Toddlers Glued to Tube, Study Says
by Jason Collum
January 6, 2004
(AgapePress) - A recent study reveals that a large majority of young kids are spending a significant amount of time in front of electronic media -- and experts aren't sure what the long-term effects of that habit will be.The study, released by the Kaiser Family Foundation, found that 68% of children age two and under spend an average of two hours a day either in front of the TV, the computer, or playing video games.
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"We don't know the long-term consequences of such early media use, particularly electronic media use, on children's development," said study co-author Ellen Wartella, dean of the College of Communication at the University of Texas at Austin.
Such obsession with electronic media has been linked by previous studies to obesity and poorer reading ability, and some groups worry that kids are negatively influenced by the violence, sexual content, and substance abuse so prevalent on TV.
In an interview with USA Today, Wartella did not make those links to television, but did state that the study results should be a "wake-up call that we better do some studies to find out the impact of such early screen viewing. It's not just a few kids who are doing this. It's a lot."
Jason Collum, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a staff writer for AFA Journal, a monthly publication of the American Family Association. This article appeared in the January 2004 issue.
