Trevor Stone

trs16b@my.fsu.edu
ENC 2135
Tuesday, Thursdays 12:30-1:45

According to Lars Lundgrens The Forerunners of a New Era started off as this
amazing piece of technology that acted as as a witness to and provider of images of
history in the making (Lundgren 179) (5). In modern times, television has become an
always present part in many familys lives. (10) Cortney Evans, along with Amy Jordan
and Jennifer Horner published a study titled Only Two Hours? which did interview
with parents and children to really discover the place of the television in the home. Many
busy parents have used tv as a way to entertain their kids while they are busy doing
something important (Evans, Jordan and Horner 1231). In addition to this Matthew
Sanders published an article called The Mass Media and the Prevention of Child
Behavior Problems which found that children who watched television showed less
disruptive behavior, which makes television a calming pastime (Sanders) (6). (11) In fact
in 1999, Paul Kettle published an article titled Exploring the Mental Life and Home Life
of Children and it found that children spend at least 6.5 hours of media viewing daily

(Kettl 60) which is much greater than the restriction of 2 hours of television instituted
by the American Academy of Pediatrics (Evans, Jordan and Horner 1231). Due to this
ever growing number, many parents worry about the negative effects of children
watching this much television. (13) Many studies have pointed out a relationship between
negative qualities, such as obesity and violent behavior, and television including one lead
by Braithwaite, Stewart, Hancox, Beasley, Murphy, and Mitchell called The Worldwide
Association Between Television viewing and Obesity in Children and Adolescents: Cross
Study (Braithwaite et. all). However, it seems that these negative qualities come out
only in extreme cases and according to an article by Yuksuke Moriguchi and Kazuo
Hiraki entitled Neural Basis of Learning from Television in Young Children (12) if
given in the correct dosage, television can be very beneficial for young adolescents and
provide education (Moriguchi and Yusuke 122) (16). For these reasons I believe that the
blanket restriction of 2 hours is too specific and does not take into account the other
factors that are involved or the benefits of television.
To start we should look at the claim that television has an always constant negative
effect on children. One of the major negative effects that scare many parents is obesity. In
the study that was performed by Braithwaite and company, was conducted in 37
countries with 207,672 adolescents and 18 countries with 77,003

children (Braithwaite et al.) (16). They were then given a survey that a parent or
guardian had to answer. The questionnaire simply asked, During a normal week, how
many hours a day (24 hours) do you (does your child) watch television?and these
children/adolescents were then put into 4 categories; short (<1 hour), moderate (1 to
3 hours), long (3 to 5 hours) and prolonged(>5 hours) (Braithwaite et al.). This study
found that as time spent watching television increased so did BMI.
For instance in the female children category, those who were in the prolonged
category (watching more than 5 hours of television) had an increase of 0.36 kg/
m^2 (15) compared to the same age and gender in the short category (Braithwaite et al.).
This can be quite concerning because looking at the data, the relationship is almost linear
giving us the impression that is a direct cause and effect relationship.
However this data isnt inferential and is instead just descriptive, its describing
what we are seeing but isnt telling us what it means. Just because this data makes it seem
as though television is the cause of obesity in these children there could be other reasons
behind this. (14) For instance, in an editorial written in the Journal of Paediatrics and
Childrens Health by David Isaacs the question on if the obesity is an effect of excessive
television watching or is excessive television watching an effect of being obese. Isaacs
asks does increased television viewing cause obesity or do obese children tend to

exercise less and watch more television?(Isaacs) (7). Following the logic set forth by
Isaacs, there is no definite direct correlation between television watching and weight gain
and instead those who do not exercise and instead watch television will continue to have
increased obesity due to the common habits such as snacking while watching television.
(1). Even the article Children, Television Viewing and Weight Status: Summary and
Recommendations from an Expert Panel Meeting, published by Amy B. Jordan and
Thomas N. Robinson, agrees that major causes for weight gain while watching TV are
the displacement of physical activity and eating while view (Jordan and Robinson
122) (4). For all people it is best to limit television time spend time doing other active
activities. However the very restricting time limit of two hours does not seem like enough
for positive benefits to be had.
Another major possible negative effect is violence. You often hear this talked
about on the news or in other media new sources. The general idea is that by watching
violent behavior displayed on television will make children more apt to conducting more
aggressive behavior. As any first year psychology student could tell you, the brain
contains mirror neurons, which fire while watching an action take place in the same way
as if you had conducted the action yourself (Moriguchi and Hiraki 122). In 2010 E.D.
Brocato, D.A. Gentile, R.N. Lacznaik, J.A. Maier, and M. Ji-Song conducted a study to

investigate the potential effects of television commercial violence on children. It was

titled Television Commercial Violence: Potential Effects on Children and it used
different study groups and tested to see if viewing more aggressive or violent commercial
would change the mindset of a child. They did this by giving the child a word puzzle.
For example, children could have completed the word K I _ _ as "kill" or
kiss." (Brocato, Et. all 103) (3). The data showed that the children that were exposed to
the more aggressive advertisement were more likely to fill letters to form an aggressive
word.
From the evidence I have listed above, it appears clear that television does have a
negative effect on children with them being in a more vulnerable state and more
impressionable. With just this information is it clear to see why the American Academy
of Pediatrics has declared the 2 hour set restriction. However what I believe this
doesnt take into account is the fact that there are other uses of the television in the family
home that don't cause devastation as well as the fact that it doesnt take into consideration
all factors.
To add a personal anecdote, when I lived at home with my family we would spend
time together watching the television show Friends. While the show is spaced in episodes
of approximately 20 minutes, more often than not we ended up watching more than one.

The show brought my family together to share in a fit of laughter every time Chandler
made a joke at Joeys expense. Not only did we have inside jokes to talk about together,
the time we watched Friends every night was guaranteed to be a time where our family
spent time together. In the article titled Identifying Family Television Practices to
Reduce Childrens Television Time Jessica Piotrowski, talks about how television acts
as an important component of family life that reflects and contributes to the overall
values of the larger family system (Piotrowski 160). (2) Television can be used to bring
families or a group together and have an opportunity to bond over say, a mystery, a good
laugh, or a touching tale.
In the Only Two Hours qualitative study conducted to look into the challenges
and downsides of the new recommended restrictions, the study found that the restriction
of television actually seemed to be detrimental for parents. The television is a way many
parents interviewed in the study, used to mediate their children and watch over then
without having to be there the whole time. The study also found that if the television is
taken away, children were more likely to bicker with their siblings or parents. These
parents that were interviewed also brought up the challenge to restricting television. This
is the fact to many parents, TV is seen as a beneficial presence in the home (Evans,
Jordan and Horner 1231) (8) .

Looking deeper into the idea of a benefit from watching television, I found a paper
written by Yusuke Moriguchi and Kazuo Hiraki which was titled, Neural basis of
learning from television in young children. Here is where I found information on how the
childs brain interprets stimulus from other forms of media. It shows that children can
start learning at an incredibly young age from media, stating that it has been shown
repeatedly that by age 3, children begin to learn as well from video presentations as from
live presentations, in word learning, action imitation, and object search
tasks (Moriguchi, Hiraki)(9). This could open many doors for teaching smaller children
and make an at-home-education much more accessible. The paper even goes as far as to
say that, over time childrens learning from TV [becomes] easier (Moriguchi, Hiraki)
(17).
Now after gathering all the above information I decided that perhaps a blanket 2
hour restriction is not precise enough to accommodate for both the drawbacks and the
benefits of television. It appears that there are three factors that need to be considered in
order to minimize the drawbacks and maximize the potential gain. Looking at our first
negative effect, the study showed that excessive time watching television can cause an
obesity problem/continue to perpetuate an obesity problem. The factor here is time spent
watching television. The second factor comes from the data on violence and education,

this factor being content of the television show and commercials. The third and final
factor in my eyes would be environment. If the child is watching television with family or
like minded peers, then the child is not only enjoying themselves but also bonding with
the people around them.
So when we combine these factors and look at our data we can correctly make a
more exact plan for children watching television at home. First we look at the fact that
the original restriction doesnt work give children and parents enough time for the
children to be watching television. Moving on we need to look at our second factor which
is content. Overtly violent television is shown to have an increase in aggressive behavior
of children. So for this factor we have to look at what the child is actually going to be
watching and limit children from watching aggressive television. To maximize the benefit
of this factor, children should be required to watch an educational television program for
every so much recreational television watched. Thirdly the factor of environment. Instead
of tv being a dividing instrument that makes people more secluded, children should spend
time watching television with their families rather than by themselves.
Taking all these factors into consideration, a parent can properly decide how to
allow their children to use the television. They may allow for more educational purpose
television as opposed to recreational television. They can monitor what television shows

the child watches, keeping the content they are consuming age appropriate. They allow
them to have the amount of television time that seems to fit in with their families
schedule so they may watch the television together. In conclusion, there cant be any kind
of time based restriction because the consumption of television by children has many
different factors that must be taken into account by the parent and despite many negative
claims about television it has a multitude of benefits.