Community Magazine August 2006

 ”  Av 5766 August 2006 27 ment programming (7.9 instances per hour) than on adult-oriented television (4.7 instances per hour). While very telling, these statistics alone don’t answer the real questions. At a time when kids are tuning in at record numbers, for longer periods and to new kinds of shows, does this pattern have an effect on their lives? To what extent is TV influencing children? And how is it affecting their behavior? With over 5,000 published studies on the effect of TV on children, the answers to these ques- tions are well documented. And although in many respects, the Jewish Sephardic community in America enjoys a certain degree of cultural isolation, according to educators in our community schools, television is undoubtedly the most powerful common denominator which connects us to general society. So while our families may have some slightly different viewing patterns, by and large, the numerous studies on television are quite applicable to us. The effects of TV viewing can be divided into two major catego- ries: the psychological influence and lessons learned from watching specific television programs and commercials; and the physical and psychological consequences of simply sitting in front of a TV screen for four and a half hours a day. It should be noted however, that since about 99 percent of American homes have at least one television, most studies on the effects of television could not make use of true “control groups” of children that did not watch television at all, because such subjects are rare. Instead, researchers generally compared kids who watched less TV with those who watched more. Nevertheless, the results of these studies are extremely telling. What they’re Watching For most parents, educational broadcasts top the list of what they would like their children to watch. As programming expands, more educa- tional shows and documentaries are available. On the other hand, a preponderance of com- mercials for unhealthy foods; frequent displays of drug and alcohol use and abuse – often with no negative consequences; extreme, recurrent and often gratuitous violence; and casual and frequent promiscuity or indecent behavior, are all also prominently presented on TV. Both extremes are worth examining. A School in a Box By incorporating a rich set of visual stimuli, tele- vision can greatly enhance the learning experience, expanding comprehension, retention and subject interest. Several stations, including PBS, the Discovery Channel, the History Channel, the Learning Channel and others, boast educational content that can be both informative and inter- esting. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), studies show that preschool children who watch educational TV programs do better on reading and math tests than children who do not watch those programs (as noted above all the groups in these studies watched some form of television and so there is no data comparing the performance of pre-school kids who did not watch TV at all). Still, the AAP recommends limiting children’s exposure to TV, movies, and video and computer games to a total of no more than one or two hours per day. And additionally, the AAP strongly recommends that children under two not be exposed to TV at all. Some studies have suggested that even educational programs, when introduced at a young age, act to reduce children’s attention span and accustom them to a multimedia experience that leads them to perceive classroom instruction as boring. But perhaps the biggest drawback of educational programming is that, during the airing of such broadcasts, children almost always have access to more stimulating, non-educational programming on other channels; and so they will rarely opt to watch a documentary when they know that a sitcom is only a click away on the remote. The Fat Food Phenomenon Aside from the pro- grams, children are also influenced by the commer- cials they watch – and most commercials targeting kids are advertising unhealthy foods. This thesis was proven in an article called, “Nutritional Content of Foods Advertised During the Television Programs Children Watch Most” in the American Journal of Public Health from September 2005. According to the study, the average child views over 40,000 commercials per year, mostly for sugared cere- als, candies, and fast foods. As early as 1985, children’s television consumption was linked with an increased risk for obesity and a 1991 study revealed that there were an average of 200 junk food ads in four hours of children’s cartoons. Although parents are typically responsible for the contents of the family pantry, television adver- tising has certainly demonstrated that it plays an important role in children’s food purchases and purchase requests. A study from the Harvard School of Public Health in December 2003 even went a step further, indicating that for every additional hour each day that kids watched television, their fruit and vegetable consumption was reduced by one serving every six days. Just Say… Yes? It’s not just ads for junk food that flash before young eyes. Kids are also learning about alcohol at a young age, and an alarming number are turning into underage drinkers. A study from the April issue of the