Kids & TV Impact

You might want to keep your TV off if you have a small child in the house.

Mainly because it looks like too much TV during early childhood could have big consequences later in life.

There's been a huge debate as to how much TV influences children. Some say educational programs are OK, others say they shouldn't watch at all. But until now, researchers hadn't looked much at how TV affected children as young as 2 years old.

This study, published in the journal Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, decided to look at just that. And the researchers involved found that watching TV at 2 years old can have an effect on the child even when they are in 4th grade. They found those watching too much TV at 2 years old had less engagement in 4th grade classroom activities, did less exercise on weekends and had a higher chance of being picked on when they were 10 years old.

They think it's because TV is a passive intellectual activity, in other words it doesn't take too much thinking. And when this happens at 2, a crucial age when the brain is developing and lifestyle habits and preferences are being shaped---it can have an undesirable effect later in the child's life.

So you best bet might be to turn off the TV when they are very young and let them explore the world around them. Let their own natural curiosity keep them thinking.