Television And Development Of Children
These days with commercialization in all aspects of life, television contents have also been commercialised. The number of channels available on TV has increased resulting in competition. Due to the competition each channel tries to develop and telecast programmes to increase viewership to get maximum advertising revenue. In doing this, they sometimes forget that they have some social responsibility too. Thus TV has become a necessary evil in each house hold. Though it is a great source of education and entertainment but it can have adverse impact on adolescents if they view inappropriate programmes not suitable for their age.
It is essential that when you are watching TV with children, you should be particular in selecting the content. There is the tendency of some parents to watch some programmes and if the children are around, instead of shifting to some other channel they insist upon the child moving to another room. This causes suspicion in the mind of the child who will sneak to watch it when parents are not around. When watching TV together select some educative programmes like Discovery Channel, etc. These kind of knowledge sources are definitely benefits the children development and make positive effect on them.
It is essential to fix the time at which the children should watch TV. Subject to your approval let the children decide the content during this time. They can be allowed to watch some cartoon programmes or those that teach children to make craft objects etc. The tendency of some to make TV the child sitter is not good, some parents are happy when the child is sitting before the TV and not creating a problem for them. This way the child will become a TV addict.
Some parents adopt the extreme view that TV is not for children. They just don’t allow the children to watch TV but this is not a good practice. This way the child will develop the habit of watching TV in your absence or at some other place. A balanced view should be taken. While watching TV it will be good if side by side the counselling is done explaining good and evil aspect.