Children are like a new white paper, they will write all the things that they see and hear. It’s our obligation to filter the information that came into them, which is a good one and which is a bad one. Television (TV) is the easy way out. Sure we can sit the kids down in front of it and then go do our own thing without listening to the screaming, fighting and constant questions from our children. TV as one of source information has several things that parents must aware to their children’s development in order to avoid the negative effects of watching too much TV. Bad behavior, poor health and wasted time are the problems that result from children’s watching too much TV. These Problems generally happen to the children as individual who can be influenced easily by something new or recur activities and TV is source information where children can get it easily.
The first problem will be discussed in this short essay is bad behavior. This problem actually happens when children imitate what’s on TV programs. When we say about bad behavior, we must identify what programs that directly trigger children to imitate. In general, there are three main programs that must be pay attention because it can influence behavior of children. Sometimes TV provides inappropriate movie programs that present violence, sex, romantic scene, slang language, and bad attitude. For example, the scene in Sinchan , one of movie program from Japan, that often imitate by children. The children will act as they have seen in that movie like: say a harsh word, see pornography, do violence, and do inappropriate activities. Moreover, Children who had viewed violent programming exhibited more aggressive behavior than children who had viewed a sports program. This shows a correlation between violent programming and violent behavior. Next program is criminal news programs. These programs teach children how to do a crime. For example, steal, use drugs, and violation. And the last program is news entertainment programs. The way of life that shows by public figure or celebrity is not a good example for children. Glamour, lavish, free sex, violence and drugs are something that common for them. Bad behavior is one of negative effect of TV for children. Therefore, we must pay attention for three programs that have been stated on top. Check the TV listings, preview programs, come up with a family TV schedule, watch TV together, and talk to kids about what they see on TV are activities that can be carried out by parent in order to filter children’s bad behavior as one of negative effect of TV.
Another side effect of watching TV too much is poor health. Sitting all days in front of TV can affect children health both physical and physiological effect. In Physical effect, children will have a weak body. Television could contribute to childhood obesity, eyesight problems, obesity, sleep disruption, diabetes, hormonal changes and the triggering of autism. Because they seldom play outside, their body will not train well and can be easily attack by diseases. In physiological effect, they will become an introvert or shy person. Children need to develop relationship skill. However television can decrease interactions with one another, and stunt the development of their friend relationships. The children must teach to communicate well and develop relationship skills. TV won’t help them to solve this and TV also giving one side of communication in which children only receives without able to give a feedback. The ways to solve these problems, both physical and physiological effect of TV, are try to communicate with them in many times and tell them to play outside with their friends. So that, they train to communicate with each other and they also will get a healthy body. Another side effect of watching TV too much is influence children’s health both physical and physiological effect. Thus, we must see TV as one of problem for our children’s health and watch this problem carefully in order to choose the action to face with this problem.
Finally, the last problem caused by TV is that waste children’s time. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that kids under 2 years old not watch any TV and that those older than 2 watch no more than 1 to 2 hours a day of quality programming. They can use time for other activities rather then watching TV. They can play outside home and develop their ability in physical action, sports, or other useful activities. Furthermore, they can use time to study, do homework, read some books, and take a rest (because children can arrive in school tired and exhausted from watching too much television). Limit the number of TV-watching hours and offer fun alternatives to television are activities that paren do to fill children’s time with more useful activities. TV can waste children’s time. Hence, parent must wise to choose alternative activities for their children in order to develop children’s potential talent rather then watching TV too much and waste their time.
There are three problems that can be caused by watching too much TV for children. They are bad behavior, poor health and wasted time. Therefore, we must wise to choose programs and limit the number of TV-watching hours for our children. We need to let TV be a tool instead of a replacement for our children’s communication. We must take up the reigns again raise our future generations the right way, by good old human contact. Begin now, leave the TV and let the human touch for our children’s future in order to overcome bad behavior, poor health and wasted time that happen to our children when they watch TV too much.
(Taken from My English Task)
