The Impact of Television on Children The difference in one person and another is how they spend their time.
Jerry Mander Discusses TV's Impact on Children
Jerry Mander Discusses TV's Impact on Children
Jerry Mander, author of the book Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television, the former head of the International Forum on Globalization and program director for Megatechnology and Globalization at the Foundation for Deep Ecology discusses TV's impact on children.
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Example is the most powerful means of teaching we know of.
Katie Couric Reports on the Effects of Violent Video Games
Katie Couric Reports on the Effects of Violent Video Games
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The difference in one person and another is how they spend their time.
The Human Rights Code -- Children -- and Mass Media Violence
The Human Rights Code -- Children -- and Mass Media Violence
Article 17 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which the U.S.A. has signed but not ratified, says state parties are meant to "encourage the development of appropriate guidelines for the protection of the child from information and material injurious to his or her wellbeing."
Furthermore, Article 32 of the treaty calls for states parties to recognize
the right of the child to be protected from "economic
exploitation."
Then, Article 36 said, "States Parties shall protect the child against all other forms of exploitation prejudicial to any aspects of the child's welfare."
Hundreds of people from this nation helped draft the treaty. Every nation in the United Nations had a veto over every article in it. It was hammered it out over a 10 year period of time.
When the whole world comes together (with their lawyers and consultants), they each bring a viewpoint forged by their history. The end product is a treaty that has been analyzed from every angle. Nothing has been overlooked. Its a thing of profound beauty.
Though the United States failed to ratify this treaty, it became international law in 1989, and we ought to uphold it.
There is plenty of evidence that mass media violence is injurious to the well being of Children in the more than 3,000 studies across the world that have been undertaken determine if there is a link between mass media violence and aggressive behavior.
"Consensus among most of the research community is that violence on television does lead to aggressive behavior by children and teenagers who watch programs, said Dr. David Pearl, after 10 years of study on mass media violence. Dr. Pearl is with the National Institute of Mental Health.
The FBI Uniform Crime Reports offer compelling evidence that mass media violence can negatively impact children. I compared statistics on crime arrests for children under the age of 15 back in 1950, when less than five percent of the population had TV and when there was very little violence on TV, to 20 years later in 1970 when most children were raised watching TV. Here?s what I found. In 1950, there were 123 times more arrests for assault, 140 times more arrests for burglary, 23 times more for rape and 10 times more arrests for murder for this age group.
"The demonstrated teaching and instigating effects of aggressive television fare upon youth are of sufficient importance to warrant immediate remedial action," said Psychologist Robert Liebert, who participated in some of the research for a Surgeon General's Report on Mass Media Violence and Behavior.
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Our time is our most valuable resource.
Children and Time Spent Watching TV
Children and Time Spent Watching TV
I think people love TV because they love people. But all too often, people are giving their prime time to strangers in distant places. No wonder so many are lonely.
Consider the amount of time the average child
has spent looking at a screen of some sort: 4.5 hours per day, according to the Annenburg Public Policy Center, in the year 2000.
That's 1,542.5 hours per year. Between the ages of 7 and the end of age 18, that's 19,710 hours.
Keep in mind that the difference in one person and another lies largely in the way they spend their time.
What could a child accomplish if that time were spent in productive activity? He or she could have learned to play the violin or piano; read inspirational books, such as biographies; or spent time writing in a journal.
The child could have gotten lots of exercise riding bikes and playing jumprope, learned to share and take turns while playing with friends, played more with the baby, watched as dad worked on the car or chatted more with an elderly neighbor on her porch.
The child could have learned jumpstyle! See the health section on this website.
I think we need to talk about it in church. We also need a community radio program where we come together to discuss good wholesome activities children can do with their friends and others in the community.
Before TV came into existence, people used to sing more -- and used to do more folk dancing.
I would love to see teenagers writing music, making documentaries for Youtube or the environment or other issues or doing sacred dance.
What if the father read books aloud to the family? I used to read aloud to an elderly woman -- classics.