Introduction Television Ads Food Other Products TV Content Fantasy Stereotyping Violence Health Family Guidance Alert Signals Introduction Television is a major form of entertainment for children. They see almost 20,000 commercials a year Most children will have spent 22,000 hours watching television by the age of 18.
Television does more than entertain children.
It also teaches children about choices and about values like right and wrong, cooperation and selfishness, dependence and independence, health and sickness, understanding and prejudice, negotiation and violence. They learn what products are available what the products do, and perhaps some ideas about how to compare products. Children learn how an item fits the lifestyle of a family from cartoons soap operas situation comedies and detective shows Consequently children may develop unrealistic ideas of how people live. Rarely are television characters involved in food planning and selections comparison shopping consumer redress managing a family budget working out family problems or shopping for credit. Yet the families portrayed on TV suffer no ill effects from not doing these things.