Should children be allowed to watch TV? Summary

Should children be allowed to watch TV?
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Should children be allowed to watch TV?
Increased use of the diverse platforms of digital media witnessed in the 1990s gave birth to different contentious issues concerning the use, moderation, merits, and demerits of the same. The widespread use of televisions as one of the mainstream digital media in the United States and around the world, for instance, evoked different points of views and opinions across the social divide pertaining to its effects and influence on the growth and development of children. Children's growth and development is a continuous process with different stages as characterized by both their ages and the diverse growth and developmental processes undergone. Children who are three years old and below, for instance, are at a very crucial stage of their growth and development as it is during this period that the child's brain undergoes rapid growth. Exposing such infants or toddlers to a few hours on the television screens is bound to influence their growth and development significantly. Among the arguments for exposing or rather allowing infants to watch television is that the programs being aired and other video programs function to teach them a thing or two easily. Proponents of the same belief are good for infants' brain development. According to the American Academy of Pediatricians, children below the age of two should not be allowed to watch television, while older children should be limited to between one and two hours of watching quality programs on the television. In essence, children who are three years old and below should not be allowed to watch television while their older counterparts should have moderated sessions of approximately two hours watching quality programs.
Exposing toddlers or infants below the age of three years to television and other video programs threatens their healthy growth and development. Robyn Ritchie (2013) highlights some of the dangers of exposing children within the stated age bracket to include lack of concentration, troubled sleep, passivity, and delays in language development or slowness in language acquisition. Robyn Ritchie argues that exposing children under three years old to television interferes with their brains' development towards enhancing their motor, speech, and thinking abilities. At this early stage of life, children are dependent on their parents and available caregivers or guardians to assist them in the development of the outlined abilities. Exposing children under three years old to television thus denies them the sensual effect gained from social interaction with their parents and caregivers, which leads to delays in the development of language or speech and even the sense of self as a unique entity from other individuals. The author further claims that children are often receptive to different kinds of stimuli during this early stage of life, and it is up to the parents and caregivers to shield them from harmful stimuli to their growth and development. An article by the Urban Child Institute (2016), Infants, Toddlers and Television, echoes the same sentiments concerning the hazardous nature of increased exposure to television on healthy growth and development of childre...