There is plenty of opportunity for Center members to become involved with this Commission. The typical child in the United States spends an average of more than 38 hours a week consuming media outside of school, according to a national study released by the Kaiser Family Foundation. The study included children's use of television, computers, video games, movies, music and print media. The study found that many parents are not exercising much control over their children's media use. For example, among children 8 and older, two-thirds have a television set in their bedroom and say the television is usually on during meals in their home.
Many children also report that their parents have set no rules about TV watching.
Contrary to popular perception, the study did not find evidence of large numbers of children spending hours a day playing computer games or surfing the Internet. Fewer than one in 10 kids spends more than an hour a day using a computer for fun, including three percent who spend more than an hour online and two percent who spend more than an hour playing computer games.