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Children and Adolescents: Television,

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Wartella E, Lauricella AR, Cingel DP, and Connell S, Children and Adolescents: Television, Computers, and Media
Viewing. In: Howard S. Friedman (Editor in Chief), Encyclopedia of Mental Health, 2nd edition, Vol 1, Waltham, MA:
Academic Press, 2016, pp. 272-278.

Copyright 2016 Elsevier Inc. unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved.
 Author's personal copy
Children and Adolescents: Television, Computers, and Media Viewing
E Wartella, AR Lauricella, DP Cingel, and S Connell, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA
r 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Introduction
Television and computers are two of the major types of
screen media available today, although screens on smart-
phones and tablets are quickly outpacing other technologies
for accessing visual and audio media. Television comes from
the Latin terms for distance (tele) and viewing (vision). A
number of innovators developed inventions necessary for
the realization of television, such as Vladimir Zworykins
1923 invention of an advanced cathode ray tube necessary
for displaying visual images. However, it wasnt until 1927
that Philo Farnsworth created the worlds rst television
that could both capture and display visual images. From this
rst demonstration of television through the 1930s, there
were various developments establishing television stations
and receivers, including David Sarnoffs demonstration of
television at the 1939 New York Worlds Fair, which brought
international attention to this new technology (Pavilk and
McIntosh, 2013).
From 1939 when the National Broadcasting Company was
established until the late 1940s, television as an industry grew
slowly largely because its development was interrupted by a
federal government restriction on the construction of
new television stations during World War II. Once the war
ended, televisions development took off. In 1949, there
were 98 US television stations and nearly 4 million house-
holds with television sets. Four commercial television net-
works, NBC, CBS, ABC, and Dumont (the latter failed in
1955), provided national programming for local television
stations. In 1953, the Federal Communications Commission
(FCC), which licenses broadcast stations, approved a color
television system for US television sets. By the late 1950s, four
in ve American homes had television sets; today television is
ubiquitous and 90% of American households have multiple
sets. Cable television began as Community Antenna Television
in 1948 in Pennsylvania to bring television into communities
that were not reached by over-the-air broadcast signals. Cable
now reaches more than 80% of households and along with
direct broadcast satellite, which developed in the 1990s, brings
hundreds of television channels into American homes (Pavilk
& McIntosh, 2013).
Just as television has expanded over the past 50 years so has
the use of alternative screens to display television program-
ming. Computers are among the most important of these
screen media. While computers were originally developed as a
device to perform a set of arithmetic or logical operations
largely for scientic research, the idea that one could merge the
functions of a calculator with programming capabilities
was rst theorized by Charles Babbage in 1837. It was Alan
Turing who married the algorithm and computation in 1936;
his Turing machine was the precursor of the modern digital
computer. Various developments in programmable computing
devices followed through the 1940s. Perhaps the most
important development this period was the invention of
272 Encyclopedia of Mental Health, Volume 1
semiconductors, the invention of semiconductors by John
Bardeen, Walter Brittain, and William Shockley at AT&Ts Bell
Labs. Semiconductors are small tiny chips with on/off switches
that produce a series of rapid 0 s and 1 s. This latter invention
allows for digitization of all kinds of information whether
voice, visual, or print and allowed for the convergence of
all sorts of information via computers. Before communica-
tion could be completely digitized, another building block
was needed: a network to connect computers all over the
world.
The internet as we know it had its precursor in the ARPA-
NET, a network that linked scientic computers across uni-
versities, developed by the US Defense Advanced Research
Projects Agency (DARPA) in 1969. ARPANET developed the
rst email in 1971. In 1974, Vinton Cerf and Robert Cahn
developed the basic transmission control protocol (TCP) and
used the term internet to describe the ability to communicate
across computers anywhere in the world. During the 1990s,
developments in computer communication came quickly. In
1991, Tim Berners Lee created the World Wide Web (www), a
publishing platform for the Internet. In 1993, Mark Andreas-
son and others at the University of Illinoiss National Center
for Supercomputing Applications developed Mosiac, the rst
web browser. Mosiac (later Netscape) became the rst interface
that allowed for easy, graphical navigation across web sites
(Pavilk and McIntosh, 2013).
Once the Internet was solidly established, other online
communication tools were developed. In 1995, the rst blogs
and wikis were developed. Three years later, Larry Page and
Sergey Brin founded Google. By the turn of the twenty-rst
century, social media arrived with the development of
MySpace as a social networking service designed for users
to follow music groups and bands. In 2004, the rst social
networking site expressly designed to link college students to
one another was developed by Mark Zuckerberg and his
Harvard College classmates. Later, Facebook expanded access
to link anyone over the age of 13 to friends and family. Fol-
lowing the rise in popularity of MySpace and Facebook, the
number of available social media sites grew exponentially over
the next decade. Currently, more than 200 social media sites
exist, which serve billions of individual users and provide
opportunities for youth to communicate in a one-to-many
environment (Pavilk and McIntosh, 2013).
Over the decades, the effects of media use have been of
interest to policy makers, medical professionals, researchers,
educators, and parents. Of particular concern are media
effects that occur in children and adolescents including those
associated with food marketing and obesity, violence and
aggression, fear, prosocial behavior, attention problems, and
addiction. Therefore in the following sections, we will briey
review the literature on the indirect and direct effects of media
on aspects related to youth mental health. As a conclusion,
we provide information about relevant policy considerations
related to this review.
doi:10.1016/B978-0-12-397045-9.00119-1
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Children and Adolescents: Television, Computers, and Media Viewing 273

Indirect Effects of Media on Mental Health
Food Marketing and Childhood Obesity
For the past 30 years, obesity rates have been rising in the
United States, especially among children: it has doubled for
2- to 5-year-olds and adolescents and more than tripled for 6- to
11-year-olds. According to the Institute of Medicine, almost
one-third of American youth up to age 19 are overweight or
obese (dened as having a Body Mass Index of 35 or higher).
Nearly 20% of boys and 15% of girls aged 1 to 19 are obese.
There are also variations in obesity rates among different
demographic groups, with greater incidence of obesity among
African American, Hispanic, Native American children, low in-
come children, and children living in the Southern United
States. The consequences of childhood obesity are stark. Obese
children tend to grow up to be obese adults, have higher inci-
dence of coronary heart disease and metabolic syndrome, and
they suffer stigmatization and depression as well (IOM, 2012).
Media, especially food marketing via television and web
sites, have been implicated in the obesity crisis. As the 2006
IOM report on Food Marketing and the Diets of Children and Youth
found, American foods marketed to children tend to be high in
calories, fat, sugar, and salt, and low in nutrients necessary for a
healthy diet. Moreover, a systematic review of 123 articles on
the relationship between television advertising and childrens
eating behaviors found strong evidence for the effects of food
and beverage marketing on childrens food and beverage pref-
erences, purchase requests, and short-term food and beverage
consumption for children aged 2 to 11. This review also found
moderate evidence of effects of food marketing on food and
beverage beliefs and actual diets for 2- to 5-year-olds. However,
there is insufcient evidence to establish a causal relationship
between food marketing and adiposity, especially for teenagers.
In short, food marketing is clearly implicated in childhood
obesity and children who are obese suffer a variety of health
problems including mental health issues such as depression
and anxiety (Gariepy et al., 2010; Sjoberg et al., 2005).
Violence and Aggression
In addition to medias effect on childhood obesity and mental
health, media messages also vary in their strength and po-
tential for inducing aggression among young viewers. Like-
wise, teenagers and children vary in their sensitivity to these
messages depending on differences in individual personalities,
environments, and levels of cognitive maturity. Children may
imitate aggressive behavior performed by cartoon or human
characters, and such effects can occur among youth with as
little as viewing one aggressive episode on television (e.g.,
Bandura et al., 1963). Several other longitudinal studies have
also linked exposure to television violence with aggressive
behavior. One early study determined that, among males, in-
creased exposure to violent television at age 8 was associated
with signicantly more aggressive behavior at age 19 and adult
criminal behavior at age 30 (e.g., Eron et al., 1972). A more
recent study produced similar ndings, with heavy viewing of
violent television in childhood predicting more aggressive
behavior in adulthood (Huesmann et al., 2003). Interestingly,
the relationship between aggressive behavior and violent
television viewing hold true even when controlling for factors
such as family income, neglect during childhood, parental
education, neighborhood violence, and psychiatric disorders
(Johnson et al., 2002). Results from meta-analytic work com-
bining individual studies on media, violence, and aggression
suggest that the effect of television violence on aggression is
nearly as strong as the effect of smoking on lung cancer and is
stronger than the documented effect of exposure to lead on
lower IQ scores among children (Bushman and Anderson,
2001).
While numerous studies have determined that there is a
relationship between exposure to media violence and aggres-
sive behavior, such effects are moderated by the nature of the
media content, individual characteristics of the viewers, and
the environment in which such media is consumed. Children
and youth are more likely to imitate television violence if the
character performing the behavior is attractive (Paik and
Comstock, 1994), if the behavior appears to be justied
(Hogben, 1998), seems realistic (Atkin, 1983) and results in
little consequences for the victim (Hogben, 1998). Addition-
ally, media effects on violence are generally stronger for males
than for females and among younger audiences (Paik and
Comstock, 1994). Similarly, individuals who have more ag-
gressive personalities are more likely to be inuenced by
media violence (Bushman, 1995). The family environment
also impacts the ways in which media is consumed and the
potential effects it may have on children. Research suggests
that children experiencing higher levels of family conict are
also exposed to more violent television at home (Vandewater
et al., 2005). Similarly, children from lower income families
consume more violent programming than children from
higher income families (Eron et al., 1972). However, promis-
ing ndings from research have determined that watching less
violent media may result in a decrease in aggressive behavior
(Robinson et al., 2001), suggesting that parents play an im-
portant role in mediating the ways in which their children are
inuenced by media.
The research demonstrates relationships between viewing
violent television content and higher levels of aggressive
thoughts and behaviors. Further, aggression, in the form of
bullying or physical aggression on other siblings, family
members, or friends can lead to mental health distress in those
individuals subjected to the aggressive behavior (Tucker et al.,
2013). For example, a growing body of research has examined
childrens and adolescents cyberbullying practices on the
internet and social networking sites (e.g., Hinduja and Patchin,
2008), nding that computer prociency and time spent
online were positively related to both cyberbullying victim-
ization and offending. Additionally, Erdur-Baker (2010) found
that risky use of the Internet was related to cyberbullying
practices among adolescents. Taken together, it is clear that
certain media use practices are related to cyberbulling, which
may result in mental health distress and suicidal ideation (see
Hinduja and Patchin, 2010).
Prosocial Learning
While evidence demonstrates that some exposure to particular
types of media may result in an increase in aggressive behavior
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274 Children and Adolescents: Television, Computers, and Media Viewing
among children, further evidence suggests that carefully de-
signed media may encourage the development of positive
emotional and social skills such as kindness, sharing, helping,
cooperation, and tolerance. For example, second through sixth
graders reported learning more socialemotional lessons than
educational lessons from educational television (Calvert and
Kotler, 2003). Additionally, children in the study learned
about emotions, as well as issues such as respect, loyalty, and
sharing by watching their favorite shows. Findings suggest that
girls learned more positive social and emotional lessons than
boys and that more learning occurred from educational shows
than from shows focused solely on entertainment. Other
earlier research found that rst graders who watched an epi-
sode of Lassie in which the main character rescued a puppy
were more likely to display helpful behavior toward troubled
puppies than rst graders who were exposed to a neutral
episode of Lassie without such modeling behavior (Sprafkin
et al., 1975). Further, kindergartners who watched prosocial
episodes of Mr. Rogers Neighborhood were more likely to help
peers who were struggling with an art project (Friedrich and
Stein, 1975) than those who watched programming without
the prosocial messages.
Similarly, research ndings suggest that children who have
watched television programs featuring more diverse characters,
such as Sesame Street, developed more positive attitudes
toward individuals from different groups (Bogatz and Ball,
1971). More recently, researchers found that Israeli children
who watched their local Sesame program, designed to teach
tolerance between Jewish and Arabic children, held less
negative stereotypes about people from the other cultures
(Cole et al., 2003).
Finally, a meta-analysis of 34 studies examining the pro-
social effects of television exposure among approximately
5000 children found that prosocial programming can posi-
tively enhance childrens prosocial behavior, with the strongest
effect on altruism, or helping others. Results suggest that
prosocial content had stronger effects on older children and
those from middle and higher class families, but no gender
differences emerged. Surprisingly, the meta-analysis also re-
vealed that the effect of prosocial content on altruism was
higher than the effect of any other programming on any other
behavior, including the effect of violent television on aggres-
sive behavior (Mares and Woodard, 2005). Therefore, and in
addition to the negative, indirect effects of media on mental
health described above, research has also indicated a number
of positive effects of media on prosocial behavior and sub-
sequent mental health. Next, we will consider medias direct
effects on mental health.
Direct Effects on Mental Health
Fear
Fear-inducing messages and imagery abound in television
programming today. In recent years, societies have experienced
several disastrous events including terrorist attacks, war, eco-
nomic collapse, and kidnapings; natural disasters such as the
Asian tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, and earthquakes; and major
illnesses such as H1N1. Such disaster-related threats have
received increased attention by the media within news and
television programs. Further, technological advancements in
computer animation and special effects have allowed for even
more realistic and grotesque images of supernatural entities in
entertainment media programming. Not surprisingly, con-
siderable research has demonstrated that media can elicit fear
within children (e.g., Cantor, 2002). Some research also sug-
gests a correlation between individuals amounts of media
exposure and increased feelings of vulnerability and threat
(e.g., Gerbner et al., 1994).
Many scholars and child development experts agree that
some fears are important for emotional and cognitive well-
being (Sarano, 1986). However, being confronted with dis-
turbing events that reach beyond a childs cognitive processing
ability can have a negative effect on childrens development
(Cantor, 1998). Individuals fears have often been attributed
to exposure to negative information from media (Muris et al.,
2000). Similarly, a vast majority of the children attributed
their scary dreams to media exposure (Muris et al., 2000).
Numerous factors can mediate a childs response to a
threatening stimulus. For example, geographic proximity to a
traumatic event may intensify fear within children (Wilson,
2008). Fear is also greater among children who closely identify
with the victims of the tragic events (Otto et al., 2007).
Socioeconomic status is another factor to consider, as children
from lower socioeconomic communities tend to be more
vulnerable to media-induced fear (Becker-Blease et al., 2008).
Additional factors that mediate a childs response to fearful
subject matter include a childs experience with prior trauma
and adversity (Becker-Blease et al., 2008), as well as gender,
with elementary-age girls reporting more fear than boys (Muris
et al., 2000). Finally, age and developmental period signi-
cantly impact a childs response to a threatening stimulus, al-
though some specic stimuli that are considered frightening
tend to be fairly common and consistent across age groups
(Muris et al., 2000).
While media may induce fear or anxiety among young
viewers, carefully designed television programs may poten-
tially ease childrens fears and concerns. In a survey, over 40%
of parents spontaneously named The Incredible Hulk as a source
of fear among their preschoolers (Cantor and Sparks, 1984).
However, Cantor and colleagues found that childrens ex-
posure to an episode of Mr. Rogers Neighborhood designed to
address childrens fear of the television show The Incredible
Hulk resulted in less reported fear among young viewers ex-
posed to the intervention episode (Cantor et al., 1988). These
promising results suggest that carefully designed educational
programming may indeed have the potential to moderate
childrens fears and mental health more generally.
In more recent years, childrens television producers have
continued to develop childrens programming in an effort
to impart some understanding of potentially frightening
topics. Primary examples of relevant programming include
episodes of Mr. Rogers Neighborhood, as well as Sesame
Workshops recent Emotional Wellbeing Initiative. Certainly,
Sesame Street has a long-standing history of addressing such
issues, with numerous episodes featuring topics like the death
of Mr. Hooper, the re at Hoopers store, and the loss of Big
Birds nest during a hurricane. Many other current educational
preschool television programs have also taken the opportunity
 Author's personal copy
Children and Adolescents: Television, Computers, and Media Viewing
to address frightening topics, particularly young childrens
fear of the dark and fear of monsters. These fear reducing
programs may help to minimize the effects of fearful programs
on young children, thus reducing the stress, anxiety, and
fear young children may experience after watching scary
programs.
Attention Decit
Similar to the body of research on fear, there are mixed effects
of media on childrens attention. When video programs
were rst created and marketed directly for infants and tod-
dlers, there was an initial burst of concern about how screen
exposure at very young ages would impact childrens attention
skills. In fact, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is-
sued a policy statement recommending that parents avoid
television viewing for children under age 2 stating that there
is concern that overstimulation from high levels of media use
might lead to attention decit disorder or hyperactivity (AAP,
1999). Further, one of the rst scientic studies to be released
about the effects of early media exposure claimed to nd an
association between early television viewing and later atten-
tion problems for children (Christakis et al., 2004). This study
quickly gained attention in the popular press, raising concerns
that exposure to TV at early ages was going to lead to attention
problems later in childhood.
Despite initial concerns, evidence that early media ex-
posure causes attention problems has been mixed. Foster and
Watkins (2010) reanalyzed the same dataset used by
Christakis et al. (2004) but failed to replicate their ndings
when additional, relevant control variables were included.
Specically, when mother academic achievement and familys
poverty status were controlled for, the association between
television viewing and attention problems was no longer
statistically signicant. Overall, Foster and Watkins (2010)
state modest levels of television viewing do not appear to be
detrimental, even for young children (p. 374). A study by
researchers in Denmark also found no association between
early television viewing (ages 8 months and 3.5 years) and
behavior problems related to ADHD at age 10- and 11-years-
old (Obel et al., 2004). In addition to frequency of television
viewing, studies have examined the potential inuence of
specic content on later executive function outcomes. The
importance of content was evident in a low-risk sample; early
exposure to infant-directed programming had no association
with later cognitive, school readiness, or executive functioning
skills; however, exposure to content created for adults at early
ages was associated with worse executive function skills (Barr
et al., 2009).
Television and video game play during preschool years and
elementary school years have been correlated with parent and
teacher reports of attention problems. Higher levels of TV
viewing during preschool years were associated with inatten-
tion and hyperactivity scores as measured by parent and tea-
cher, although the direction of causality cannot be determined
(Miller et al., 2007). Additionally, while combined television
and video game time was signicantly associated with atten-
tion problems, video game use specically was a signicant
predictor of attention problems whereas television viewing
was only marginally signicant (Swing et al., 2010).
275
Therefore, at the present time there is some evidence that
an association between attention problems and media use
may exist; however, there is a lack of evidence to indicate the
direction of that relationship.
Social Networking Sites, Computers, and Adolescent
Addiction
Concerns about the effect of media on mental health are not
limited to young children, as there are growing concerns about
social networking site addiction among adolescents too. Re-
cent large-scale surveys have consistently indicated that ado-
lescents are active social network site users, with 73% of wired
teens using social networking sites, compared to just 40% of
adults over the age of 30 (e.g., Lenhart et al., 2010). In terms of
time spent on social networking sites, Cingel and Krcmar
(2014) found that adolescents reported using Facebook, the
most popular social networking site, for an average of nearly
an hour each day. In contrast, Pempek et al. (2009) found that
college-aged students reported using social networking sites
for nearly 30 min each day. Despite this difference, when taken
together, these reports of time spent on social networking sites
indicate adolescents and college-aged students use such sites
often throughout the day. While recent reports indicate a
stagnation of adolescents use of social networking sites like
Facebook, and a growth in adolescents use of Twitter, Face-
book use still dominates the social networking media land-
scape among adolescents (Madden et al., 2013). It is important
to note, however, that this may be subject to change when
considering the constantly and quickly evolving nature of so-
cial networking sites.
Considering these high rates of use, popular press reports
have begun to examine a new adolescent mental health phe-
nomenon: social networking site addiction (e.g., Cohen, 2009;
Webley, 2011). Similar to other addictions, social networking
site addiction is dened as the neglect of personal life, mental
preoccupation, escapism, mood modifying experiences, and
concealing of addictive behavior brought about by heavy so-
cial networking site use (Young, 2009). Some researchers have
argued that adolescents are perhaps more susceptible to social
networking site addiction due to their naturally heightened
egocentrism, or preoccupation with the self (e.g., Li, 2010).
This would seem to make sense, as social networking sites
allow users to quickly and easily transmit information about
themselves to a potentially vast number of people, a task likely
quite important to adolescents high in egocentrism. The ability
provided by social networking sites to communicate about the
self to large groups of people may be one explanation for
adolescents heavy use of social networking sites in a possibly
addictive way.
It is important to note, however, that there are a number of
explanations for adolescents heavy use of social networking
sites which are quite natural when considering adolescents
developmental stage. For example, during adolescence, indi-
viduals experiment with their identity, seeking to create a rm
understanding of who they are as well as their place in the
world, and seek intimacy with others (Erikson, 1963). Clearly,
adolescents can achieve both of these tasks on social net-
working sites, rst by changing their prole information, such
as pictures, information, and wall posts, while simultaneously
 Author's personal copy
276 Children and Adolescents: Television, Computers, and Media Viewing
acquiring online friends and acquaintances from around the
globe (e.g., Forest and Wood, 2012; Valkenburg and Peter,
2008). Thus, high rates of social networking sites among
adolescents can perhaps be considered as relatively normative,
as such sites allow adolescents to achieve a number of im-
portant tasks of adolescence.
Given this, it may be more instructive and informative to
consider the research on social networking site addiction
among those older than adolescents, such as college-aged in-
dividuals. By this point, young adults are thought to have
passed through adolescent egocentrism, while also achieving
their identity and forming intimate ties with others. Therefore,
at this point, heavy social networking site use to the point of
addiction may no longer be thought of as normative. Im-
portantly, then, and similar to the research on adolescents,
symptoms of social networking site addiction have been found
in this older group of individuals. For example, Pempek et al.
(2009) report that nearly 10% of college students surveyed
indicated that they like it [Facebook] so much that they nd it
addicting (p. 234). Additionally, in a review of the existing
literature, Kuss and Grifths (2011) note that heavy social
networking site use among college-aged students is related to
decreased academic achievement and increased relationship
problems, two indicators of possible addiction among some
members of this age group.
In sum, then, research has consistently indicated that
adolescents and young adults use social networking sites often
throughout the day, causing some to wonder about the pos-
sibly addicting qualities of social networking sites. Although
heavy use of these sites among adolescents may be thought of
as normative when considering their developmental stage,
ndings also indicate the possibility of social networking site
addiction among older individuals. As the current cohort of
adolescents familiar with social networking sites age, re-
searchers will be better able to understand the full impli-
cations of social networking site addiction, such as if heavy use
of these sites is the product of natural adolescent development
or if it points to an inherent addictive quality of social net-
working sites in general.
Public Policy and Conclusions
American media are given a wide berth for operating. The First
Amendment to the United States Constitution grants freedom
of speech and of the press. Over the years, media policy has
developed as a patchwork quilt of some federal laws, regu-
latory commission oversight, and self-regulatory activities. In
the case of television policies, the most important agency in
the United States is the FCC. Since 1934, the FCC has licensed
over-the-air broadcast stations to operate on the public air-
waves and to do so in a manner that is in the public interest.
While cable itself is not regulated at the federal level, cable
companies are required to get local contracts to operate cable
systems in each community. The Federal Trade Commission
oversees advertising practices on television to ensure fairness
and lack of deception.
Most policy has been enacted due to special concerns
regarding children as an audience especially for television
programs. For instance, the Childrens Television Act of 1990
placed limits on the number of minutes per hour that
advertising is allowed during childrens television shows
(12 min on weekdays and 10 min on weekends) and has
required broadcasters to demonstrate their obligation to
broadcast educational childrens television shows. Similarly,
at the urging of Congress, an interagency group led by
the Centers for Disease Control and including the Food and
Drug Administration and the United States Department of
Agriculture have proposed a series of what would be volun-
tary guidelines on the nutritional quality of foods marketed
to children on television and online. These guidelines have
not yet been adopted and are still under consideration in
Washington.
Beyond concerns related to childrens TV, concerns about
childrens privacy and protection online have been present
since the Internet began reaching youth and children. In 1998,
Congress passed the Childrens Online Privacy Protection Act
(COPPA), which requires that website operators acquire par-
ental permission before collecting any personal data on chil-
dren aged 13 and younger. In the spirit of COPPA, several
social networking sites, especially Facebook, limit user par-
ticipation to children aged 13 and older.
Where actual federal policy has not yet been enacted, self-
regulation by individuals and companies has occurred, often
to delay any form of actual federal regulation. Self-regulation
has lled in several of the areas not covered by government
regulation or oversight with regard to childrens media use. In
particular, after considerable discussion of both the amount of
violence on American television, its effects on viewers, and
expressed concerns within the United States Congress, the
television broadcast and cable industries adopted a series of
self-regulatory measures in the late 1990s. In doing so, they
agreed to provide self-ratings on the presence of violence,
sexual references, and explicit language present at the begin-
ning of every program. These ratings from TV-Y (appropriate
for all children) through TV-MA (appropriate for mature
audiences) are loosely based on the decades-old movie ratings.
With the Telecommunications Act of 1996, Congress required
all television receivers have a V-chip in them which could be
used by parents in conjunction with the program ratings to
block any programs deemed inappropriate for their children.
Similarly, self-regulation of childrens advertising is overseen
by the Childrens Advertising Review Unit of the Council of
Better Business Bureaus to ensure that young childrens in-
experience and difculty in identifying advertising messages is
not exploited by advertisers. Finally, the Childrens Food and
Beverage Advertising Initiative (CFBAI) was established in
2006 in response to the childhood obesity crisis. CFBAI
members (who cover about two-thirds of all marketers of food
and beverages to children) have adopted nutritional standards
for food marketing to children across multiple venues and
including television and online.
Clearly, the media of television and computers their
promise and their perils are high on the list of public policy
concerns about their impact on viewers and users. No one
could have foreseen at the beginning of the television era in
the 1950s how powerful, invasive, and all-consuming screen
media, especially television and computers, would become in
American society. These all-encompassing media by necessity
must impact our mental health.
 Author's personal copy
Children and Adolescents: Television, Computers, and Media Viewing
See also: Adolescence. Aggression. Associations between Parenting
and Mental Health. Attention-Decit/Hyperactivity Disorder. Empathy.
Obesity. Video Games and Mental Health
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