Television and the Effects on Children

Television and the Effects on Children

Brittany Wells

COM172

November 28, 2011

Carolyn Crane

Abstract

On a daily basis, children spend more time in front of a television than any other activity other than sleep. So as a parent wouldn’t you like to know what and if any of what your children are watching will affect them? In this paper we will find out if television causes aggression in children. How media violence should be regulated, should it be the up to the government or the parent? Does television really affect our children’s brain development and how much television should they actually be watching? What kind of affects does television have on a child’s emotional development? Along with health problems associated with obesity.

Does viewing television Increase a Childs aggression?

There has been survey after survey that show that one of the most crucial concerns of our society today is violence. Many people believe that television is the reason. Television now occupies a place (or two or three) in almost every home in the United States. And television has been sited time and again by the U.S. surgeon general, by members of the U.S. Congress, and by psychological researchers as a medium filled with many kinds of violence (Slife, 1996). With that being said it is normal that parents would wonder about the impact television would have on small children. I personally do not think that television is the cause of children becoming violent or aggressive. I have two children of my own and have not had seen any issues with their behavior due to watching television. I really feel that the problem with aggressive children stems back to the parents. How parent’s act and engage with people, the child will mimic. If the child is neglected in any way he or she will act out. Leonard Eron of the University of Illinois and Rowell Huesmann of the University of Michigan did a study on how to measure aggressiveness in children. Eron and his team selected a...