Television and the Informational and Educational Needs of Children

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Abstract
The Children's Television Act of 1990 requires broad-casters to air programming that meets the informational and educational needs of children. Despite a massive amount of evidence that educational programming has positive effects on the social, intellectual, and educational development of young children, and recent evidence that such viewing experience during the preschool years fosters both increased school readiness for kindergarten and superior high school grades in English, science, and math, there is still a large number of teachers and parents who believe that television viewing in general is harmful to children. Evidence to the contrary is reviewed, and the conditions under which the medium has a positive effect on children's educational progress are examined. A heavy diet of commercial, broadcast, entertainment television made for general audiences does indeed have some of the alleged harmful effects, but educational programming for children between the ages of 2 and 5 years has the opposite effects.

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