The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) urges all parents to limit their children’s exposure to television to one or two hours of “quality programming” every day. But the national average is more than three hours per day—20 percent of a child’s waking hours. Not only are their brains not working when they are watching television, sitting there—being the proverbial “couch potato” —contributes to the obesity epidemic.

Is What They’re Watching Safe?
What your child is watching is another consideration. There is quite a bit of programming geared towards school-age children, you just have to look for it. Don’t let your child be in charge of that, and don’t let your child watch programs that are too old for her.

The AAP linked television and violence when it made this statement: “Although media violence is not the only cause of violence in American society, it is the single most remediable contributing factor.” Not only are kids seeing too much violence on television; during the time that they watch television, kids are exposed to a sexual reference every five minutes. And that isn’t necessarily even on shows you don’t want them to see.

Encourage Better TV Choices
There are several ways to limit the amount of television your child watches and what she watches.

• No matter how much she pleads, don’t let your child have a television in her room. There just isn’t any good reason, ever.
• Don’t watch television during meals.
• Pick several appropriate shows and tape them to watch together—that way you can talk about what is going on.
• Require that your child tell you before she turns the television on. This gives you the control over how much time it’s on. Luckily, now television shows are rated for ages just like the movies. This gives you, as a parent, additional information to make informed decisions about what you’re comfortable letting her watch.
• Try to stick to public and cable programming aimed to your child’s age: The Discovery Channel, The Disney Channel and Nickelodeon are good options. Some children love cooking shows, like Iron Chef on the Food Network, as well.

Block Some Shows
To really control the television when you’re not around, make sure your sets have a V-chip, which enables you to block shows that you don’t want your child to see. This doesn’t work if your child watches television at a friend’s house—you have no control over that.

If you find out that your grade-schooler has watched a show that you have deemed inappropriate, the most important thing to do is talk about it. What was it about? Does she have any questions? Then call the parents of the friend and politely explain your television viewing possibilities. You still have this kind of control… but not for long.