My child, the television and I

By the psychological counsellor Siham Salih. Television is considered one of the media that most affects children, since many children spend long hours in front of the television every day. Television's effect on children depends on several factors, among them: the number of hours the child watches television, the child's age and character, whether the child watches television alone or in the company of the mother or father, and the extent to which the mother and father discuss with the child what he sees on television. Television's effects on the child are many, between positives and negatives. Among the positive effects of television: • Learning about different cultures and the events taking place in the outside world. • Helping the child with his lessons by watching educational television programmes. • Obtaining as much information as possible and forming a cultured character by watching cultural programmes. • Learning about the various kinds of arts and different forms of music. • Spending time with the family watching television programmes and discussing them. But none of this prevents television from having negative effects on children: • Television increases aggressive and violent behaviour in the child. • Watching action films and scenes of violence makes the child feel afraid and makes him emotionally numb, and it also reduces the child's desire for life. • Watching television for long hours is one of the main causes of severe obesity in children. • Television advertisements affect the child and make him attached to fast food that is harmful to his health. • Scenes with sexual suggestions in films or music videos corrupt the child's morals at an early age and harm his health and his mental and cognitive development. • Television limits innovation, since scientific studies have shown that watching television has a negative effect on the child's level of academic attainment. • Television develops certain mistaken behaviours in the child, such as smoking, addiction and using violence as a means of getting what he wants. What can we do to reduce the negative effects of television on children? Parents must deal with their children's television viewing in a careful way, so that the child can obtain the many positives television offers children and at the same time the father or mother can guard their child against exposure to this device's negatives. Parents must: • Choose carefully the programmes the child watches, set a specific number of hours during which the child is allowed to watch television, and supervise him while discussing with him everything he watches. • Grow closer to the child and try to learn his way of thinking. • Encourage the child to read stories and various books by reading to him regularly from an early age. • Encourage the child to keep and care for pets, so that watching television does not become the child's only means of entertainment. • Encourage the child to take part in some team sports that develop in him a spirit of teamwork and of cooperation with others. • Teach the child correct social behaviour and how to face problems with courage. • Reduce the watching of films containing violence and action, and not expose the child to news bulletins with all their bloody events. • Explain to the child the cinematic techniques used to create scenes of violence and action, and make him aware that all these scenes are not real.