Television advertising aimed directly at children should be banned or regulated.

"Give me a child from any background and I'll turn him into anything you want- a scientist, politician, or even a criminal." - American psychologist Edward Chance Tolman. "These methods are used today by advertisers to turn children into consumers." According to catholiceducation.org, the average American child ages 2-11 watches 1,197 minutes of television each week. That is almost 20 hours of television! In those 20 hours, kids age 2-11 see approximately 140 food advertisements. In a year, children ages 2-11 watch about 1,040 hours of television and see about 7,280 food advertisements. There are many important reasons why television advertising directed at kids needs to be regulated. Reason: 1. Research has confirmed that the media shows a close conformity between children's tastes, perceived needs, actions, and the programs they watch. ï¿½ About four years ago, a 7 year old girl drowned trying to find Bikini Bottom (SpongeBob Squarepants) in the ocean. In another unrelated event, a few kids jumped off of buildings in an attempt to fly like the fictional hero Superman. Both accounts resulted in the death of all involved. ï¿½ If children allow themselves to believe in talking sea creatures and flying human beings merely from watching television programs, one may conclude that children will believe that, for example, the energy drink Red Bull really does give you wings. Therefore, they will also be easily persuaded to buy certain products that are advertised during their favorite shows. 2. Some children don't understand that advertisers are only trying to get them to buy their products. ï¿½ According to AAP ( American Academy of Pediatrics) children under the age of 8 are developmentally unable to understand the intent of ads and simply accept them as true. 3. Even in learning environments, children are exposed to advertisements from a very young age. ï¿½ According to Mediachannel.org, 70% of child care centers use television on a typical day. ï¿½ Channel 1 news broadcast is free to schools who promise students will watch commercials. 42% of channel 1's 12 minute broadcast is ads and fillers. The teen audience for channel 1 is 50 times greater than the MTV audience. From kidshealth.org 4. Television is the main point in a young child's life and a good percentage of airtime is spent on advertisements. ï¿½ Children in the U.S. spend more time watching television than any other activity, including attending school. The only activity that a child does more than watching television is sleeping. In a year, a child spends about 900 hours at school and around 1,150 hours watching television.-Kidshealth.org ï¿½ Every 4 hours of television contain over 100 commercials. ( Minn. Star Tribune.) ï¿½ Even children as little as 1 year old watch about 6 hours of television per week. 54% of 4-6 year olds chose to watch more television instead of spending time with their fathers. (Catholiceducation.org) 5. A good percent of advertisements directed at children are for unhealthy food products. ï¿½ 11 out of 19 commercials per hour are about food. This averages to about 1 food commercial every five minutes. 43.6% of these commercials are for fats, oils, and sweets. Fast food is 11% of ads during children's television and none of these are for the "healthy" options.-Theprenentioninstitute.org