The Impact of Television on Children and the Youth - Essay Sample

Introduction

Many people have lauded the emergence of television and its benefits to families, business entities, the youth and the society at large. However, in a personal perspective, I have some reservations with regards to the extent to which the Television has negated the morality and also hampered the overall development of children and the youth. The media, aside from television has had considerable influence on the psychological development of children and the youth. According to a study conducted in Canada, an average child is likely to watch television for at least 7 hours a day, see 32 acts of violence on television a day, and view at least four beer commercials daily and 2 hours of sexual interactions a day (Mary 55). This trend manifested itself in a study conducted with a sample of randomly selected 30 middle-aged children and teenagers. Out of the 30 children, 15 out of 30 acknowledged that they watched television for periods greater than 7 hours a day, 10 out of 30 had viewed at least 30 acts of violence on television while 8out of 30 agreed that they viewed at least three beer advertisements per day. Despite this negative trend regarding observance of the child protection policies on broadcasting through television, little has been done to address the situation. This is not to say that Television has not played a beneficial role in the development of children. Television has the aptitude to generate positive and negative impacts on children and adolescents.

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Arguably, the time spent by different ages of people watching television varies between the age groups and different cultures. However, an average child will spend at least 7 hours watching television. This is affirmed by a commanding 50% percent of children interviewed accepting to have watched television for at least 7hours a day. It is undeniable that there are some useful programs broadcast by televisions. However, there are a lot of harmful content broadcast by televisions, which can affect the moral standards of children and teenagers. Of the 15 children who accepted that they watched television for more than 7 hours a day, nine children also polled to have witnessed violent behaviour, sexual interactions and beer advertisements on television. Also, 18 out of the 30 respondents agreed that they had watched a learning program over television. However, it limits the reading time for children, playing time and exercise time. This show that the television also has an important role to play in the mentoring of children. Television broadcasting should be limited to the confines of observing family times and ensuring that inappropriate content is not aired at the prohibited periods of the day.

The number of violent acts aired on television has been on the rise. From the survey, 10 out of 30 respondents agreed that they viewed at least 30 acts of violence on television in a day. This is a high number, and hence it is also predictable that its impacts on the behaviours of children are also high. Out of the 30 children interviewed, 20 of them agreed that they had participated in real violent acts at school or at home as a way of practicing what they had seen on television. Other studies have confirmed the findings of this survey by revealing that violent acts on television are a leading cause of aggressive behaviour in children and teenagers (Huber et al. 72-85). Some studies have also linked suicide attempts by children and teenagers with the increasing viewership of violent acts on television. However, the children who are most vulnerable to violence are children abused by their parents, children experiencing family distress, emotionally weak children and the children from the minority groups. Physicians who handle children with past incidences of aggressive behaviour should be inquisitive about the exposure to violence on television as broadcast on television.

Beer commercials and sexual interactions on television have a negative impact on the overall development of children.From the survey, eight respondents agree to have viewed at least three beer commercials daily and 2 hours of sexual interaction daily on the television broadcast. This is a worrying trend as it can only play a destructive role in modelling and mentoring of juniors. Other studies have suggested that television advertising increases the beer consumption by up to 20%(Huber et al. 72-85).This indicates the kind of danger advertisers put children into. To reaffirm the assertion that beer advertising is more likely to lead to beer consumption by the viewers of the advertisements, research in Sweden revealed that after the government imposed a total ban on alcohol advertising, its consumption reduced by up to 35%(Huber et al. 23).Therefore, it is important that the policies that guide the advertising of alcoholic drinks on television are reviewed. Sexuality is one of the concepts closely associated with alcoholic drinks advertising.Exposing children to nude photos and alcohol advertisements will ruin their morality in earnest and affect their overall development.

Aside from these negativities associated with the television especially with regards to children, there are also beneficial aspects which we should not overlook. Studies have shown that education and parental involvement in educational matters has tremendously increased with the introduction of television. Also, television has enabled the advancement of media literacy among children and youths. To enable maximum benefit to children and minimize the negative impacts of children, parents should be more involved in the monitoring of the content children view on television. Studies have shown that negative effects of television can be reduced by up to 50%is parents practice more control over the content which children view on television(Scarf et al. 22). The role of parents in the social learning of children cannot be underestimated. Aside from the educational purpose of television, programs on television also provide information on nutrition and dietetics to children at a tender age. To maximize on the television as an avenue of advancing the capacity and knowledge of children and youths, control of the content they vie is vital.

Conclusion

The results of the research reveal that the negative impacts of television on children and youths overweigh the positive impacts. Advertising of harmful content during the watershed period should be abolished totally, not only in Canada but worldwide. There is need to protect children from the negative impacts on broadcasting content involving sexual interactions, and violent acts by also banning their broadcasting during the watershed periods. I believe that modern technology in the media industry should serve to improve our children but not to interfere with their moral values and advancement in their academics. In my opinion, media houses found violating the set rules on the advertising and sensitive broadcast policy should be closed down as the disservice they do to the society in such cases is immeasurable. Aside from this, the positive impacts cannot be ignored. However, to make Television a better media there has to control and accountability on the side of the media houses. Truly, to achieve sustainable operation of television programs, there has to be an urgency to deter the exposure of children to harmful content.

Works Cited

Courage, Mary L. "Screen Media, and the Youngest Viewers: Implications for Attention And Learning." Cognitive Development in Digital Contexts. 2018. 3-28.

Huber, Brittany, et al. "The Effects of Screen Media Content on Young Children's Executive Functioning." Journal of experimental child psychology 170 (2018): 72-85.

Scarf, Damian, and Ashley E. Hinten. "Television Format and Children's Executive Function." Pediatrics (2018): e20172674.