Most Parents Say TV
Programming Going Downhill

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Nearly half of parents in a new survey say they worry that their child spends too much time watching TV, and most feel TV programming is getting worse and worse in terms of "bad language and adult themes," according to a new report.

And half of US kids, according to the survey, have a TV in their bedroom--which a recent study linked to a child's likelihood of being overweight.

The survey of 1,607 parents of kids aged 5 to 17 was conducted by Public Agenda, a nonprofit, nonpartisan polling group, for State Farm Insurance Companies, with additional support from the Family Friendly Programming Forum, a group of 40 major national advertisers.

It is part of a larger report entitled "A Lot Easier Said Than Done" that aimed to learn how parents cope with various child rearing situations, lead author Steve Farkas, director of research at Public Agenda in New York City, told Reuters Health.

According to surveyed parents, 40% of 5- to 9-year-olds, 50% of 10- to 12-year olds and 58% of 13- to 17-year-olds have a television in their bedroom.

"We found that there is definitely an overwhelming sense among parents we interviewed with 90% saying that TV is getting worse with more bad language and adult themes," said Farkas. "And parents report feeling that the hours between 8 and 10 are no longer a safe time for kids to watch TV."

While 71% of parents reported being "shocked" by something they saw on TV, only 13% said they made an effort to contact the offending TV station to voice their views.

Nonetheless 82% of the parents noted that they had watched at least some TV show in the past year that "did impart a good message to their child."

Just 22% said that they considered banishing TV from their homes entirely.

Parents who appeared to do the best job of handling their concerns about TV had "firm convictions and the ability to explain to their child why or why not a certain TV program was deemed watchable or unwatchable," Farkas told Reuters Health.

"These same parents were more likely to make deliberate decisions to have only one television," said Farkas. "This allowed them the ability to supervise TV watching and if the entire family couldn't sit and watch a particular program than nobody in the family watched it."

The parents in the survey were interviewed by telephone during July and August of 2002.

Reference Source 89

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