Community Magazine August 2006

 ”  W atching TV is second only to sleeping as the most popular activity for American kids, occupying about 1,655 hours of their time annually – roughly twice the amount of time they spend in a classroom. According to Nielsen Media Research, the world’s leading provider of television audience measurement, the average American over two years old spent an average of 4 hours and 32 minutes per day, watching TV from 2004-2005 (the most current year for which data is available) – an increase of 12.5 percent over the past decade and the highest level ever reported since television viewing was first measured by Nielsen in the 1950’s. What are kids watching? According to USA today, television broadcast 27 hours of children’s programming a week, in the 1960s, much of it shown simultaneously on Saturday morning. Today, with 14 television networks broadcasting content aimed at children 24 hours a day, seven days a week, kids can choose from over 2,352 hours of targeted programming each week. Yet the most popular show with children, American Idol, isn’t on any of those networks. That kids are not watching only those programs geared to their age group should not be particularly surprising, since in the vast majority of households just about all channels are available to them. On average, about 40 percent of a 6-year-old’s viewing time, and about 80 percent of a 12-year-old’s viewing time is spent watching content intended for adults. According to a report by Barron’s, the prime time evening hours are the most popular time slot for chil- dren, ages two to eleven. Even the much heralded “V-chip” which was supposed to allow parents to restrict programs based on a rating system has gone largely unused since its introduction in 1999. In a study by the Annenberg Center, 110 families with children were given new TV sets containing V-chips and the parents were given extensive operating instructions on its use. At the end of one year, 77 families reported that they’d never tried the device, while just 8 percent claimed to be using it. The study concludes that the per- centage of V-chip users in the general population – who’ve never received any training – is likely to be even lower. But whether children’s programming is really better for kids in the first place, is a point of contention in itself. In a March 2006 study on children’s television, the Parents Television Council (PTV) found that there is actually more violence on children’s entertain- 26 Community Magazine By: Dave Gordon