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Influence of Media on Children

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How Does Television and the Media Influence Children?

Have you ever wondered about the influence of media on children?

Television can be a powerful entertainment and education tool for children given the right programming. However, studies have shown that television, and media in general, can also have a very negative influence. Some studies indicate it can shorten attention span, distort body image, work in conjunction with other factors to escalate obesity, create fear, and increase aggressive and anti-social behaviors if exposure is unmonitored and unlimited.

Learn about what the research shows regarding the influence of media on children, the dangers, and how to counteract the potential negative influence here on this page as we cover what parents need to know.

For more detailed information on violence in the media, visit our Television and Children page. Use the expandable Table of Contents below to find things on this page quickly.

Contents at a Glance

The Influence of Media on Obesity
Videos About Obesity and the Media
Learn more about Nutrition and Obesity
Choosing Television to Promote Health
Media Influence on Women's and Girl's Bo...
Videos about Media Influence on Body Ima...

The influence of media on children extends to health related issues. Although television has the power to educate on nutrition, exercise, and a wide variety of health related issues, it can also be a negative force through images and advertisements which influence viewers to make poor food choices or to overeat.

In addition, excessive television viewing can result in inactivity which further contributes to excessive weight gain and poor fitness levels.

Children are specifically targeted by some advertisements and are even more vulnerable than adults to their influence. Adults must assist children in questioning and thinking critically about the messages they see on TV.

Limiting television viewing time and encouraging physical activity are precautions that parents should consider.

More Information about Television and Obesity

National Institute on Media and the Family: A list of facts about the effects of television and the media on obesity.
The Boston Globe: A good overview of some of the negative nutritional and health effects of too much television viewing as well as some tips for parents.
Turn Off Your TV: More about the advertisements that bombard your television viewing time.
WebMD: The link between watching TV/video games and obesity. Could watching TV double the risk of obesity?
CNN Money: Television ads promote all of the wrong foods. Find out the details.
The Diet Channel: Information about the link between childhood obesity and watching television. Links to related articles are very informative.

Videos About Obesity and the Media

Sam Kazman Debates Advertising on Children's Shows (7/19/07): by CEIdotorg | video info

2 ratings | 7,173 views

curated content from YouTube

Learn more about Nutrition and Obesity

Don't let TV ads be your guide

Choosing Television to Promote Health

The influence of media on children, television in particular, is capable of being positive despite many of the negative images as long as good choices and critical thinking are used. Starting young is the best way of avoiding issues. Here are some recommendations for quality viewing.

Noggin: Shows which promote healthy eating and exercise.
The Wiggles: More education on nutrition and activity.
Sesame Street: Tools to use to teach a healthy lifestyle.
Cooking with Cutty: Learn about good health, nutrition, and sports habits.

Media Influence on Women's and Girl's Body Image

The influence of media on children also extends into how we view ourselves and others. Television shows portray women in a certain way. Generally focusing primarily on their attractiveness; or at least Hollywood's version of it.

These images from movies, television, and all kinds of advertisements bombard women; often with the effect of creating an unattainable image in their minds of how they should appear. Anorexia, bulemia, low self-esteem and a host of other problems can result. These images of course, can also effect the expectations that men have regarding how women "should" behave and look.

Talking with young girls about the images they see and giving them better role models can be important. Learn more about this issue below.

Videos about Media Influence on Body Image

Media Effects on Body Image: by ginamarie822 | video info

168 ratings | 111,776 views

curated content from YouTube

Learn More About Media Influence on Body Image

The National Institute on Media and the Family: Some facts about media influences on body image and gender identity.
Media Awareness: A report about beauty and body image in the media and how it controls our perception of our own bodies.
Seed Magazine: Unrealistic media images effect men and boys as well.
Psychiatry Online: A paper on body image, eating disorders and suggestions for change.
Promote a Positive Body Images: Tips for promoting a positive body image in your children.

Learn More About Body Image

Helping Kids Develop a Healthy Body Image

Parenting Tips for Healthy Kids : Importance of Body Image in Kids: by expertvillage | video info

0 ratings | 2,480 views

curated content from YouTube

Books and Activities to Build Self Esteem

TV and Increased Psychological Difficulties

Some recent studies correlate time spent viewing TV with increased psychological difficulties. Find more here.

Media Influences on Behavior and Sexual Roles

The influence of media on children also effects how kids perceive what is and is not acceptable. Smoking is an example. When celebrities and role models are depicted smoking; it appears to be a normal and acceptable behavior. So to with drug use, drinking, cell phone use when driving, physical violence, and so forth.

Parental role modeling, the behavior of peers, and other factors play into this as well, but the effect of media is indeed strong.

Certainly, the media often portrays men as aggressive, women as passive. In addition, women are often portrayed with a focus on their beauty and sexuality. (or perhaps their homemaking skills) These images, often repeated, can influence how both women and men feel women should not only look, but also how they should behave.

What Does Advertising Tell Us About How Normal Women Should Behave?

Killing Us Softly 3: by fragrancia | video info

276 ratings | 146,590 views

curated content from YouTube

Avoiding or Counteracting the Influence of Media Related to Sexuality Issues

There are a number of ways parents can exert some control over the influence of media on children. With younger children it isn't too complicated to limit their exposure to television and other types of media. However, it becomes increasingly important for parents to take an active role in how kids evaluate what they see in print, on television, and on the internet.

This article on developing media literacy can be a good starting point.

For those interested in providing a lesson at home or in the classroom to develop some critical thinking about what kids see on television this Gender Equity lesson can be helpful.

This article on Sexual Con Games covers some tips on counteracting Media Messages.

Consumerism: The Ugly Truth about Media?

We are all susceptible to the messages we see in the media, but the influence of media on children is particularly powerful. Many of our basic beliefs are formed in our early years and media can hold sway if not monitored and regulated by parents.

Per Wikipedia, consumerism is the "equating of personal happiness with the purchasing of material possessions and consumption." Nearly all forms of media are filled with both overt and subliminal messages encouraging us to buy.

Academic experts have attributed depression, anxiety, and other emotional maladies with consumerism. It is said by some to be leading us to a social/financial catastrophy, and certainly even religious leaders have seriously challenged the value of our consumer based culture.

Reports have indicated that many families in the US have their TV on an average of 6 ¾ hours per day potentially giving their TV a stronger foothold in a child's education than their school teacher. According to The Sourcebook for Teaching Science, the average child in fact, views 1500 hours of television per year compared to spending only 900 hours per year in school.

With so much time to educate and entertain, it becomes clear that television is indeed a powerful force in how we perceive things; both for adults and for children. Certainly for advertisers, children are a desirable target as they are even less likely to be consciously aware that those who promote products are attempting to shape they way they think and behave.

Learn More About How Advertising in the Media is Shaping Our Lives

Verdant.net: What is consumerism and what is it's affect upon society?
National Geographic: Discusses the spread of consumerism to developing countries and the devastating results.
Center for Media Literacy: An interview with Sut Jhally, an associate professor of communication at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and author of The Codes of Advertising: Fetishism and the Political Economy of Meaning in the Consumer Society.
The Bribed Soul: Ads, TV and American Culture: A conversation about how advertising rules everything we see and experience in American Culture.
Imitations of Immorality: A review of the influence of media and one person's efforts to counteract it.
National Institute on Media and the Family: Interesting statistics demonstrating the medias near constant presence in childrens' lives.
NPR: An audio interview regarding the book "Born to Buy".
Questia.com: PDF of books regarding the influence of television/advertising on children.

Learn more about the Media and Consumerism

Also find resources to combat medias influence

More about Consumerism

Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood (Trailer): by ChallengingMedia | video info

376 ratings | 106,130 views

curated content from YouTube

What Parents Can Do to Battle the Influence of Media Advertising?

With media advertising often targeting children specifically, it is important for parents to learn what they can about the techniques used by ad companies. The resources below will help.

Parents can then engage their kids in looking critically at the marketing that is thrown at them in an effort to thwart the influence of media on children. Several of the links below will discuss the types of questions parents can use when talking to their children about these topics.

Countering Media Advertising

Commonsensemedia.org: Tips for parents about how to facilitate critical thinking regarding advertisements
Media Awareness: Great tips and resources for parents to combat the influence of advertising. It includes suggestions for websites and shows for kids to learn about media advertising.
PBSKids.org: Tips from PBS.

Media Influence in the News

Russia Radio Shake-Up Follows Putin Criticism: Ekho Moskvy employees, who hold the remaining 34 percent of the station's shares, will have a say in the makeup of the new board, but Mr. Venediktov said he feared that Gazprom Media's influence over board decisions would increase.
Despite Uneasy Co-Existence, State and Media Are Co-Dependent: However, the advent of media freedom has given rise to unprecedented abuse of media influence by unscrupulous mass communicators and authoritarian leaders within our societies whose aim is to divide and destroy the very communities that media freedom ...
Radioscope Names Power 106/LA #1 In Social Media Influence: Radio consultancy RADIOSCOPE has published a social media study that cites EMMIS Top 40/Rhythmic KPWR (POWER 106)/LOS ANGELES as having the most social media influence pile in radio. The first-of-its-kind study analyzed over 25 million tweets, ...
Trend in Social Media – 2012: This should translate into clear measurable benefit of social media influence ? right? There are several studies which put a dampener on this enthusiasm. Here are 2 of them which paints not so rosy picture of impact of social media.

What Do You Say?

Does TV Use Have to Be Monitored with Young Kids?

Fetching blurbs now... please stand by

Yes! Who Wants the Ad Companies and Hollywood Kooks Deciding What My Kids Learn!

<a href="http://sportvideos.com/Gymnastics-DVDs/">physical education dvd</a> says:

It gives a lot of things to them negative and positive. The outcome of your kids always lie on the parents.

Posted January 19, 2012

bob says:

suck these nuts bitch haha

Posted December 12, 2011

shaizia says:

yes

Posted October 20, 2011

sherioz says:

Most certainly. We want our kids to get to the good stuff under our guidance and not by chance.

Posted October 18, 2011

jksterling says:

Absolutely!

Posted October 05, 2011

Nope! What a Bunch of

maurissam says:

It all depends of the age of the child and how discipline the child is. I have 3 daughters, two 5years old and a 2 and a half years old. They watch TV a lot but I don't have to monitor them, because they only watch kids TV. Nick Jr, Treehouse, Sprout etc. Watching too much TV might not be good for them, but it makes them smarter.

Posted October 19, 2011

Norma_Budden says:

My son will soon be 4 and enjoys watching the Treehouse channel. I don't supervise what he is watching because I know the programs are entertaining and educational for him. However, if he was channel surfing, I would pay closer attention in case he stumbled on scenes too mature for his age.

I pay attention to my kids and know their maturity levels. Sometimes a show is rated PG13 but my 11-year-old can watch it easily. The same is true for my 16-year-old who has watched shows dealing with mature subject matter for 3 to 4 years now.

I do agree that media can play a strong negative influence in the lives of children; however, living where I live, those strong influences are located just outside my door and, thus far, my children have managed to escape its clutches.

I feel I must use the Twilight saga as an example. Because of the description, I'm afraid to watch either of the movies yet both of my daughters have enjoyed each one and watched some videos on a few occasions. If I had to strictly go by what I would watch or have them watch - since I, personally, have little interest in TV - my kids would miss out on some of the programming which could be of benefit to them.

Having a satellite TV, lists can be easily set up for what each member of my family enjoys watching. If my son's programming is in one list, he can explore that range of channels without me having to watch over him.

All in all, I understand both sides of this argument and feel I should be sitting on the fence. I know my children (when younger) were only interested in children's programming and some family sitcoms, regardless of what anyone else their age was watching. I didn't feel the need to monitor everything because I knew there were some wonderful values being taught through those programs.

I think it all comes down to knowing your kids and what they can handle; in some cases, children need to be supervised but I don't believe it's the case with every child.

Posted July 02, 2011

anglena says:

yes it should be....
http://www.albertam.com

Posted May 24, 2011

itsmuzza2011 says:

no not at all , only the type of program they watch, my little girl loves the tv and has even learned sign language from one of het programs

Posted May 21, 2011

jenna says:

noooo!!!! dont monitor!!! honestly, that would piss me off if my parents did that to me. Well thanks for helping me on writing my essay (:

Posted April 28, 2011

Influence of Media on Children

How Does Television and the Media Influence Children?

Contents at a Glance

Contents at a Glance

The Influence of Media on Obesity

More Information about Television and Obesity

Videos About Obesity and the Media

Learn more about Nutrition and Obesity

Don't let TV ads be your guide

Choosing Television to Promote Health

Media Influence on Women's and Girl's Body Image

Videos about Media Influence on Body Image

Learn More About Media Influence on Body Image

Learn More About Body Image

Helping Kids Develop a Healthy Body Image

Books and Activities to Build Self Esteem

TV and Increased Psychological Difficulties

Media Influences on Behavior and Sexual Roles

What Does Advertising Tell Us About How Normal Women Should Behave?

Avoiding or Counteracting the Influence of Media Related to Sexuality Issues

Consumerism: The Ugly Truth about Media?

Learn More About How Advertising in the Media is Shaping Our Lives

Learn more about the Media and Consumerism

Also find resources to combat medias influence

More about Consumerism

What Parents Can Do to Battle the Influence of Media Advertising?

Countering Media Advertising

Media Influence in the News

What Do You Say?

Does TV Use Have to Be Monitored with Young Kids?

Yes! Who Wants the Ad Companies and Hollywood Kooks Deciding What My Kids Learn!

<a href="http://sportvideos.com/Gymnastics-DVDs/">physical education dvd</a> says:

bob says:

shaizia says:

sherioz says:

jksterling says:

Nope! What a Bunch of

maurissam says:

Norma_Budden says:

anglena says:

itsmuzza2011 says:

jenna says:

Better Things For Kids to Do for Entertainment and Learning

Add wepages and lenses you would suggest

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