Tv Comercials And Children

How do TV commercials influence children? Do young children really understand what the ads mean and do they effect how children see products and services. How are elementary students impacted? How are junior high and high school students impacted? Do these ads have any long term effects on children? What are the effects?

Should the advertiser or product owners be responsible for the effects there ads have on children? Should parents be responsible for allowing there children to view the ads and or watch TV. Should the government get involved in monitoring ads marketed towards children?

These are all questions that have been beginning to grow for some time now. Researchers from Packard Children's Hospital and Stanford School of Medicine in Palo Alto, Calif., surveyed more than 800 ethnically and socio-demographically diverse third-grade children about their time spent in front of the television. This time included watching television, watching movies or videos and playing video games. The children were also asked whether they requested their parents to buy them food, drinks or toys they had seen on TV.

The average child reported spending more than 22 hours in front of the screen each week. Of that time, about 10 hours was spent watching TV. The children admitted to having requested about one toy a week and two requests every three weeks for food or drinks. Children who watched the most television asked their parents to buy them more over the course of the two-year study than children who watched less television.

Research has also shown that children are impacted by TV ads at a much younger age then originally thought. The big concern expressed over these findings is kid-targeted ads tends to promote high-calorie, nutritionally poor choices.

Works Cited

“Impact of Ads on Children.” Medical Breakthroughs with Ivanhoe. 5 April 2006

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