The effects of excessive television viewing free essay sample

Television viewing can effect a child positively or negatively. Positive views of television are that TV can entertain the child as well as educate them it can also open them up to other places and things in the world that can’t be seen from their home town. However, too much television can be harmful to the child. According to Statistic Brain Research (2012) children spend 1,480 minutes per week watching television. That is nearly 25 hours a week of television viewing. Allowing a child to watch that much television could effect the child’s behavior depending on what is they are watching and its health by allowing a child to watch television and snack. Parents often give their child a snack and put them in front of television to get things done around the house. Are They harming a child by doing so? UNIT 2 IP Introduction Discussed in this essay are 2 effects that excessive television watching has on children and what parents can do to help prevent those effects. We will write a custom essay sample on The effects of excessive television viewing or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page There are many effects of television but health and behavior are two of the most common effects it has on children. How Television effects their health Typically parents give their child snacks as they watch television. Allowing a child to snack while watching TV can lead to that child being overweight. Your child’s metabolism slows down which means they burn less calories. The TV ads encourage unhealthy eating habits by advertising fast foods and beverages that are high in sugar. 2/3rds of the 20,000 television ads an average child sees each year are generally for foods and snacks that are not healthy for them. Those ads are shown during the after school hours when  children are normally watching television upon doing other things. Watching television replaces children’s physical activity like going outside and playing. Little to no physical activity and those sugary beverages and fast foods tends to make the child gain weight because they are not moving around enough to burn those calories. How Television Effects Their Behavior By the age of 18 the average American child will see nearly 200,000 violent acts and 16,000 of them being murders. Children TV often contain more violence than adult TV. Cartoon where the super hero â€Å"the good guy† kills the villains â€Å"the bad guy† encourages violence and leads children to think that is the right thing to do. Shows tends to honor violence as a way to get what they want (i. e. bullying). Continued viewing of these types of shows can lead to a child becoming less affectionate to others. It can also affect them in the opposite away by traumatizing and frightening the child. Being frighten by TV can lead to nightmares, afraid of the dark, and not wanting to be alone. Children may view the world as a bad, mean or scary place after watching TV of such content. What Can You Do As a Parent? As a parent you can: Lead by example Monitor what the child watches Encourage them to do other things outside of watching television Limiting the amount of TV the child watch Get them involved in an after school program (i. e. clubs, sports) By doing the things listed above you prevent the child just sitting inside snack watching TV and being inactive. Getting your child to become more active prevents the child from being overweight and many other health problems associated with unhealthy eating and lack of physical activity. A key point is to lead by example. If you as the parent sit and watch television for long periods of time and eat the wrong the foods the child will think it is okay for them to do the same. They will also rebel you and not listen thinking well if mom does it so can I. CONCLUSION In closing a child watching too much TV is harmful can lead to many poor effects on children. Being active and involved in the child life by monitoring what they watch, and preventing the child from being exposed to the negative shows and rated r things on television prevents your child from those poor effects of television.