Children and teens are exposed to the media first hand, most of them on a daily basis. The media shows children so many conflicting images. Have you ever watched cartoons during the afternoon? A child will watch a cartoon for thirty minutes and in that time see advertisements for fast food chains and diet pills. The number of 30 second commercials seen within a year for an average child is 20,000! Even within the cartoon the media depicts their label of what is expected as the perfect body. Some cartoons show children that are thin as being a part of the “in” crowd and those that are overweight are projected as the one that stumbles and falls. According to the A.C. Nielsen Co., the average American watches more than 4 hours of TV each day (or 28 hours/week, or 2 months of nonstop TV-watching per year). In a 65-year life, that person will have spent 9 years glued to the tube. Per year, the American average youth spends 900 hours in school, and 1500 hours in front of the television. Are you watching television with them? If not, do you know what they are seeing and how their little minds are interpreting it?
