Television has a negative influence on kids and should be limited

Do you want to ruin your child by putting them in front of the television? Recent studies from all over the world show how badly television can affect a child’s growth physically and mentally. Television is a negative influence on kids and therefore TV watching must be limited.

This essay was written by a student in Katherine Cohen’s 7th-grade English class at Greenberg Elementary in Northeast Philadelphia. The students were assigned the task of writing a persuasive letter. Some of those letters have been revised by the students and submitted to be published in various Philadelphia media outlets.

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Do you want to ruin your child by putting them in front of the television? Recent studies from all over the world show how badly television can affect a child’s growth physically and mentally. Television is a negative influence on kids and therefore TV watching must be limited.

First, TV is a bad influence on kids, because children who watch more TV are more likely to be overweight. For example, researchers Klesges, Shelton, and Klesges found that while watching television, the metabolic rate is slower than when just resting. This implies that an individual would burn fewer calories watching TV than when simply sitting silently, doing nothing.

In addition, numerous TV ads encourage unhealthy consumption habits. Two-thirds of the 20,000 television ads a normal kid sees every year are for food, and most are for high-sugar foods. After-school television ads target youngsters with ads for unhealthy foods and beverages, such as fast food and sugary drinks. This evidence shows that kids who watch more TV are more likely to be overweight.

Secondly, television is a bad influence on kids, because watching TV at an early age can affect children’s brain development. For instance, the early years of a youngster are important to their development. The American Academy of Pediatrics is worried about the effect of customizing TV for kids younger than age two and how it could influence kids’ improvement. Pediatricians are firmly against programing modified specifically for young children, particularly when it is utilized to market toys, games, dolls, unhealthy foods and other items to babies. Furthermore, television will discourage and replace reading. Reading needs much more thinking than TV, and we realize that perusing books encourages youngsters’ healthy brain improvement. Kids from families that have the TV on a lot invest less time reading and being read to and are less likely to be able to read. This evidences show kids watching TV at an early age can affect children’s brain development.

Lastly, television is a bad influence on kids because TV is full of programs and commercials that show risky behaviors that can affect the child’s actions. Liquor ads on TV have really expanded throughout the most recent few years and more underage children are presented them than any other time in history. A recent study by the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth found that adolescent presentation to liquor ads on TV expanded by 30 percent from 2001 to 2006. In addition, despite the fact they have banned smoke ads on TV, children and teenagers can in any case see more than enough individuals smoking on programs and movies on television. This sort of “product placement” makes practices like smoking and drinking liquor appear okay. Moreover, kids who watch five or more hours of television everyday are much less averse to start smoking cigarettes than the individuals who watch less than the prescribed two hours a day. This evidence shows TV is full of programs and commercials that show risky behaviors than can affect the child’s action.

Television is a bad influence on kids. Some reasons why are kids who watch TV are more likely to be overweight, watching TV at an early age can affect children’s brain development, and TV is full of programs and commercials that show risky behaviors that can affect the child’s actions. Therefore, parents must be more aware of the hours your kids watch TV, and make your kids go outside and get active for a better future.

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Sources:

“How TV Affects Your Child” by Steven Dowshen, in Kidshealth, Nemours
“Television and Children” by Kyla Boyse, for University of Michigan Health System