Studies have shown that too much TV viewing by children can lead to violence, substance abuse and obesity.

"Children and adolescents are especially vulnerable to the messages communicated through television, which influence their perceptions and behaviours," explains Dr. Miriam E. Bar-on, a professor at Loyola University Stritch School of Medicine in Maywood, Illinois. "Many younger children cannot discriminate between what they see and what is real."

In her just published review of studies on the subject, she notes that children and adolescents spend, on average, more time in front of the television than in the classroom. In fact, many will have spent more than 3 years watching television by the time they graduate from high school.

And the lessons learned by watching TV, such as the glamorization of violent behavior, drinking, and smoking, can be detrimental to a child's health.

Television has also been shown to affect the eating habits and physical activity levels of young people. As TV viewing has risen over the past three decades, so too has the weight of the nation's children, with several studies citing TV as a causative factor.

The amount of sexual incidents that occur on TV programs during prime-time viewing (between 8:00-9:00 p.m), formerly known as "family hour", has increased more than four-fold since 1976. This block of time was formerly described as "family hour."

Dr. Bar-on notes that both parents and doctors can take action to help alleviate this problem.

Specifically, parents should:

• Watch TV with their children
• Help them choose programs
• Teach children to watch with a critical eye
• Limit time spent in front of the television.

Doctors could help to minimize TV's harmful effects by:

• Becoming educated about the public health risks
• Asking parents about their child's viewing habits
• Advocating for media education programs in schools.
  

"It is important that pediatricians and parents jointly implement prevention campaigns and strategies," concludes Bar-on. "The effect on both children and adolescents, and the community will be much greater with a joint effort."

Archives of Disease in Childhood 2000;83:289-292.