Motion for debate: Television: the good, the bad and the useless
Proposed by Nuria Lagunas
Television is a part of our young children’s daily lives. TV is on in preschools, in waiting rooms, in doctors’ offices… Is television for your child good, bad or just plain useless? The following question is frequently asked by concerned parents and are probably questions that you have had on your mind, too.
Comments»
I think TV is not bad at all for children.It can be a great resource for kids for both: entertaining and education , what is for sure is that too much plugged-in time can have unhealthy effects on children. I think parents should make sure their children have a wide variety of free time activies such as: reading,sports or playing with friends. There´s no matter while parents limit their child´s screen time.
TV can be good or bad, but never useless. I mean that children are very influenced by everything that comes to their senses. For example, the characters of series or cartoons turn into a role model for them, into a hero. They want to have their clothes full of the photos of these heros, and they want to live the same adventures and do the same things as them. That’s why directors of the TV channels should be very careful about showing violence or racism in their programs, because children will imitate these behaviours.
I think television is not useless at all because, although the kids don´t like very much watching the news, there are educational programmes such as “Who wants to be a millionaire” or “The Lunnis”.
It is also really entertaining for children because they can watch a lot of cartoons and I personally think that The Simspons are not as dangerous as people think because the children can start to criticise the American society.
Trash¡ Pure trash our TV¡ I do not want to waste my time looking at such garbage. I do not want my children turning into spooky animals. Please, give me a break¡ I am completely against Alberto, Rebeca and Sandra’s comments. We have such beautiful countryside in Asturias that it is healthier at every level (emotional, intellectual, physical…) for our children to be outdoors rather than sitting at home staring at the TV set.
Well Javier, countryside is beautiful but you can’t be always out. I agree with you: nature, reading, playing, I suppose you prefer doing this kind of things, me too! but Tv is a reality, is a mirror to the world. nowadays TV is garbage, of course! but it’s a fact that children adores it. Terrible on the other hand because if tV doesn’t change they grow up talking about marujita and gossiping all the time. It’s such AWFUL!
Dear Ms. Lagunas,
But TV is a reality to avoid. It is the description of today’s world but not its mirror. Instead of watching TV I would rather read the newspaper, so that I can select what I want to read. TV forces the viewer to watch everything.
Sandra, do you really think that watching programs such us “The Simpsons” in order to criticise the American society is OK for children? What kind of principles are we teaching to children? Tolerance? Looking at your argument, the answer is “no”. Personally, I think that TV should be controlled not only by its directors, but also by parents. Advertisement is one of the fields that is designed to influence children very much. The solution is to select programs that we want our children to watch and to watch these programs with them, never letting them alone.
Alberto, don’t you think that children who spend most of the day in front of TV waste a beautiful time that could have been used for playing with their parents, for example? Besides, TV helps children to misunderstand the reality: it puts limits to their imagination and the language used in TV is frequently full of mistakes that will be imitated by kids in the future. It is proved that children who watch TV in excess have more difficulties in communicating with their peers.
Rebeca, everything in excess is so harmful, that´s good, I see your point but I think TV in moderation can be a good thing, preschoolers can get help by learning some useful skills on public TV as for istance the alphabet ,then grade schoolers can learn about nature or wildlife by watching documentaries.
what about coming up with the family a TV schedule?
then you can post the schedule in a visible area as for istance on the fridge, so that everyone knows which programs are ok to watch and when. My piece of advice for parents is also to watch TV with their childs and to limit the number of TV-watching hours.
I see Television as a very useful source of information and entertainment for children but always under parents control, I mean all these media as TV or the Net, are good for children as they can discover there lots of new things and have much fun, but as we’re talking about little children, parents shouldn’t forget their responsabilities and that children involve much attention and explanations for what they see. It’s also very important to check what programs they see, as the ones in the afternoon are against the law not very advisable for children in our country.
Villallana, are you sure you have really understood my point of view? Cause I’m against being hours and hours in front of the TV…
Dear Mr Javier: you read the newspaper….why don’t you try your solution with a child? they love making paper planes!!! The solution is not to avoid television, is try to improve the quality of our programs.
Rebeca, Alberto: I agree with both of you. i mean, rebeca is right with the fact of being sitting in front of tv instead of going out with friends, do ing exercice, reading, playing with parent… but on the other hand we can’t deny that TV is a fact in our houses, and we can’t hide tv to our children.I also think Tv in moderation can be a good thing, put a limit and to parents: try to spend a lot of time with their children in order that they don’t need (or forget) to watch TV.
In my opinion tv wouldn’t be so bad if there were right children’s programs, but only as an enterteinment never as a way of education. I think parents should control what their children watch and don’t leave them sit in front of the tv so that they don’t disturb. Children need to develop their social and learning skills, imagination and intelligence and a good manner for that is keeping in touch with other kids, as well as books or educative games.
Is not TV what is good, bad or useless but the way you watch it or the kind or progammes you choose for you or your kids.Moderation and common sense, that’s the clue (by the way, does common sense exist?). It can’t be good for children (even for adults) to spend hours in front of the TV set watching gossip programmes but what´s wrong if your kids enjoy some good cartoons, funny films or educational documentals?
Oh! Mr. Villallana should be an amish…you can’t develop yourself nowadays only looking at your countryside or reading newspapers (they are like pamphlet, completely influenced by politicians). Try it, go and give “The Times” or “The Herald Tribune” to a child…he will cry!
Obviously, if a kid sits near the Tv everyday and without control, he probably turns into a boy without a working brain, but if reading a fantastic book is good for her/his imagination, why watching “Los Lunnies” everyday is bad?
If children are controlled when they are watching TV, they won’t have problems in their lifes.
Not watching TV is not the best option… TV is in our daily life and we can’t ignore or forbid it. But, programs that children watch should be very controlled especially by parents, and we have to recognise that TV programs nowadays are not the most educative ones. It is very difficult to find a constructive one because sometimes they are broadcasted very late, so children can’t watch them.
Another problem: Educative programs are not adapted to children, so, even if you are very lucky to find one, it’ll be very difficult for your kid to focus the atention on a program with unknown words, etc. There should be more TV programs for children. Programs for teaching them and, of course, for covering their spare time.
I`m not against TV I`m against some kind of programmes that makes us waist our time with nonsense debates and gossip. although other programmes are Ok , they are entertainig, not all of them are educational, but I think that it´s not an insane way of entertainment, everything we abuse of is bad but I couldn´t say that TV is bad for children, they wath series, they learn more about life, above all those that can’t stay on the outside,the talk with their friends about their favourite programmes…
We should educate children, not forbid them to watch it.
I totally disagree whit the fact that television is useless.It could be bad because of the increasing number of programmes that only are useful if you want to waste your time.But there are also a lot of cultural,entertainig.. programmes.In relation with children I believe that they should watch television but with a limit and only some kinds of carttons or serials, but this is a responsability of their parents
I think that small children learn a lot about social situations and feelings in cartoons. Of course, not all the cartoons have the same quality but there are outstanding programmes like Shin Chan, which is very funny. I think that gossip programmes shouldn´t be broadcasted in the afternoon, when all the children are in front of the TV.
The problem with TV for childrens is nowadays there are many programs which not only are not usefull unless they spoil them. I renember when in the 90´s a child could arrive at home and spend all the afternoon watching childrens´s programme. But nowadays you switch on your TV in the afternoon and there are only soap operas, gossiping and that kind of programmes.
I take your point, Daniel, and I must say I agree with your opinion: children can watch TV in the morning (there are some good cartoons from 7.30 to 9; in fact they’re the same I watched when I was 7 or 8), at lunch-time (from 1.30 to 3 they can watch “The Simpsons”, which are politicaly correct and critical as well), but the rest of the day all you´ll find is gossip, soap operas, senseless quiz shows… Maybe they´ll enjoy some programmes like House, Prison Break, etc., but they´re not adecuate for them.
It depends on how it is used specially for children. TV can be an extremely useful way to help children to understand their world, to educate them, but if you plonk a child endlessly in front of a tv set and you don´t help them with that experience they will end up like a zombie.
I agree with Julio because TV is very useful and its power arrives worlwide. If you want to support something or just give some information you just have to put it on TV. TV for children must be supervised by an adult who chooses the proper programmes that children can watch.
I hope my children could have a better TV offer in the future. I’ll try my best to choose as much alternatives as possible for my children to enjoy their free time, but i won’t forbid them to watch TV. I only will be selective with it.
The problem nowadays is that we have very few TV programmes for children.
There are some very good but that is all.
In the afternoons you only can see soap operas and gossiping programmes.
An other prblem is that some parents think that all cartoons are for children and it is not true. Some of them contain sex references, violence or others, like Shin Chan,set a bad example for children.
In my opinion children shouldn´t spend to much time in front of the TV and their parents should control what are they looking in the TV
to be honest, I don´t spend much time on watching Tv. The programs that I watch are sitcoms,films and the news from time to time. I think that Tv is a good choice if you want to know what is happening in the world. It is incredible useful for international information.
Naturally, if it´s bad or good depends on the programs. One of the main issues is that you are free to watch what you like. However, parents should control the programs that their own children watch. Furtheremore, the spend too much time watching TV and unadecuated programs. In my opinion, this is the main point.