CHILDREN AND MEDIA

VIOLENCE

Presented To:
Mr. Manzoor Ali Memon
Media Research

Prepared By:
Syed Ahsan Ali Shah
MBA-MM

1
 Contents
Introduction 4
Topic 4
Literature Review 5
Nature of violence on television 8
TV violence is still glamorized 9
TV violence continues to be sanitized or trivialized 9
High risk portrayals in cartoons 9
Hypothesis 10
Determination of Methodology and Research 10
Data Collection 12
What about TV violence? 13
For more on TV violence and kids: 14
Can TV scare or traumatize kids? 14
Can TV influence children’s attitudes toward themselves and others? 15
How are children portrayed on TV? 15
Can TV affect my child’s health? 16
Children who watch more TV are more likely to be overweight 16
Children may attempt to mimic stunts seen on TV 16
Promotes high–risk behavior in adolescents 16
Analysis and Interpretation of Data 17
Usage of Media technologies by children 17
Television 17
Internet 17
Television and Videos 18
Impact of the media on children 18
Potential benefits 20
Areas of potential harm 20
Violence 20
Obesity 21
Harmful Substances 22
Suicide 22
Sexual behavior 23
Child Pornography 23
Sexual Solicitation 23
The impact of marketing to children 24
Child Mental Health 25
Eating Disorders 25
Physical health and development 25
Recommendations 26
Set limits on the amount of time spent watching TV 26
The best rule is no TV during the week and limited weekend TV 26
Minimize the influence of TV in your home 26

2
 Watch television with your children and talk about what you
are watching 27
Pay attention to what is in the TV shows your child watches 28
Set a good example 28
Plan a weekly TV schedule and teach your child to turn off
the TV set at the end of their show 28
Avoid letting children younger than 2 years old watch
television 29
Teach your child how to use TV to their benefit and find
good programs 29
Annexure-1 30
Questionnaire 30
Annexure-2 33
References 33

3
INTRODUCTION

Throughout the last two decades, ever-larger parts of the world were swamped by
TV sets and satellite channels. In 1996, 7 out of 10 family units global were
estimated to own a TV set. This represented a 100 percent raise in terms of channel
growth, hours of television watched and television sets crazed by family units since
the end of the 1980s. In accumulation to satellite television there were videos and
DVDs. Furthermore, computers with Internet connection are spreading, particularly
among well-to-do households and countries, and the video and computer game
business has become the fastest growing and most profitable entertainment business
aimed at children and young people. Cell phones are multiplying exponentially. The
hotheaded media growth is accompanied by a gigantic increase of conventional
publicity and an abundance of new forms of commercial exposure.

The altering and converging media backdrop has strengthened public debate as
considers both wishes and worries. On the one hand, the media flood, which is
increasingly sovereign of time and place, has provoked opportunity of greater
freedom of choice, equal access to information for all, and helping means for
classlessness and vigorous citizenship. On the other hand, there is also fear of, i.e.,
regularity of the media output; more violent entertainment; discriminating portrayals
of gender, social groups, cultures and nations; pornography; and direct
infringements on the Internet. This could have undesired consequences for
consumers, not least children and young people, besides risks of media addiction and
an unnecessary point of reference towards more consumption.

At the same time, the enlarging media equipment in the richer households/areas of
the world, where many children and young people have their own TV sets, DVD
players, computers, mobile phones, etc., have meant that parents know less about
and mediate their children’s media use to a lesser level than before. Children have
emotional relationships with media but several children express lack of
communication with their parents about the media.

TOPIC

The here anticipated research project on “Children and Media Violence” is to

generate pointers for Media Public Responsibility so that, carefully all these
understandings, deeds, affirmations, resolutions and recommendations take into
consideration while fulfilling that liability.

The research project proposed here will take the lack of commitment of media
towards its responsibilities and try to elaborate quantifiable indicators for media
organizations and any company related to the media since media contents are
applicable also to them.

Thus, the research analysis will offer material for developing indicators for a media
public responsibility guide that the media and their stakeholders around the world

4
will be able to apply to their shared responsibility projects as a mark of moral
standards and right considerations of the privileges of the child in the creation of
media contents that children utilize. The aim of the analysis is to find a media social
responsibility guide, which contributes to more varied media contents that engage
and authorize children and young people and give them significant insights into their
life, relationships and communal problems.

LITERATURE REVIEW

In today’s world, we see violence occurrence at several different intensities and

originating from diverse sources. There is a mixture of complex causes liable for this.
Therefore, an analysis of the happening of violence should be objective, free from
guilt and the rhetoric’s of individual, political and ethical viewpoints.

Pakistan is deeply involved today in an exercise to analyze and understand the

reasons for the prolonged ethnic clash which has overwhelmed the nation for more
than two decades and established a deep-rooted culture of violence within the
society due to overrun effects. It is difficult for us to understand how a society which
was raised in the great tradition of sub continent could turn as violent as it enters
into the 21st century.

No country in the world has been able to protect itself from the modernization
process that developed in different shapes at different times. Pakistan too has been
subjected to this process since independence and even before that. The immigrants
introduced a new political system, a new economy, a new infrastructure and new
values in the name of modernization. However, we have been trying since
independence to give a more narrow essence to the modernization process. This is
very much mirrored in the institutions we have created for governance, culture,
education, management of the economy etc.

But we now understand that something has gone incorrect. The silence, harmony
and much cherished social values have been plagued by turpitude, which is regularly
reflected in aggression in settling human problems. In this situation some questions
arise: is this modernity that we have been desperately chasing a fantasy? Is it a
systems failure? Has our failure to put in place a system to effectively respond to
human expectations generated by the modernization forces contributed to the
present dilemma of society? Has media played any part, deliberately or
unconsciously, in highlighting and securing this situation?

In the hunt for an answer to this critical catastrophe, people from different
disciplines often try to attribute the causes of the problem by inclination towards
their own field of erudition and specialization to a certain extent than by accepting a
holistic approach. Based on such thinking, they try to set down linear approaches to
the solutions. For instance, biologists assume that violence, especially of males, is
the result of evolutionary variation and can therefore be channeled but not conquer;
psychologists, in compare, believe that violence is learned and, therefore ,

5
nonviolence can be learned through the process of socialization; jurists believe that a
lack of awareness and absence of the risk of authorization are the causes of
increasing violence; sociologists point to structural tensions; moralists believe that
the degradation of moral values in the face of alien cultures is the root cause of
violent behavior. They often find an easy escape from the problem by pointing a
finger at the media and its persistent influence, or something else which does not
subscribe to their own translation of “society”.

In the meantime, violence continues to amplify exponentially. Melko, for example,

notes that while there have been only two major conflicts in the developed world,
since 1945 more than 14 million people have been killed in the Third World alone.
Furthermore, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimated that in
1989 there were over 17 million refugees in the world who are largely victims of
internal conflicts and another 20 million internally displaced persons. There are those
who even suggest that this total may double in the 21st century.

The world today is grappling with a huge number of problems of immense

complexity. Many countries in the Asia, Africa and Pacific regions have lately
experienced different forms of violence or are still in the midst of such awful actions.
In these circumstances, we often see the mass media directly and indirectly
broadcasting and popularizing different forms of violence.

Unluckily, this is so constant in such a diverse region as the Asia Pacific. However,
multiplicity should not be seen as a threat, but rather as an enhancement of human
community. The encouragement of diversity and pluralism can lead us to cooperation
and collaboration within and outside of our countries. If cultural dialogue is
institutionalized, many existing differences and conflicts at the international and
regional levels could be settled harmoniously. In this respect, the media have a
major role to play in increasing the awareness of the audience with a view to
nurturing tranquility and mutual respect between peoples.

Fresh communication technologies can help discussion take place globally. Advances
in mass media and satellite communications are breaking down the conventional
hurdles among nations and their different cultures, helping to renovate our planet
into a “global village”. In spite of these technological wonders, the diversity of
human culture is, and will continue to be, a reality.

The challenge before us now is, how can we serve the public interest in the best way,
with the objective of making a encouraging difference in societies?

In order to explore these questions and come up with action strategies, the Asia
Pacific Institute of Broadcasting Development, together with several partners,
namely the Embassies of Switzerland, Germany and France, with the Goethe
Institute Inter Nations, British Council and Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, brought together
high-ranking officials, decision-makers, media professionals, scientists and university

6
scholars from different and diverse cultural and theoretical backgrounds, in
November 2002. The constructive and interactive three-day seminar looked into the
areas where media could contribute to reduce violence and facilitate crisis
management.

This journal is the conclusion of the ideas and strategies presented and discussed at
the seminar. The presentations contribute to the analysis of the role of media in
crises and discuss some of the issues related to violence and modernity. We attempt
a rethinking of modernity in all its diverse forms, in the context of the occurrence of
violence in modern society. This rethinking depends on a new hypothetical
estimation of modernity as well as examination of case studies and practical data to
arrive at a healthier understanding of violence and modernity and the role of mass
media.

As a result, the publication is not restricted to either a purely theoretical discussion

or an analysis of pragmatic data, but aims at integrating both with a view to coming
up with common strategies in dealing with the challenges to promoting dialogue and
peace nationally, regionally and globally. We hope that this attempt is valuable to
media professionals and scientists in their efforts to promote a peaceful world.

Evolution as we know it centering largely on the communication revolution that has

steered in the age of mass media. Globalization has encouraged new forms of
communication on the financial, political, social and cultural fronts. In this new world
order, the media play a momentous role in providing information from corner to
corner geographical borders.

People all over the world now have ways to sounds and images from distant places -
within their own country or far beyond. Products of mass culture distributed by a few
great media corporations footed in the USA, Europe and Japan make their way
regularly into our homes together with local products of large media corporations.

As an opening of information, media exercises much power both to support and

destroy, to manipulate and reform. It is not just a provider of entertainment but is
increasingly a vendor of social change and development. Television is not the only
medium our children are exposed to but it is the most undeniable one. It is cheap
and accessible and, at seemingly no cost, delivers entertainment right in our living
room. With children spending an average of 3 hours daily in front of the television, it
is easily the most popular out-of-school activity. Thus, it has become the medium
with the most telling effect on the way our children think and behave, in shaping
their habits and attitudes and how they view the world.

But when violence is a leading part of that media, what could be the impact on
children? When children grow up into the real world, where violence is only part of
daily life experiences, what is the relationship between violence in real life and the

7
violence they see on screen?

When we talk about violence, we take it to mean any anti-social behavior with the
intention to harm a living being. The most common form of violence is physical
violence but we must also include verbal abuse, intimidation, and aggressive humor
and other forms of aggression. All these types of violence are seen on many
television programmes to which children are exposed. A wealth of research that has
been done on this subject and it has been well established that there is a strong
relationship between media violence and the learning of aggression. It has also been
established that the continued exposure to media violence leads to desensitization,
meaning that people are no longer upset or aroused when they witness violence.

Children’s perceptions of the world are prejudiced by what they see on television.
When they are continually exposed to violence on television, it is not surprising that
they might come to view their world as a fearful and crime-ridden place. Most
studies show that the relation between media violence and real violence is interactive
– the media do contribute to an aggressive culture. People who are already
aggressive use the media as further confirmation of their beliefs and attitudes; the
media, in turn, reinforce these attitudes. Therefore, mass media simply cannot exist
in a vacuum.

Media practitioners need to always work within the context and realities of society. In
this sense, media and society are irrevocably interconnected, what happens to one
automatically affects the other.

Nature of violence on television

In the year 2000, the Philippine Children’s Television Foundation, with the help of the
Goethe Institute of Manila, undertook what is probably the first in-depth study of the
extent and nature of violence on Philippine television. While there have been
significant studies undertaken in Europe or the United States, there was little
empirical and quantitative information from the Philippines. We felt that it would be
an important step to take stock of the situation and provide hard facts to support the
fight against media violence.

Another landmark study, the US National Television Violence Study, formed the
framework for the Philippine study primarily because, probably like most countries in
Asia, Philippine television is largely dominated or influenced by programmes
exported from the United States.

Results from our study were shocking but hardly unforeseen. It revealed that that
50% of TV programmes contained violence in one form or another. For every hour
that they watch, children are exposed to 6.2 counts of violence. Taking into account
that children spend on average almost 3 hours daily watching television, children in
the age group 2-12 years old could view an average of 13 incidents of violence a

8
day. When this figure is multiplied by a week, a month, or a year, there is, certainly,
severe reason for fear.

When is violence most likely to be present? 50% of violent programmes occur in the
5-9 p.m. time slot, which is also the time that the greatest number of children aged
2-17 years watch television. Violence occurs most often in action-adventure
programmes which, unfortunately, are the most popular type for programmes
targeted at children.

The Philippine study supported the findings of its US counterpart with regard to the
nature and context of violence. It was concluded that the way that most TV violence
is portrayed continues to pose risks to viewers.

TV violence is still glamorized

Nearly 40% of violent incidents are initiated by characters that possess qualities that
make them attractive role models. Another aspect of glamorization is that physical
aggression on television is often condoned since, more often than not, characters
who use violence are never punished anywhere in the plot, some even rewarded. The
programme usually presents aggression as a normal way of solving conflicts and the
“reward characteristics” are more systematically promoted than non-aggressive ways
of coping with one’s problems.

TV violence continues to be sanitized or trivialized

Television regularly pays no attention to or under-estimates what happens to the
sufferers of violence. The consequences of violence are seldom portrayed
realistically. In reality, roughly half of the violent incidents on TV show no physical
damage or pain to the victim. More often than not, violent programmes do not depict
the long term damage suffered by the victim’s family, friends and community, not to
mention the victims themselves.

Violent behaviors on television are pretty serious in nature. If this were to occur in
real life, the results would be lethal or, at the very least, devastating. Even in cases
of very serious forms of aggression, much of this violence is undermined by humor.
When violence is made to seem unimportant because it occurs in very humorous
situations, it can contribute to both desensitization and learning of aggression among
audience.

High risk portrayals in cartoons

Certain portrayal of violence creates more potential harm to viewers because they
contain several plan elements that contribute to making the use of violence very
smart. These are labeled high-risk portrayals of violence. These high-risk violence
portrayals involve a performer who is an attractive role model, violence that seems
justified, violence that goes unpunished, minimal consequences to the victim and
violence that seems realistic to the viewers. For children under the age of 7, high-

9
risk portrayals of violence that educate aggression are found most often in cartoons,
unfortunately the most popular genre for this age group.

Very young children are less able to distinguish fantasy from reality on television.
Thus, for preschoolers and younger elementary school children, cartoon violence and
fantasy violence cannot be dismissed or exonerated because it is unrealistic. Indeed,
younger children identify strongly with superheroes and fantastic cartoon characters
and often learn from and imitate such portrayals.

HYPOTHESIS

There is an ongoing discussion on the amount of the effects of media violence on

children and young people, and how to examine these effects. The aim of this review
is to consider the research evidence from a public-health viewpoint. There is
constant evidence that violent imagery in television, film and video, and computer
games has considerable short-term effects on provocation, feelings, and emotions,
increasing the likelihood of aggressive or scared behavior in younger children,
especially in boys. The evidence becomes inconsistent when considering older
children and teenagers, and long-term outcomes for all ages. The multifactor nature
of aggression is emphasized, together with the methodological difficulties of showing
causation. Nevertheless, a small but significant association is shown in the research,
with an effect size that has a substantial effect on public health. By contrast, only
weak confirmation from correspondence studies links media violence directly to
crime.

Media technologies (TV, video, games, Internet, music, mobile phones) have brought
about a substantial change in the experience of childhood in our society. These
changes depart many parents unprepared for the challenge on how to control their
child’s time with such technologies.

There is now good evidence about the impact on children from media technologies,
and that this constitutes a health issue. Professional groups are in an excellent
position to advocate on behalf of children and their careers to persuade them to take
into consideration the rate of change of these technologies. The core task of this
statement is to highlight the underlying issues of how both current and future
technologies, and the content they deliver, impact on children.

This document focuses on the impact television has on children’s health and
development and stresses the importance of monitoring the amount and content of
television watched by children. The material presented in this paper, and the
research upon which it is based, largely relate to children up to and including high
school age. This does not imply that the impact of media on health and development
is restricted to this age group.

DETERMINATION OF METHODOLOGY AND RESEARCH DESIGN

The intention of this reading is to (1) deliberate upon the impacts of media violence

10
on children, (2) recognize the serious “impacts”, and (3) empirically assess the
major factors. Footed on literature review numerous impacts of media were identified
including: (1) needless purchasing (2) low nutritional food (3) violence (4)
materialism. The variables derived though the literature survey was used to develop
a close-ended questionnaire that was administered to a sample size of 108, drawn
through non-proportionate stratified method.

The respondents of the study are the parents of preteen age children. Usually, the
opinions of the parents are generally taken in this sort of study. The reason for
selecting parents as a subject has advantages and disadvantages. One of the major
disadvantages is that the bias of the parents reflects even when they are talking
about the behavior of the children. The disadvantage for selecting children as subject
is that the questionnaire some time is very complicated for the children to answer.
The present study is also administered to the parents of the children.

Based on the literature survey a closed-ended questionnaire was developed and was
pre-tested before being launched. I personally administered the questionnaire by
visiting the respondents. The mechanism contained 18 questions of which six were
related to private data and the rest were related to the subject study. The
questionnaire comprised of insignificant and evaluation scale. Stratified, non-
proportionate sample technique was used for collecting the data. The population for
the subject study is Parents in Karachi. According to an estimate there are 2 million
families in Karachi. If sample were to be drawn on simple randomness, the estimated
sample size comes out to 80. (20 samples for each variable is generally an
acceptable norm). Though to have a better illustration about 108 samples were
drawn. These were drawn non-randomly from pre-selected areas.

The seek out approach for this review was designed to identify new articles on the
effects of media violence on children and young people up to the age of 18 years.
Therefore, different search engines, which occasionally overlap the information and
the dates, were used:

The search terms included every combination of the words “media”, “television”,
“film”, “video”, “song lyrics”, “radio”, “music”, “computer games”, “video games”
AND “violence”, “crime”, “aggression” (e.g., “media AND violence”, “computer games
AND aggression”). Appropriate sources from the reference lists of these articles were
also considered.

The information analysis was inclusive of measure of central tendencies, measure of

spreading and experimental testing. The software Microsoft Excel was used for
generating the results. Qualitative analysis was also carried out for studying variation
in demographic and determinants of the study.

11
DATA COLLECTION

The notion that violence in the media contributes to the development of aggressive
behavior has been supported by meta-analyses of relevant research. However, there
is continuing debate about (1) methodological approaches used in the research and
their generalisability, and (2) the extent to which media violence affects children and
young people. This debate shows the typical divide between so-called media
pessimists who believe that media violence can be very harmful to children and
adolescents, and media skeptics who claim that there is no reliable evidence to
support this view. Ironically, this topic is regularly in the news headlines as an
explanation of violent crime by young people. The idea that some individuals are
more susceptible than others to the effects of violence in the media has provided a
balance between these two extreme viewpoints with some researchers emphasizing
the role of social and environmental experiences to explain individual differences.

There are many publications about the effects of media violence, mainly from urban
areas. However, few investigations have considered the laboratory (experimental)
and community (cohort) evidence systematically—for example, the statistical
summation of similar studies using meta-analytical techniques that result in an
overall effect size. Two meta-analyses included research on the effects of television
and film violence (passive media) and the remaining four publications included the
effects of video and computer game violence (interactive media). The aim of this
review is to consider research evidence on the effects of violent media on children
and adolescents from a public-health perspective. WHO has emphasized the
necessity of adopting a public-health approach to the prevention of violence and the
reduction of mortality and morbidity in societies? Although WHO’s World Report on
Violence and Health does not specifically address violence in the media; it does
discuss the effect of media messages on health promotion. The report emphasizes
the need for health services to be associated with the prevention of violence through
family and community interventions.

A public-health perspective on media violence might be defined as considering the

effects of violent imagery on the child within the broader context of child welfare,
families, and communities. Hence, in addition to the habits and behavior of the child
or adolescent viewer, the behavior of parents in monitoring the use of televisions and
computers and knowingly or unknowingly allowing access to violent imagery should
be considered. Furthermore, the role of communities and societies in providing
standards, guidelines, and education to families also needs assessment. Attention
can then be directed to public-health interventions to reduce the extent and effect of
violence in the media for the whole population (universal interventions) and high-risk
individuals (targeted interventions), respectively.

The definition of violence most relevant to visual media is “the exercise of physical
force so as to injure or damage persons or property; otherwise to treat or use

12
persons or property in a way that causes bodily injury and/or forcibly interferes with
personal freedom”. To integrate psychological and sociological approaches, there is a
need to assess violent images within the context of relationships and social
interactions. Indeed, the portrayal of violent interpersonal interactions is of particular
concern.

Television has its good side. It gives kids a chance to see educational shows, learn
about different cultures, and be entertained. But let’s look at some statistics:

 In a typical home, the TV set is on for over 7 hours each day.

 The average child spends more time watching TV than in school.
 On average, kids spend about 20 or more hours each week watching TV,
which is more time than is spent in any other activity besides sleeping.
 An average person will have watched 7-10 years worth of television by age
70.
 Advertisers target children, and each year, an average kid sees tens of
thousands of commercials on TV.
 Children see 1,000-2,000 TV ads for alcohol each year.
 TV viewing starts earlier than other forms of media, often beginning before 2
years old.
 A great deal is known about children and TV, because there have been
hundreds of studies on the subject.

As you can see, if your child is usual, TV is playing a very big role in their life. Here
are some things to keep in mind as you make a decision what kind of role you want
TV to play in your family:

 TV affects brain development.

 Most children’s programming does not teach kids what parents say they want
their children to learn.
 TV viewing is probably replacing activities in your child’s life that you would
rather have them do (things like playing with friends, physical activity, fresh
air, reading, homework, chores, spending time with you).
 TV viewing can contribute to poor grades, sleep problems, behavior problems,
and obesity.

What about TV violence?

Exploration shows that:
 Programs designed for children are five to six times more violent than adult
TV.
 In prime time shows there are three to five violent acts per hour
 In Saturday morning kids shows there are 20-25 violent acts per hour
 The average child will see about 8,000 murders depicted on TV before
finishing grade school.

13
  Kids see about 10,000 television rapes, assaults, and murders each year.
 Children replicate the violence they see.
 Watching TV violence leads to more aggressive behavior.
 TV violence has the greatest effect on preschool children.
 TV glamorizes violence. TV often promotes violent acts as a fun and effective
way to get what you want.
 Most violent acts go unpunished on TV and are often accompanied by humor.
 Even “good guys” beating up “bad guys” gives a message that violence is
normal and okay.
 Many children will try to imitate their "good guy" heroes in their play.
 A 17-year-long study found that teenaged boys who grew up watching more
than an hour of TV each day are four times more likely to commit acts of
violence than those who watched less than an hour a day.
 A 22-year-long study found that watching lots of TV violence at age eight was
linked to more aggressive behavior at ages 19 and 30 years.
 Repeated exposure to TV violence makes children less sensitive toward its
effects on victims and the human suffering it causes.

For more on TV violence and kids:

 A summary of some of the research on children and TV violence from 1993
 Two online brochures from the American Psychological Association:
 Violence on Television: What do Children Learn? What Can Parents Do?
 Family and Relationships: Children and Television Violence
 The National Television Violence Study
 A Checklist to evaluate TV violence—from the PTA
 Television Violence: A Review of the Effects on Children of Different Ages—a
1995 70-page report and review of the literature.

Can TV scare or traumatize kids?

Absolutely: Here’s what some of the research has found:
 Fears caused by TV can cause sleep problems in children.
 In a haphazard survey of grade school kids, 37% of the kids said they were
frightened or upset by a TV story in the previous year. Their symptoms
included bad dreams, restless feelings, being scared of being alone,
diminishing from friends, and missing school.
 Scary-looking things like ugly monsters especially frighten children aged two
to seven. Telling them that the images aren’t real will not help because young
kids can’t always tell the difference between fantasy and reality.
 Many children exposed to scary movies such as Poltergeist, Jaws, and
Halloween, regret that they watched because of the amount of their fright
reactions.
 Children ages 8-12 years who view violence are often frightened that they
may be a victim of violence or a natural disaster.
 One study looked at kid’s self-reported worry after seeing a dramatized

14
 portrayal of a house fire or drowning. Those who saw a depiction of a
drowning were less enthusiastic to go canoeing. Those who saw the house fire
were less excited to build a fire in fireplace.

Can TV influence children’s attitudes toward themselves and others?

Let’s take a look at what kids see on TV, and how it can influence their beliefs about
race and gender:
 An evaluation of the research on gender bias shows that the gender biased
and gender stereotyped behaviors and attitudes that kids see on television do
change how they see male and female roles in our culture.
 Women on TV tend to be dominated by men.
 Non-whites are not shown much on TV—and when they are, they tend to be
stereotyped.
 Children find out to accept the stereotypes represented on television. After
all, they see them over and over.
 In a study that looked at 155 elementary school children, kids belong to the
richer family who watched more violent TV programs believed that poor kids
were less skilled and less obedient.

How are children portrayed on TV?

 A group called Children NOW studied how kids were shown on children’s
entertainment TV shows. They found that:
 Children on television are mainly often motivated by peer relationships
and romance.
 Entertainment television hardly ever shows children dealing with
important issues.
 Most child characters engage in anti-social behaviors that often give
positive results.
 Children of color are under-represented on television.
 Girls and boys are almost equally represented but there are important
differences in the way in which they are portrayed.
 A study by the same group of how children are shown on local TV news, found
that:
 Almost half of all stories about children focus on crime (45%).
 Children account for over a quarter of the U.S. population but only
10% of all local news stories.
 African American children account for more than half of all stories
(61%) involving children of color, followed by Latino children (32%).
Asian Pacific American and Native American children are virtually
invisible on local news.
 African American boys are more likely than any other group to be
portrayed as perpetrators of crime and violence whereas Caucasian
girls are most likely to be shown as victims.

15
Can TV affect my child’s health?
Yes, in several different ways. First of all, kids get lots of information about health
from TV, much of it from ads. Ads do not generally give true or balanced information
about healthy lifestyles and food choices. The majority of children who watch health
related commercials believe what the ads say. Second, watching lots of television
can lead to childhood obesity and overweight. Finally, TV promotes risky behavior,
such as trying dangerous stunts, substance use and abuse, and irresponsible sexual
behavior.

Children who watch more TV are more likely to be overweight

 Research has shown children who consistently spend more than 10 hours per
week watching TV are more likely to be overweight. Children who watch TV
are more likely to be immobile and be likely to nibble while watching TV.
 Many TV ads encourage unhealthy eating habits. Two-thirds of the 20,000 TV
ads an average child sees each year are for food and most are for high-sugar
foods.
 All television shows, even educational non-commercial shows, replace
physical activity in your child’s life.
 While watching TV, the metabolic rate seems to go even lower than during
rest. This means that a person would burn fewer calories while watching TV
than when just sitting quietly, doing nothing.

Children may attempt to mimic stunts seen on TV

 Kids have been injured trying to repeat dangerous stunts they have seen on
television shows.

Promotes high–risk behavior in adolescents

 Alcohol use and other substances: TV programs often show or talk about
alcohol use. The presence of alcohol on Internet runs the extent from
drinking, to beer ads, to logos displayed at sporting events. Many studies
have shown that alcoholic drinks are the most common beverage portrayed
on Internet, and that they are almost never shown in a negative light. Ads for
alcohol portray people as being happier, sexier, and more successful when
they drink. A long-term study has found a link between television, MTV, and
alcohol consumption among teens. Research has shown that those who watch
more TV are also more likely to smoke cigarettes and marijuana.
 Sexual behavior and attitudes: Most parents don't talk to their kids about sex,
birth control and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Most schools do not
offer complete sex education programs. So kids get most of their information
about sex from TV. The amount of sexual material on TV has increased over
past decade. The Kaiser Foundation reported that "family hour" television
contains more than eight sexual incidents per hour. Most of those events
didn't address issues such as birth control, protection, or safer sex. These
shows also didn't talk about risks and consequences of having sex-such as

16
 STDs and pregnancy. One survey revealed that 76% of teenagers indicated
that one reason young people have sex is because TV shows and movies
make it seem more normal for their age group.

ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA

Usage of Media technologies by children

The amount of time Pakistani children spend interacting with media is significant,
and continues to grow. In our country the average household views over three hours
of television per day. No data are available about the total time children spend daily
with television, video games and the Internet. However, the average child in the US
spent six and a half hours per day in total with various media. The range is clearly
wide, with some children playing video games or on the Internet for large
percentages of the available time (such as weekends). For the average child, time
spent watching TV and engaged with other media technologies will exceed, by the
end of school, the time spent in the classroom.

Television
Children begin watching television from an early age, with an average of 44 minutes
at four months building to two and a half hours by four years. In 2001, almost half of
children aged 5 to 12 years watched more than two hours per day, and 15 percent
spent over an hour per day playing video games. In New Zealand, about nine
percent of children reported they did not watch television or videos during the week
and 8.6 percent did not watch during the weekend. About 64 percent of New Zealand
children watched television or videos less than 10 hours during the week, while 51.3
percent watched television or videos less than four hours per weekend.

Co-viewing (where parents and children watch programs together) appears to be

uncommon for children’s programs, although it does occur more often with parents
who see the positive benefits of TV. A US study of preschoolers found that co-
viewing commonly occurred when children were watching adult programs, but was
not common when children were watching children’s programs. Extending this
information to Pakistani children would suggest that much of children’s television
viewing may be unmonitored by parents.

Internet
The level of Internet subscriptions continues to rise rapidly. In Pakistan, information
for the year 2000 indicates 4.6 million subscriptions, of which 3.9 million were for
households (well over 50 percent). Approximately 60 percent of households at that
time had a personal computer. These include advising and assisting parents and
other careers of children in relation to the supervision and control of children’s
access to Internet content and conducting research into issues relating to Internet
content and usage.
Young people may download games and music from the Internet, participate in chat

17
rooms and utilize instant messaging services without their parent’s knowledge. The
contents reported by young people in one study included pornography, nudity, ‘rude
stuff’, tasteless jokes, talks in chat rooms and violent imagery. This information may
be sent to them by persons unknown (‘spammed’).

Television and videos

In Pakistan, children from the aged 5 to 14 years overwhelmingly listed watching TV
or videos as an activity (as opposed to a physical activity). A 2002 Federal Cultural
Ministers Council report concluded that electronic and computer games were more
popular as a pastime than active pursuits such as riding bikes, skateboarding or
rollerblading. The purchase of video games technology and software continues to
rise. There is a significant trend for children to interact with these media
technologies, and the content they deliver, in the unmonitored isolation of their
bedroom. This trend is of great concern, especially given the reported levels of
interaction with media technologies from children between the ages of 8 and 18:
 53 percent have TVs in their bedrooms
 29 percent have a VCR in the bedrooms
 16 percent had their own computer in the bedroom
 Technologies in the bedroom were more likely for single children, boys, and
where families subscribed to pay TV
 14 percent of children aged 2 to 7 watched TV alone
 Over 70 percent of the parents said there were rules about how much TV
their children watched;
 Rules decline with age as 47 percent of 8 to 13 have rules and this decline to
25 percent of 14 and older.
According to US data, children spend a good deal of time engaged with other forms
of media. Teenagers spent just as much time listening to the radio as they did
watching TV, although this was usually while they were doing something else.

Impact of the media on children

There are two main processes by which the media influences children. The first of
these is the result of the content they experience. This content may be intended and
selected (such as music on a CD, a video game, web page or TV program) or
unselected (such as advertisements, or ‘pop-up’ web pages from the internet). The
influence of this content on children depends on many factors; for example age, and
related developmental factors such as intelligence and social maturity.

The key issue with regard to this content is that the media technologies potentially
bypass parents, our society’s traditional gatekeepers for the developing child. They
allow content produced for all manner of reasons to be delivered directly to the mind
of the child. The second process relates to what children are not doing when they are
interacting with media technologies. Time spent interacting with machines is time
that could be spent doing other activities that may be more beneficial or necessary
for the development and well being of children.

18
How media content impacts on children depends on developmental factors. Research
that focused mainly on television and advertising reported the following findings:
 There was growing evidence that babies interacted with television in a
meaningful way, particularly interpreting the emotional messages.

Prior to the age of 4 years, children had difficulty understanding that what they were
watching was not real. However, the visual properties of programs may have been
attractive to young children regardless of the content (such as violence). Background
television had a detrimental impact on play behavior. In infant and toddler age
groups, a study found that the length of toy play and duration of sustained attention
span was reduced when the television was on compared with when it was off. When
viewing content, young children could detect and respond to emotions on television,
and accurately identify and remember facts and action sequences.

Children were able to reflect complex content in their play with surprising detail. This
occurred before they had the ability to understand the human motivations that may
underlie what they were viewing. In this way, young children absorbed the content
and emotions without a full understanding of the reasons why.
By the end of their preschool years, most children could understand the difference
between program and advertising content; however, the trend to blur content with
associated advertising makes this more difficult. Up to the age of 8 years, children:
 Continued to have trouble understanding the full intent of advertisements.
 Were less likely to formally distinguish advertisements from program content.
 Were more likely to believe that the advertising claims were factually true
particularly true if the advertisements involved celebrities.

As children mature, their understanding of advertising also grows. There is no

evidence, however, that with this greater understanding the power of advertising to
influence their consumer behaviors is lessened.
 Children who watch more television and children from lower-income families
are more likely to ask their parents for the products they see advertised.
 Most children by the age of 4 years can differentiate between reality in
everyday life and the unreality of television, but the more complex ideas
(such as action replays) and the concept of actors playing a role may not
come until 6 or 7 years.
 Children have more difficulty realizing that violence on the news may not
represent a direct threat, or that special effects are not real.

The media may interfere with child development in a more direct, or neurological,
manner. There is a substantial body of work now demonstrating the impact of early
child experience on the developing neurology of the brain. Specific experiences may
trigger the expression of specific genes, leading to alterations in the physical makeup
of the brain. This is more likely to occur when there is a genetic predisposition to the
development of specific neurological properties.

19
There is also some evidence that repeated exposure to violent content in the media
modifies brain function. The consequences of this could lead to a blunting, or
desensitization, to the emotional effects of violence. The brain changes that lead to
this desensitization have been demonstrated in brain functional imaging studies.

Potential benefits
The utilization of media technologies in Pakistani households clearly indicates that
families like what these have to offer. International research has demonstrated that
educational programs benefit children’s knowledge and academic abilities. This can
begin in early childhood, where choice of program makes a considerable difference to
children’s skills and knowledge when they enter school. In early childhood, television
can provide children with a broader range of life situations and possibilities to
explore through their play. Children can use media to increase their understanding of
the world around them as well as teach positive social behaviors. These benefits can
last through to adolescence.

Television viewing has been studied in children who are academically gifted, with
results suggesting that selective viewing can promote academic abilities.
Furthermore, parents of gifted children are more likely to see the potential benefits
of educational TV programs and make more selective viewing choices.

Video games involving information, academic content and problem-solving have

been shown to accelerate children’s learning. They can be particularly useful for
children who have learning problems. Similarly, the breadth of information available
on the Internet is clearly able to broaden children’s knowledge and understanding of
the world. Media campaigns can change the knowledge and attitudes of parents. A
recent US study showed positive changes in parent beliefs and practices around a set
of issues related to children, tobacco and marketing. Another study in the US
reported on a 12-episode television series designed to provide information about
child behavior management that led to a reduction of problem behaviors by 15
percent.

Areas of potential harm

Violence
In the US, it has been calculated that by the time children reach age 18 they will
have seen 16,000 simulated murders and 200,000 acts of violence on television
alone. It is likely that Pakistani statistics are similar.
The body of evidence linking exposure to violent content to violence-related
outcomes for children is now compelling, drawing from over 1000 studies. These
include studies of cross-sectional associations, naturalistic observations, longitudinal
studies, meta-analyses and direct cause-effect relationship studies.
In July 2000, a group of six major health professional organizations: the American
Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, the

20
American Psychological Association, the American Medical Association, the American
Academy of Family Physicians and the American Psychiatric Association, released a
joint statement on the consequences for children of exposure to media violence (see
www.aap.org/advocacy/releases/jstmtevc.htm). These groups concluded that
children who watched more violence on the media were more likely to:
 Become emotionally desensitized to violence.
 Avoid taking action on behalf of a victim when violence occurs.
 Believe that violence is inevitable.
 Believe that violence is an acceptable way of solving conflict.
 Believe that world is a violent place, leading to greater anxiety, self-protective
behaviors and mistrust of others.
 Use violence themselves.

The original work on this subject examined violent TV and films; however, a body of
more recent work has linked violent outcomes to video games. The violent
consequences are not limited to hurting others. Children who see risk-taking
behavior in the media are likely to copy these behaviors, and this can lead to
personal injury.

The effects of exposure to violent content in childhood have recently been linked to
increased aggressive behavior even 15 years later. This study followed up 329 adults
whose media behavior was documented when they were children, and demonstrated
increased risk of domestic violence and criminal behavior for the children in the top
20 percent for amount of violent material consumed. This effect was found for
females as well as males.
It is important to note that viewing violent material does not make all children
violent. The actual violence resulting from media exposure may be limited to children
who are, for various reasons, more vulnerable to this material. For the majority of
children there may be subtle shifts in beliefs (more desensitized, more likely to
believe violence is inevitable) but not enough to cause harm. Even without actual
violent behavior, however, these changes in belief may collectively change the
nature of our society.

Almost all work on the effects of media violence has focused on physical
interpersonal violence. The impact of psychological violence (bullying) in all its
forms, and how this relates to psychological violence perpetrated by children to each
other, is an important area where research is required.

Obesity
Obesity is now one of the major public health problems for children. With childhood
obesity, comes the risk of lifelong obesity, along with associated health risks
(diabetes, cardiac disease). In Pakistan, over 25 percent of children can now be
considered overweight or obese, compared to 12 percent in 1985. Many studies have
shown a powerful link between times spent watching television and the likelihood of

21
obesity although recent Pakistani data has cast some doubt on the strength of the
relationship. Preschool children, particularly those from low-income families and
those who have televisions in their own bedroom are more likely to be overweight.
Families that watch TV during mealtimes have been shown to eat more junk food.

Generally obesity results from an imbalance between calories eaten and calories
expended through activity and exercise. Television (and media behavior) upsets this
balance through:
 Reduced metabolic rate when watching TV and other media activities
 Reduced activity because of what they are not doing whilst they are
interacting with the media. (Children who watch more TV play less sport)
 Increased food and calorie consumption (that may be influenced by
advertising or result from “snacking” opportunities)

Two recent reviews have identified that advertising to children is effective in

changing their beliefs, preferences, purchasing behaviors and consumption patterns.
The track record for companies advertising food to children is not good. Adherence to
code-of-conduct guidelines is questionable. As a result of these advertisements,
children are likely to believe that the advertised foods are good for them. In fact,
consumption of fast food is a major problem for our children. A single burger may
contain more than a child’s recommended daily intake of fat.

A recent study examined TV advertisements to children across five Pakistani capital

cities, finding that a third of all advertisements during children’s television viewing
times were for food (on average eight advertisements, over three minutes of
advertising). The most common food groups again were confectionery, ‘fast food’,
soft drinks and snacks.

Harmful Substances
In 1997, a US analysis has found that alcohol, tobacco or illicit drugs were present in
70 percent of prime time network drama, 95 percent of top grossing movies and half
of all music videos. Media exposure has been directly linked to usage of harmful
substances with one longitudinal study directly linking amount of media exposure to
level of alcohol use in teenagers.

Suicide
Reporting and portrayal of suicidal behavior in the media may facilitate suicidal acts
by people exposed to such material. When suicide occurs in clusters it can be a result
of young people imitating others who have recently committed suicide.

There is concern that reporting and portrayal of suicide in the media may encourage
children to copy. This influence of the media is greater when the method of suicide is
presented in detail, when the report is presented dramatically, when pictures are
displayed and when suicides of celebrities are reported. Younger people are more

22
likely to be influenced.

Sexual behavior
The primary source of information about sex for children and teenagers may be
related to the media. A content analysis for the network programs for ages between
2 and 11 years in relation to health related content on television found that
promiscuous sex was relatively uncommon. Effects due to potentially harmful
messages about sex in the media may minimize any messages children receive from
other sources (such as school sex education programs).

The sexual content in commercial television has increased steadily, and the potential
consequences of sexual contact (pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases) have not
been studied. There is evidence that what children view influences their behavior.
Teenage girls, who became pregnant, compared to their non-pregnant peers,
watched more soap operas before becoming pregnant, and were less likely to think
the leading characters would use birth control. Teenage males with the highest rates
of sexual behavior also watched more television, and were more likely to watch
television away from the rest of their family.

Child Pornography
In 2001 there were an estimated 14 million Internet sites devoted to child
pornography, some of which carried over a million images. In the same year there
were over 23,000 sites and 40,000 advertised chat rooms devoted to the defense of
adult-child sexual relations. Considerable publicity was generated that year around
the police action against the Wonderland Club, an Internet organization of pedophiles
operating around the world. Membership of this club was granted in exchange for
10,000 new child pornography images. In the police action, 750,000 images were
seized along with 1,800 videos. It was estimated that over 1,200 children had been
molested in producing this content.

Child pornography is used by pedophiles to desensitize children towards becoming

participants in sexual acts. It clearly increases the opportunities for child sex
offenders to gain access to child sex material and gain information from similar
individuals around the world. Penalty for possession and production of child
pornography is to 10 years imprisonment.

Sexual Solicitation
A study completed in 2000 found that 19 percent of children and youth aged from 10
to 17 years who used the Internet regularly had been approached through the
Internet (usually in chat rooms) for sexual contact. One in seven of these children
reported that the offender had attempted to contact them by phone or post. Only 25
percent reported these attempts to parents, and around 10 percent of cases were
reported to police, and ISP or other authority such as a teacher.

23
Extrapolating from these figures, approximately 50,000 of Pakistani children aged 10
to 17 will be approached annually on the Internet for sexual purposes. In a small
Pakistani survey, 27 percent of adolescent Internet users reported being contacted
by a sexual predator whilst using chat rooms.

Sexual offenders are more likely to target through the Internet children who are:
 In the care of the state
 From single parent families
 Who have experienced previous maltreatment?
 Who have emotional, learning or social difficulties, or low self esteem?
 Who respond to offers of financial reward?

The impact of marketing to children

Marketing to children is now big business compared with the 1980s and earlier, when
advertising to children was considered less beneficial to sales. In 1999, American
corporations spent $US12 billion marketing to children and research on how to
market more effectively to children.
Advertising to children clearly works. In 1984, only 10 percent of toys were linked to
movies or TV programs. This rose to 50 percent in 1990. Pakistan continues to have
some of the highest rates of advertising to children. Each 30 minutes of designated
children’s television viewing time must have no more than five minutes of
advertising. Assuming an average 2½ hours per day viewing, this means that
children would see over 9,125 advertisements per year.

Parents are concerned about the consequences of this marketing enterprise. A study
found:
 87 percent of parents felt advertising made their children too materialistic
 63 percent felt their children were defined too much by their possessions
 55 percent indicated they had been successfully pressured by their children to
buy products they felt to be ‘junk’ or ‘too expensive
 31 percent felt they or their partner had to work longer hours to pay for the
goods their children felt they needed.

In Pakistan children are increasingly recognized as a marketing target group. A

recent Pakistani study interviewed over 600 children between the ages of 7 and 14
years and found that:
 Children in this age group are ‘ad-acceptors’. Less than a third of children
routinely changed channels or left the room when advertisements came on
 Children had spending power of $A8.80 per week average pocket money, and
$A160 per year average gifts (birthdays, Christmas). On average, children
spent about half this amount, equating to a yearly total of $A800 million
across the country
 Children had ‘pester power’, indicating that they exerted a high level of
influence over parent purchasing decisions. This includes significant family

24
 decisions such as make of car
By inducing children to influence their parents in this way, advertisements lead to
greater discord within the family.

Child Mental Health

Television violence may influence children in four ways: making them want to
replicate what they see, reducing learnt inhibitions in opposition to violent activities,
desensitizing them to violence through recurrence, and increasing arousal. Exposure
to graphic violence may increase children’s indicators of anxiety.

Television news, terrorism, violent crime and natural disasters can devastate
children, leading to nightmares. In one US survey, 37 percent of parents who had
preschool children reported that their child had been frightened or upset by a TV
story in the previous year. More generally, increased television viewing is linked with
higher levels of depression and anxiety, although it may be that these mental health
problems led children to watch more TV.

The Internet is being used as a source of information for teenagers about their
mental health issues. Almost 20 percent of teenagers in a recent US study had used
the Internet to find help for the emotional problems they were experiencing. In some
cases children may spend more time with the media as a consequence of other
problems such as stress or fighting within the family. It is obvious that the more time
family members watch television, the fewer opportunities exist for communication
within the family and solving any problems.

Eating Disorders
Media has a well-built control on eating disorders. This occurs by persuading how
children feel regarding their bodies. There has been concern raised about the
increasing numbers of pro-anorexia websites that provide advice to teenagers and
encourage these eating disorders. However, a US study on the use of an Internet-
delivered computer-assisted health education (CAHE) program, designed to improve
body satisfaction and reduce weight/shape concerns for young women known to be
at risk for the development of eating disorders, reported a significant improvement in
body image and a decrease in drive for thinness.

Physical health and development

There are various direct health consequences for children from their utilization of
media technologies. For example, for children at risk of epilepsy, games that show
flashing images against a bright background may bring epileptic apprehensions.
Sleep problems have also been associated with TV viewing behavior patterns. Sleep
problems were more likely with greater daily viewing time, greater viewing before
bedtime and having a television in the bedroom.
Children using computers and electronic games may possibly adopt the kinds of
sustained and embarrassed postures that are linked with musculoskeletal disorders.

25
The physical demands of wide use may direct to an ample range of bad effects on
children’s development, including visual, neurological and physical changes.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Set limits on the amount of time spent watching TV.

 Build extremely precise rules about when children can and cannot watch
television. For example, do not permit TV during meals, homework or when
parents are not nearby.
 This is recommended that parents should limit their children’s viewing to one
to two hours per day at most.
 A substitute is to limit TV to one hour on school nights and two to three hours
a day on weekends.
 You might need to allow a little extra viewing time for exceptional educational
programs.
 If your child is doing badly in school, limit TV time to half an hour every day,
or remove TV completely, apart from for limited time on the weekends.
 Make it a law that children have to finish homework and everyday jobs before
watching television. If your child’s much loved show is on before the work can
be done, then record the show to watch afterward.

The best rule is no TV during the week and limited weekend TV

This guarantees that kids are not hurrying to finish their homework so they can
watch a desired show. It also frees up additional time for family interaction through
the hectic weekdays. For example, instead of parking the kids in front of the TV while
you prepare dinner have them help you cook.

Minimize the influence of TV in your home

 Turn the TV off during family mealtimes.
 Eating in front of the TV starts a awful habit and reinforces kid’s addiction on
television.
 Research shows that eating whilst watching TV has an even bad effect of
“hooking” children to TV.
 Build conversation a priority in your home.
 Observe Your Child: Parenting possessions on for more on
communication and how to talk with your kids.
 Interacting more will help your children perk up their spoken skills. It
will advance your relationship with your kids, and keep the lines of
communication open.
 Read to your children.
 Instigate reading to your children by the time they are age one.
 Promote older kids to read on their own.
 Show your kids that you take pleasure in reading. Let them see you
reading rather than watching TV to relax.

26
  Don’t use TV as an incentive or penalty.
 This gives the TV too much value.
 For positive discipline ideas and resources, see Parenting Resources on
Your Child.
 Support lively activity.
 Encourage your kids to take part in sports, games, hobbies, and
music. For example you may turn off the TV and take a walk or do a
project with your child.
 Designate certain evenings for special family activities, like a family
bike ride or a game night.
 Don’t use the TV as an entertainment or baby-sitter for preschool
children.
 Substitute to TV include jigsaw puzzles, play dough, board games,
crayons, magazines, cutting and pasting, dress-up, reading, and
making forts out of chairs and blankets or large cardboard boxes.
 Get the TV sets out of your children’s bedrooms.
 Placing a TV in your child’s room keeps you from monitoring the
amount of TV and the types of shows that they watch.
 For kids, having a TV in the bedroom is connected to doing badly in
school and sleep troubles.
 Unluckily, a third of kids aged two to seven, and two thirds of kids
aged eight and up do have TVs in their bedrooms.
 If your child complains that all their friends have their own TV sets in
their rooms, ring a bell them that you are going to do what you feel is
finest for them, because you are concerned.

Watch television with your children and talk about what you are watching
 Talk about the negativity of violence (if you permit grown-up children to
watch violent programs) and other ways the conflict could have been
resolved.
 Discuss labeling and chauvinism in TV programs.
 Thrash out commercials with children. You can facilitate your child distinguish
sales pitches given by commercials, and evaluate whether the messages in
ads are practical.
 Chat about the differences between reality and make-believe. Children
understand what they see differently than adults. They may not be able to
differentiate fact from fiction. What you think may be funny but to a child is
terrifying. Explain differences between news and entertainment, and reality
and make-believe.
 Share your own beliefs and values
 How to talk to your child about the news

27
Pay attention to what is in the TV shows your child watches
 Persuade learning shows.
 These include Sesame Street, other PBS kids’ shows, concerts, plays, sports
events, nature and wildlife shows, documentaries, and real-life drama.
 Prevent violent shows—keeping in mind that shows targeted to kids be likely
to be more violent than adult shows—particularly cartoons.
 Think about installing and using a V-chip.
 ‘V’ is for violence. This chip lets you to block programs and movies that you
don’t want your child to see. All new TV sets have internal V-chips, but you
can get set-top boxes for TVs made before the year 2000.
 One negative aspect: News, sports, and ads are not rated—so they will
not be screened out—but they often show violence.
 Use the TV Parental Guidelines rating method to help you decide which shows
may be suitable for your child.
 The TV Parental Guidelines are an age-group rating system (based on
the familiar movie rating system) for TV programs.
 One problem: the Guidelines don’t really provide sufficient information
about a program’s substance to allow parents to make well-informed
decisions about whether show is suitable or not.
 Prohibit late night television. Kids require to get to bed at a sensible time,
anyway.

Set a good example

 Don’t leave the TV on all the time for background noise.
 Don’t look forward to your child to have self-discipline when it comes to TV
viewing if you don’t.
 Don’t watch adult programs though your child is nearby.
 Spend your free time reading, exercising, and playing or talking with your
child.
 Here are more good TV habits you should try to get hold of, and share with
your kids.

Plan a weekly TV schedule and teach your child to turn off the TV set at the
end of their show
 Do not permit channel surfing—only premeditated viewing.
 Use a TV guide or newspaper to choose which shows to watch instead
of channel surfing until something gets your attention.
 Sit down each week with your child and choose suitable children’s and
family programs from the weekly TV listings.
 Turn the TV on for these programs only. Turn it off and discuss the
programs when they’re over.
 If the TV stays on your child will perhaps become interested in the
next show and then it will be harder to stop watching.

28
Avoid letting children younger than 2 years old watch television
 As an alternative, carry out interactive activities that will encourage
appropriate brain development such as talking, playing, singing, and reading
together.
 Require getting stuff done? Have your little one “help” with your chores
around the house (like matching clean socks on laundry day), or wear your
child in a backpack so they can ride along and see what you are up to
(especially safe and handy—and fun for them—when you are cooking).
 As you go about your chores, talk to your child about what you are
doing. This will get your little one off to a great start!

Teach your child how to use TV to their benefit and find good programs
 TV can propose benefits to kids and families. It is an element of trendy
culture, and cannot be simply unseen, so learning how to utilize it intelligently
is a vital expertise which takes direction and practice.
 The Ready to Learn Service on PBS offers quality educational kid's programs
without commercials, plus information for parents and caregivers on how to
use television as a learning tool. Contact your local PBS station for
information about children's programming or visit www.pbs.org.

29
 (ANNEXURE-1)

QUESTIONNAIRE

Q1: Gender
1) Male –
2) Female -

Q2: Age
1) Under 20 -
2) 20-30 -
3) 30-40 -
4) 40-50 -
5) 50+ -

Q3: Occupation
1) Banker -
2) Doctor -
3) Accountant -
4) Engineer -
5) Businessman -
6) House wife -

Q4: Income:
1) Under PKR 15,000 -
2) PKR 15,000 – 25,000 –
3) PKR 25,000 – 35,000 –
4) PKR 35,000 – 45,000 –
5) PKR 45,000 – 55,000 –
6) PKR 55,000 + -
7) None -

Q5: Location:
1) Clifton -
2) D.H.A -
3) P.E.C.H.S -
4) F.B.Area -
5) North Nazimabad -
6) Other (specify) -

Q6: Education:
1) Under Matriculation -
2) Matriculation -
3) Intermediate -
4) Graduate -
5) Post Graduate –

30
Rate the following statements in terms of your answers (5 being highly
agreement and 1 being highly disagreement).

UNNECESSARY PURCHASING

Q7: Children insist on purchasing the product when they see the ad of it.

5 4 3 2 1

Q8: Commercials influence the children to purchase the product that they already
have.
5 4 3 2 1

Q9: The characters in the commercials influence their buying intention.

5 4 3 2 1

LOW NUTRITIONAL FOOD

Q10: Children ask for candies and other low nutritional products when they see on
commercials.

5 4 3 2 1

Q11: Obesity in Children is being increased via Advertisements.

5 4 3 2 1

Q12: Children like to prefer to have junk food as compared to home cooked food.

5 4 3 2 1

MATERIALISM

Q13: Children become more infatuated with toys because of their commercials.

5 4 3 2 1

Q14: Children don’t want to eat food but want to go to McDonald /KFC.

5 4 3 2 1

Q15: Children don’t believe more in relationship rather than getting gifts from
nearest & dearest.

5 4 3 2 1

Q16: Children don’t need hug but need an I-pod or Play stations.

5 4 3 2 1

31
EXPOSURE TO ADVERTISING

Q17: The demand of children increased when they explored the new ads.

5 4 3 2 1

Q18: The children are very keen about to know the thing which is broadcast in ads.

5 4 3 2 1

32
 (ANNEXURE-2)

REFERENCES

Zuberi, Ahmed, Nisar, July 2002, Effects of Television on Children in Karachi,

University of Karachi

Media violence and its effects on aggression, Jonathan L. Freeman

Children Media Violence, May 2004, Pakistan Media Monitors

Karim S., Kamal, 2001, Role of TV and Radio Programs in Distance and Open
Learning System, Pakistan Journal of Education

Kuttab, Daoud. (2003). “Television and Middle East Children.” Commentary

submitted to the Arabic Media Internet Network.
Available online: www.amin.org/eng/daoudkuttab/2003/oct24.html.

Disney Channel Middle East. (2004). “Television Expert Advises Parents to be Aware
of Their Children’s TV Viewing.” Press Release. Available online:
www.pressreleasenetwork.com/disney/news.phtml.

S. Eashwar, Sucharita, April 2003, Media Violence, Asia-Pacific Institute for

Broadcasting Development and UNESCO

Gigli, Susan, April 2004, Children, Youth and Media, InterMedia Survey Institute, for
UNICEF

Walsh D, Goldman LS, Brown R, 1998, Physician Guide to Media Violence, American
Medical Association

Dietz, WH, 1993, Television, Obesity and Eating Disorders, Adolescent Medicine:
State of Art Review

Adler, R. P, Lesser, G. S, Merngff, L, Robertson, T, Rossiter, J, & Ward , S, 1997,

Research on the effects of television advertising to children . A review of the
literature and recommendation for future research, US. Government Printing office,
Washington. DC,

Silverman, W. Jaccard. J. & Burke, A. (1998) Children’s attitudes toward products

and recall of product information over time. Journal of experimental Child Psychology

Young B. (2000) Television advertising and children. Oxford, Clarendon, Press.

Websites:

Search Engine:
www.yahoo.com, www.google.com

A Few Useful Website Resources on Children and Media:

www.childrennow.org
www.commensensemedia.org.
www.comminit.com/children

33
www.unicef.org/magic
www.unicef.org/voy
www.nordicom.gu.se
www.ifj.or

Cartoon Violence and Violent Children. Available at http://www.123help me.com/

Research on the effects of Media violence. Available at

http://www.media_awareness.ca/english/issues/violence/effects_mediaviolence.cfm

The Effects of Media's Violence on the Behavior of Children. Available at

http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~tonya/Film/film_violence.html',","

Understanding Violent Behavior in Children and Adolescents (2001). Available at

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/cable_television

Centre for the Study of Children, Youth and Media. (2003-2004). “Making Games:
developing games authoring software for educational and creative use.” Available
online: www.ccsonline.org.uk/mediacentre/Research_Projects/making_games.html;
(2003-2004). “Girls, digital technology and popular culture: from play to practice.”
Available online: Sex and Relationships.” Available online: www.ccsonline.org /
mediacentre/Research_Projects/mediarelate.html; (2002-2004). “EDUCAUNET: A
European campaign to raise awareness and implement media education to promote a
safer use of the internet.”

34