Television

May, 2002

by: Brock Bolde

A recent study was reported on in the Friday, March 29 Edition of the Daily News. The study was conducted by a non–Christian organization and was completed over a 17–year period with 707 individuals. Here are some of the findings that I felt were worth passing along:

“Our findings suggest that, at least during early adolescence, responsible parents should avoid permitting their children to watch more than one hour of television a day … The evidence has gotten to the point where it's overwhelming,” said Jeffrey G. Johnson of Columbia University and the New York State Psychiatric Institute.

“The work is the latest to associate aggression with television viewing — which studies show depict an average five violent acts for each hour of prime time and 25 violent acts for each hour of children's programming.”

“I was surprised to see a fivefold increase in aggressive behavior from less than one hour to three or more hours,” Johnson said in a telephone interview.

“The results don't surprise me at all. There have been more than 1,000 studies for over 50 years pointing to a causal relationship between media violence and real–life violence. I don't know how many it'll take before the entertainment industry starts to pay attention,” said Melissa Caldwell, PTC director of research and publications.

I always find it interesting when non-Christian groups produce research that, in one way or another, supports the truths that are found in God's Word. And while God's Word does not tell us not to watch more than three hours of television a day, it does say: “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things.” (Philippians 4:8) As parents, we need to strive to train our children in accordance to God's Word. Our children need our loving guidance and direction so that they might learn how to fill their minds with the things of God, rather than the things of this world.