The longer children sit in front of the television, the greater the likelihood that a health disorder will develop – this does not have to be obesity, learning difficulties and behavioral problems also occur.
Children’s television viewing
A survey by the Criminological Research Institute of Lower Saxony, which examined, among other things, behavior of children and adolescents with regard to their television consumption, found:
- Nearly 40 percent of 10-year-olds already have their own television, computer or game console – with the figures closely linked to the educational attainment of their parents: The better that is, the more likely the children’s room is free of television.
- Children who have their own TV in their room watch much more TV than children whose TV consumption is on the family TV. Watching TV logically takes place more often in front of adults, who are also more likely to intervene if a program is not adult.
- Children who have their own computer or game console in the room, are twice as long daily with these devices busy, as children without their own devices.
This gives rise to various problems. For one, the risk of obesity increases with low physical activity and a sedentary lifestyle. Experts such as the Foundation for Child Health warn that there is growing evidence that amount of television consumption is closely related to lack of exercise and obesity, but on the other hand also promote behavioral problems, reading difficulties and an overall delayed mental development.
School entrance examinations already show that children who watch a lot of television are worse at drawing people. A lot of media consumption usually also means poorer school performance – concentration problems are a typical consequence. A long-term study in New Zealand showed that children who watch a lot of TV are still disadvantaged in their careers years later. They are much more likely not to graduate from high school – children who watch little TV are more likely to graduate from university.
These findings are consistent with studies from the U.S., Canada and Germany on the propensity to violence: game scenes in which violence is used in television programs or computer games increase the propensity to violence among children and adolescents and distort reality.
Adults behave the same way
In 2003, the EPIC-Norfolk study showed the link between physical inactivity, such as that practiced by many in front of the television, and obesity with an additional increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Daily exercise not only strengthens the cardiovascular system, but more importantly, it is a preventive measure against obesity and related diseases. The cross-sectional study of the population living in Norfolk, England, summarized data from 15,515 men and women between the ages of 45 and 74. Among other things, the researchers evaluated data on physical activity, time spent watching television each day, BMI (body mass index) and diastolic blood pressure. After evaluating the data, they came up with clear evidence of the link between frequent television viewing, obesity and increased risk of cardiovascular disease.
Active and Female – Female study participants who engaged in more than one hour of physical activity per week and watched less than two hours of television per day had a BMI 1.92 kilograms/square meter lower than women who reported less to no physical activity and daily television viewing of more than four hours.
Active and Male – Active, low-television-watching males had a BMI 1.44 kilograms/square meter lower than their inactive and television-watching fellow participants. There were also similar effects in terms of blood pressure. All of the sports mutes who watched several hours of television per day had correspondingly higher blood pressure, which can lead to the development of cardiovascular disease.
Study 1: Kriminologisches Forschungsinstitut Niedersachsen e.V.: Die PISA-Verloserer – Opfer ihres Medienkonsums (2007) Study 2: European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, television viewing and low participation in vigorous recreation are independently associated with obesity and markers of cardiovascular disease risk: EPIC-Norfolk population-based study, 1089-1096, (2003) 57.
