'TV in Teens Bedrooms Part of 'Media Bombardment'

Ed Thomas - OneNewsNow
4/17/2008 11:00:00 AM

Parents who have long suspected their adolescent children might be adversely affected by televisions in their bedrooms now have some statistical research that seems to back up their concerns.

Reuters News reports that the study by the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, which took place in 2003 and 2004, found that of 781 teens ranging from ages 15 to 18, more than 60 percent of them had a TV in their bedroom. These teens also showed negative effects such as lower grade averages for boys, less exercise for girls, fewer healthy food items eaten by both genders, and less participation in family meals than the non-TV participants.

Dr. Susan Linn, director of a children's advocacy coalition called Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood and author of the book Consuming Kids, says research shows that putting TVs into bedrooms only helps to accelerate media bombardment that has severely detrimental results.

"The media is so seductive, and we know that it's habituating ... so putting a TV in their bedroom just sort of says, 'Go ahead -- watch all you want. Don't worry about it.' I think that's really sad," Linn contends. "It's just really a disaster for kids. There's such pressure on them to be media-saturated," she adds.

The American Academy of Pediatrics urges parents to remove TV sets from their children's bedrooms, and Linn believes children and teens need the help of their parents to set healthy limits on their time with media.

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I totally agree. I don't think younger kids or younger teens should have T.V.'s in their rooms.

I know from experience many parents think T.V.'s are wonderful babysitters, and I think kids should certainly have a limited amount of time on a daily basis. I know the kids I watch could easily come home from and not step away from the T.V. until bed time, and then still beg for more. When I first started watching them they literally spent every day in the summer until about 5pm PLASTERED to the T.V. until I finally decided to peel them away from it.


Thankfully the T.V. battle is something I very rarely have to fight anymore with them because we spend that previous T.V. time doing something they like more. Now I'm able to use T.V. as a treat (movie time) and not have them take advantage of it, and it works wonderfully.

I don't really watch that much TV.

We have a tremendous furore here at the moment regarding the effects of obsessive computer use on Bebo, My Space, Face Book , You Tube, etc., among young teenagers, especially 13,14,15 age, girls. Parents are just waking up to the problem facing them. Even kind of group suicides seem to be involved. One village in Wales seems to have lost about 8 or so kids who knew each other that way, one after the other.

46% of all violence on T.V. occurs in Cartoons. :I

TV in the bedroom is the same as TV anywhere else. Moderation is key regardless of the location of the set.

It's not so much only the violence, FMJ. It's the violence that's been targeted because it's shocking but the worst is always subliminal. The quality of life portrayed... the way rich people are portrayed (only playing, none of the hard work ever makes it there).... how TV crises can be solved in 30 minutes... that sort of stuff.
Also the exposure of actors, singers... basically entertainers... and how they end up becoming role models.
If you get most of your information from a book, you bypass entertainers for the most part. Even if it's something you read for fun, writers of books are usually pretty well informed (also depends on what kind of book you read).
I just don't watch much of TV anymore because I can't stand the junk.