Teen-agers, who combine television viewing with playing video games, are spending 35 hours to 55 hours in front of the tube, the study showed. 28K 56K The Pediatrics study also cites findings from other studies, including one on national television violence. It concluded that children, on average, view about 10,000 violent acts on television each year. Dr. Victor Strasburger of the University of New Mexico School of Medicine in Albuquerque is among the physicians who finds the trend alarming.
Media violence desensitizes children.
Those worried by the teen pregnancy rate will be discouraged by statistics quoted in the Pediatrics study showing that teen-agers are being bombarded with messages of sex. Each year, a typical teen-ager views nearly 15,000 sexual references, innuendoes and jokes on television, of which fewer than 170 deal with abstinence, birth control, sexually transmitted diseases or pregnancy. Alcohol, tobacco or illicit drugs are present in 70 percent of prime time network dramatic programs, the study concludes. But the situation is not hopeless, the authors of the study said. They recommend that parents play a bigger role in their children's selection of programs.