Most living Americans look upon television as a natural home appliance and think no more about its implications than they would electrical lamps or a washing machine. In fact, more American homes have TVs than have washing machines.
Indeed, American homes have more TV sets than people who are domiciled in each residence according to Nielson Media Research. And therein lies the problem.
Studies show that the mere presence of a television in a child’s bedroom increased average viewing time from 21 to 30 hours weekly. In 2002 the journal Pediatrics reported that preschool children with TVs in their bedrooms were more prone to be overweight and in 2007 the journal Obesity confirmed those results. Other studies show that students with bedroom TVs perform more poorly in school and read significantly less than children not “blessed” with the presence of a TV in their bedroom.
A November 2007 National Endowment for the Arts study discovered that the average young adult (17 – 24 years old) spends 2 ½ hours a day watching TV and 7 minutes a day reading.
Furthermore, the content of television grows ever more violent, coarse and vulgar. For example, the Parents Television Council has just released a study that shows that children who watched daytime shows on cable’s BET (Black Entertainment Television) and MTV (Music Television) were exposed to adult content (material of a sexual, violent, profane or obscene nature) once every 38 seconds.
Clearly, no matter how “familiar” a family’s television set—or more accurately, sets—may be, children’s access to them should be monitored closely by parents both in terms of viewing time and content. And all the research shows that in terms of television viewing, less is better.
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Diana Butler Bass is a religion scholar and author of Christianity for the Rest of Us: How the Neighborhood Church is Transforming the Faith. She blogs at 
Tony Campolo is Professor Emeritus at Eastern University and author of The God of Intimacy and Action: Reconnecting Ancient Spiritual Practices, Evangelism, and Justice, with Mary Darling. He blogs at 
Rod Dreher is a columnist for The Dallas Morning News and author of Crunchy Cons: The New Conservative Counterculture and Its Return to Roots. He blogs at 
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Dr. Richard Land is president of The Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission and author of The Divided States of America? What Liberals AND Conservatives are missing in the God-and-country shouting match!
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Yawn. They've been singing this song for fifty years now. Television is here to stay so get over it.
"KILL YOUR T.V.!!!!"
I heard Dr Land talk about this today on his radio show.
But, one thing that has yet to be talked about are the commercials. Content filter and parental controls on TVs seem to work fairly well, but they do not work on advertisements. A young person may not be able to view mature television shows, but the objectionable commercials in between the shows are still viewable. Someone should bring this up, although I bet nothing will be done, because without advertising there would be no television shows to begin with.
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