Topic: Refute: Television Is Bad for Children

Topic: Refute: Television is bad for Children

With the technology advancement in this era of globalization, children now inhabit a 'media-rich' environment of multichannel television, mobile phones, and the internet and computer games. According to Ofcom's latest media literacy audit, 72% of children aged 8-15 now have access to digital TV, 64% have access to the internet at home, half own game consoles, and 65% of 8-15s own mobile phones (including 49% of 8-11year olds) (Ofcom 2006). However, although they use different media in their everyday life, television is still the most popular medium, occupying a significant proportion of children's time, up to 13.9 hours a week, with higher viewing for those from ethnic minority (15.2 hours) and low income groups (15.5 hours).Television can be of general benefit to children. It can bring them into contact with aspects of life they would not otherwise become aware of. It can provide a valuable tool in the home and at school not simply to keep children occupied but also, if used appropriately, as a constructive way to use their time.

Several studies have shown how young children's language acquisition can benefit from television. In one study it was found that babies and toddlers who watched Sesame Street learned vocabulary, concepts (shapes, colors) and could identify letters and numbers, particularly if they were aided by parents (Lemish and Rice, 1986). In a study of infants' and toddlers' television viewing and language outcomes by Linebarger and Walker (2005), it was shown that some pre-school programs, but not all, can lead to larger vocabularies and higher expressive language (word production) scores among younger children under 30 months. Some programs, such as Blue's Clues, and Dora the Explorer, which include on-screen characters talking to the child, encourage participation, label objects and invite children to respond, were positively related to expressive language production and vocabulary . Programs such as Arthur and Clifford, which had a strong narrative, were visually appealing, and contained opportunities to hear words and their definitions, also appeared to support language acquisition.

Besides enhancing language acquisitions of children, watching educational television long-term effects on academic achievement. There is strong evidence that age-appropriate educational television has positive effects on children's development. For example, Sesame Street was designed to prepare children for school by encouraging knowledge and skills that improved vocabulary, numeracy, the use of language and understanding of the world around them. Each show had to demonstrate that it could hold the attention of its young audience, and formative and summative research was used to improve the effectiveness of the program's curricular goals. In a re-contact study, it was established that 570 high school students who had watched Sesame Street as young children achieved higher grades in English,