Study Shows Young Children Over Exposed To Television

By Lynne Adkins

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – A study shows that young children are exposed to hours of background television.

The study of nearly 1,500 families shows that children between eight months and eight years old are being exposed to nearly four hours of background television every day. Author Matthew Lapierre of the University of Pennsylvania says that’s cause for concern, even though there’s limited research on why having the television on is a problem.

There is some evidence that increased background television exposure influences children’s ability to sustain attention and interact with parents during play behaviors.

He suggests parents keep an eye on when the television is on and if children are in the room where it’s just being used as background noise, turn it off.