The effects of television on children
The time that a child spends in front of the television is time that subtracts from other important activities such as reading, school work, play, interaction with the family and social development.
Children can also learn things on television: some can be educational and others inappropriate or incorrect. In the majority of the occasions, the children do not know how to differentiate between the contents that come to them well and those that do not, in the same way that their ingenuity makes it difficult to distinguish between the fiction presented on television and reality.
When children are watching a television program, they are also under the influence of numerous commercial advertisements, some of which are alcoholic beverages, fast food and toys.
Children who watch too much television are exposed to a greater number of risks to their intellectual and emotional development. Some of them are the following:
- Take bad grades at school. It happens by devoting more time to television than to homework and study.
- Read fewer books. Too much television takes time away from reading.
- Do less physical exercise. Television poses a serious danger of sedentary lifestyle for children.
- Having overweight problems. A sedentary lifestyle coupled with a greater consumption of snaks and caloric products during the time they spend sitting in front of the television can increase their risk of obesity.
- Become passive children. The speed with which they pass the sequences of the images on television can make children lose to other traditional games, which for them, become slow, boring and uninteresting.
- Understand partially what has been seen. Violence, sexuality, race and gender stereotypes, and drug and alcohol abuse are common themes in television programs. Children are impressionable and can assume that what they see on television is normal, safe and acceptable. Consequently, television also exposes children to types of behavior and attitudes that can be overwhelming and difficult to understand.