Before you go any further, answer these questions:

How many working television sets do you own or have access to?
How many hours do you spend watching television each weekday?
How many hours do you spend watching television each weekend?
Consider any children you know. How much time do they spend each day watching television?
If you are a parent or guardian of a child, what sort of controls do you place on children's television viewing?
Does television viewing effect you or your family's eating and sleeping times?

In many countries of the world, children spend more time watching television than they do attending school. Via this medium they are exposed to a very wide range of views and scenarios about life. Some of what they watch may enhance and complement what they learn in school, but much of what they see, particularly acts of violence and anti-social behavior, is the opposite of what they are being taught at school.

Many psychologists who have studied this phenomenon have concluded that television in its commercial form, as seen by children at home, can be detrimental to them socially and psychologically. In some ways these negative effects of television viewing are short term, but in other ways they are long term.