How TV Affects Kids - Research Paper Example

 The Dark Side of TV of Today’s Kids Most children spend most of their lives watching television especially in this era where mainstream media is full of captivating content such as animation. Scholars have hypothesized that viewing of television is causes obesity in children by either of the three mechanism: (1) physical activity being displaced, (2) there is an upsurge of calorie consumption while watching television, and (3) the resting metabolism is reduced. There is a very close link between television viewing and obesity as epidemiologic studies have examined. The first research that was conducted to link obesity and TV watching was in Harvard about 25 years ago. Substantial evidence has since been linked to obesity and TV watching, which has prompted organizations to recommend a limitation of TV watching. TV watching is doing more harm than good to children since it is linked to scenarios such as obesity, deterring brain development, and bad behavior. TV watching causes sluggish development of brain among small kids between 2-4 years. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that children under the age of 2 years should not watch any television set at all circumstances, and those more than 2 years but less than 4 years to watch TV not more 2 hours a day of quality programing. The first 2 years of a child are very critical as far as brain development is concerned. As the child get older the physical activity is affected, and this means that less play in part of the kid. Physical activities is very important in regards to burning of calories an increase the rate of metabolism. It is even worse if a child from the age of 2-4 years have a TV set in the bedroom, since the kid is likely to gain excessive weight. Early TV watching can have a long lasting effect when the child becomes an adult, and becomes obese either in midlife or adult (Erik et al. 1458; Parson et al. 1358). Studies have indicated that reduced TV watching in kids is very effective in improvement of body mass index (BMI) and body fat (Epstein et al. 112; Robison 1564). Due to such assertions the U.S authority on Community Preventive Service urges communities to embrace programs that are aimed to reduce the time of TV watching, since this there is sufficient evidence that it improves weight. Confectionaries like sweets, and biscuits eaten while watching TV is no doubt alarming. Another reason as to why obesity is associated with TV is the unhealthy dietary habits that kids will engage in while watching. When kids are watching television set they are likely to eat sugary snacks, soft drinks and less vegetables and fruits which is likely to increase calories in their body (Dubois et al. 1273). It has also been suggested that kids viewing television will be distracted regarding the amount of food consumed, which may lead overconsumption and enriched energy consumption (Temple et al. 358). Satiety signals are also reduced while a kid is watching a TV and eating at the same time (Bellissimo 747). TV advertising exposes kids to some eating habits that can contribute to obesity, which is food preference of highly processed and energy dense products. These are the candies and other sugary food that contain high levels of calories that will ultimately lead to obesity. It is estimated that a normal child views 20,000 commercials each year (AAP), and sugary cereals are strongly promoted and make up about 34% of the commercial advertised during children normal programming (Kotz and Story 1297). Sedentary behavior is linked to obesity, and TV viewing is a form of sedentary behavior. There are also some evidence that have linked high level of sedentary behavior with obesity, independent of levels of physical activities. Levels of physical activities should be distinguished from sedentary behavior especially in kids since they can have both forms of TV screen time and physical activity. Kids should be deterred from watching TV too much and neglect physical activities like playing. Poor performance of kids in school is also associated with TV watching.As reviewed in the preceding discussion that TV can affect the brain development of children it can also breed other negative effects. Repeated exposer to TV affects child’s mental and emotional development. Interactive experiences such as play are replaced by TV watching deterring effective brain development in kids. Too much watching of TV by early development stages of kids (ages 2-4 years) has been linked to various factors. The first is the poor performance of kids in schools, which is linked in comprehending languages (reading and writing). When these young kids are exposed to TV at these early ages they are likely to experience a delay in language development (American Academy of Pediatrics 424). Excessive watching of television lessen kids’ imagination, which is as a result of an overload on the visual part of the brain. The parts of the brain in charge of imagination and creative thought are under-utilized since TV watching doesn’t require these skills (American Academy of Pediatrics 425). Kids who watch excess TV are likely not to distinguish real world and television world. Problem focusing is also difficult since the many television slows the kids’ brain from paying attention and also the prompt stimulus of Television images makes the kid to become impatient in complex circumstances. TV will also affects kids in terms of violence acts they acquire as a result of watching too much television on the screen. It is estimated that before a kid reaches the age of 18 years they will have watched 200,000 violence acts. Due to this fact kids can become desensitized to aggression and violence. Kids will tend to imitate the violence act that they watch as they will consider it fun. The “hero and heroines” are perpetrated as the good guys, and kids love to imitate them. These characters teach the kids that it is not bad to be violent if you want something, and you should always be violent to protect those close to you. On the hand, parents will try to prohibit kids to avoid violence, which will make the kid to get confused on what is right or wrong. There also images that scare kids, the images are horrendous, it then becomes difficult to convince the kid that it is just fantasy and can’t happen in the real world. Behavior problems, lack of sleep due to the nightmares that they may have as a result of watching this images can be as a result of violence watched in the television. It is therefore more likely that the kids will be more violent when they are faced with problems since it is estimated that 10-20% of real life violence culminate from television (American Academy of Pediatrics 425) Television watching also exposes kids to engage in risky behavior that are depicted in TV commercials. These risky behavior includes acts such as cigarette smoking, taking of alcohol, doing drugs, and premarital sex, which is considered as fun, cool and exciting from some of the programs aired on the TV screens. It important to note that the TV screens don’t consider the consequence of such programs since they are after having more views. The sexual intercourse that the kids are likely to watch on televisions might lure them to imitate them before they attain a majority age. Alcoholic ads have greatly increased in the mainstream media exposing kids to these alcoholic more than ever. Curiosity will lure the kids to take alcoholic drinks at an early stage. These immoral behaviors that are not good for child development are in almost all the Television series and movies aired on TV, which is then wise for parents to control the content of what their kids are watching. TV watching causes a slow development of brain among children that will lead to poor performance in kids. There is less physical activities since it is involved when a child watches TV that makes less burning of fats. TV watching is sedentary activity and it leads to obesity. Diet is an issue while children are watching television since there is a high probability that they will eat confectionaries and other snacks that might contribute to obesity. Kids will likely be involved in violence activities and other uncouth behavior as a result of watching TV. There are violence scenes that children are likely to imitate as a result of watching TV. There are other risky behavior such as drug usage and smoking that children are likely to imitate as a result of watching TV. Though TV is a great source of information in this current generation, it has a dark side to our present kids. Work cited AAP: Television and the Family fact sheet American Academy of Pediatrics: AAP policy statement: Children Adolescents, and Television (RE0043), February 2001; 107:2 (423-426). Print Bellissimo N, Pencharz PB, Thomas SG, Anderson GH. Effect of television viewing at mealtime on food intake after a glucose preload in boys. Pediatric Research 2007; 61(6):745-9. Print Dubois L, Farmer A, Girard M, Peterson K. Social factors and television use during meals and snacks is associated with higher BMI among pre-school children. Public Health Nutrition 2008;11(12):1267-79. Print. Epstein LH, Valoski AM, Vara LS, et al. Effects of decreasing sedentary behavior and increasing activity on weight change in obese children. Health Psychol. 1995; 14:109-15. Print. Erik Landhuis C, Poulton R, Welch D, Hancox RJ. Programming obesity and poor fitness: the long-term impact of childhood television. Obesity (Silver Spring). 2008; 16:1457-9. Print. Guide to Community Preventive Services. Obesity prevention and control: behavioral interventions to reduce screen time, 2008. Accessed January 30, 2012. Print. Kotz K, Story M. Food advertisements during children's Saturday morning television programming: are they consistent with dietary recommendations? J Am Diet Assoc. 1994; 94:11 (1296-300). Print. Parsons TJ, Manor O, Power C. Television viewing and obesity: a prospective study in the 1958 British birth cohort. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2008; 62:1355-63. Print. Robinson TN. Reducing children’s television viewing to prevent obesity: a randomized controlled trial. JAMA. 1999; 282:1561-7. Print. Temple JL, Giacomelli AM, Kent KM, Roemmich JN, Epstein LH. Television watching increases motivated responding for food and energy intake in children. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2007; 85(2):355-61. Print. 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