."5

Christian Society of the Green Cross. CD-ROM. Spring 1996.

Experts did agree that among those children old enough to distinguish between the two realistic portrayals of violence poses a greater danger than that of fantasy violence. For this reason, several experts made the strong point that reality programs on television should be rated. Children younger than seven are especially influenced by what they see on television. Young children are not able to distinguish between fantasy and reality. They cannot think critically about people's motives, and they have difficulty understanding subtle behavior. Therefore, young children are especially vulnerable to the powerful images of violent behavior portrayed in the media.

Peggy Charren, Founder of Action for Children's Television (ACT) believes the study is right, and she pushed for more choice of programs and less commercialism. "People who blame television for children not doing well in school are using television as a scapegoat," she said.10 With good programs, television can be as productive for children as games and good movies.

Children's Experts. Children Now, 1996. CD-ROM. 1996

National Association for the Education of Young Children. Media Violence and

high school students, to boost their grade point average by one-quarter of a grade point.

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Children spend three to four hours a day watching television, which is limiting time for other activities. In addition to the time spent watching television, the increased use of the VCR, and the amount of time spent watching movies, and playing video games add to the hours children spend in front of the television screen. Childhood is the time of growth and development- all children need a variety of activities to help learn valuable physical, mental, and social skills- and should not be subjected to violent material.

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