The Negative Effects of Television on Children

Children are our greatest gauge of how we as parents are doing our utmost to achieve what we may or may not want to see in their behavior. We exemplify in our behavior how our children are to be molded. Often times, as parents, we forget that our children are magnets for our attention and mimic our behavior. Most of what we see on television, depending on the household, is either reality television, reruns, shows that are fictional in nature, and a choice of genre of movies. What truly depicts the television experience are the commercials that insult our intelligence, are not edited for children, and show odd or dangerous behavior within a 30 second time period. Whatever children see and hear, and without strict instruction, he or she may do the inevitable and this doctrine of watching television can be the difference between life and death.

Does anyone remember the crash car dummies? Back in the year 1991, there was a new commercial for the crash car dummies toy. These dummies would be in a toy car and had the ability to crash into a wall and the commercial showed how the crash car dummies would be after the crash. Of course they were plastic and there was no damage done to these dummies. It was a game of how to crash a car with make-shift dummies and how cool it was to see them crash.

One day I was driving home from a friend's home and my husband and I pulled into the driveway and I put the car in park. My son was in his car seat in the back and knew how to take the restraints off. At the time he was four years old. He jumped into the front seat between my husband and me and turned to me and said, "Look ma I am a crash car dummy"...he jumped up and crashed his head into the windshield. He cracked the windshield and had a nice bump on his head. To the fault of my husband and I and the Gulf War, this commercial was seen by him at least ten times. My son actually wanted this for a Christmas present. Needless to say, my mother and I called the company and complained. My mother actually threatened to sue although; I had not intentions of suing. The moral of the story...I spoke to my son about the incident and explained how this commercial was not real and it was just a toy and since this time, the television was off limits unless there was a good quality show or movie that was being shown. The company stopped showing ads for their product. I wonder how many other children had this same problem.

Television definitely harms children in irreparable ways. What is reality in life is not reality in television. Children need to know the difference.