It has been

a while since I have written about television and video, but as computers

become more common and as satellite television gives us more and more

options, the issue is as important as ever.

We do not have

cable TV service or a satellite at our home, but over the holidays, we

were visiting with relatives who do. My children love TV and I recognized

how much time my children would be willing to waste on TV if they were

allowed.

An interesting

contradiction that I noticed was that the shows my children were watching

were good programs mostly educational shows. Cable TV, by far, has more

age-appropriate and productive programming than the networks.

Yet it just

isn't physically or cognitively healthy for a child (or adult, for that

matter) to sit in front of the television for hours at a time.

Children who

watch a lot of television, or spend several hours a day with computer

games, are more lethargic, and are physically less fit than children who

don't.

Children with

Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) show more aggressive and

uncontrollable behaviors if they are exposed to rapidly changing media

the very type of images that are common in video games and many television

programs.

A recent study

and Adolescent Medicine showed that the more television and video games

grade school children were exposed to, the more physically and verbally

aggressive they were. In turn, when children were exposed to less television

and video games, their aggressive behavior decreased.

This may seem

self-evident to you, but it is actually a new finding. It was once thought

that only children who were already aggressive were detrimentally affected

who were already aggressive to be more aggressive.

Yet this new

study presents the possibility that even nonaggressive children are more

aggressive based on television and video game exposure, and that reducing

exposure to these media can be a treatment for aggressive behavior in

both types of children those who are already aggressive and those who

are not.

We have chosen

to greatly reduce television exposure in our home simply by reducing our

options. Because we don't have cable, we only can receive three or four

channels. If you choose to have television or to let your children play

video games, I have a few suggestions for you.

First of all,

as with any other area of their lives, children need supervision. If you

let your child turn the television on and flip through two hundred channels

with no plan or direction, you are doing them a disservice.

The same is

true with computer games. Don't just let them play "some game"

they got "somewhere." Supervise what they are watching and evaluate

its appropriateness given the child's age, maturity, and level of responsibility.

Second, have

a plan. Sit down at the beginning of the week and select the television

shows that you would like to watch or that you want your children to watch.

Ask yourself

what the program provides for you or your children that is productive.

If it doesn't provide anything other than filling time, leave it off.

Preplanning

also avoids using the television to waste time as you repeatedly flip

through the channels looking for something interesting. I know that many

of us have experienced flipping through the channels for 15-30 minutes,

only to realize that there was nothing on worth watching. Hence, we wasted

that much time.

Finally, even

good things should have limits. Vitamins are good for you, but some vitamins

are actually toxic if you ingest too much.

Decide how

much time each day is to be allotted to television or video games. I suggest

two hours a day is plenty for children, but I would prefer even less.

Find other

things to substitute for sitting in front of the television or computer.

Reading, playing games with other family members, talking walks together,

bicycle riding, crafts, and talking about the day are all things we do

as a family during times when many families are all in separate rooms

watching the "tube."

The television

and computer are not evil things. They are tools that can be both useful

as well as destructive, depending on how responsibly we use them.