All television is children’s television

All television is children’s television – Richard P Adler

by Mike

The Healthy Steps for Young Children has found that Children under Five years old are a greater risk to develop problems with behaviour and social skills.

The topic was discussed on Gerry Ryan’s show on 2FM this morning and I listened with interest to find that there were a number of callers who refused to let their children watch television at all.

Children who reduced their viewing by 5.5 years of age were not at greater risk of behaviour and social problems.

Cynthia Minkovitz

The surveyed showed that 16 per cent of the parents polled stated their children were watching two or more hours of television a day when they were two-and-a-half years old, 15 per cent said their children watched the same amount at the age of five-and-a-half.

I sometimes wonder when we hear of different surveys and findings in relation to the best ways to bring up children that we ourselves forget what it is like to be on this journey of learning from those around us and also the voyage of self discovery.

Now I’m not a parent so maybe it’s not my right to comment but I have taken part in the partial upbringing of both of my cousins and I do know that sometimes they have to take the bumps and bruises and experience life instead of constantly being wrapped up in cotton wool.

It seems to me if a child is protected too much that will in turn cause more social problems then allowing them to build a personality for themselves would create. Yes there has to be a watchful eye kept over them but at the same time if they are never allowed any freedom one would say they will never learn the differences between right and wrong.

As for younger children being exposed to television at a younger age, all I will say to that is (like everything else) there is a balance to be had. It’s been a long time since I’ve watched television programmes made specifically for children but from what I can see there is a much junk food TV as there is educational TV around.

It is not just children’s television where this exists and I would imagine that it can be difficult to develop a relationship with your child if the TV is on all the time and is used as a babysitting tool.