Nielsen findings show children watch 32 hours of TV weekly

A new report from Nielsen says children, between the ages of five and eight watch more than 32 hours of television per week.

The Los Angeles Times reports the amount of television usage by children reached an eight-year high. Children between the ages of 2 to 5 watched TV for more than 32 hours a week on average and those 6 to 11 watching more than 28 hours. The fourth quarter of 2008 is the period the data is taken from and the report measured children's consumption of live and recorded TV, as well as VCR and game console usage. "They're using all the technology available in their households," Patricia McDonough, Nielsen's senior vice president of insights, analysis and policy, told the Times. "They're using the DVD, they're on the Internet. They're not giving up any media -- they're just picking up more." Programming specifically targeted at children has increased and this is one of the reasons children’s’ viewing time has risen. Young children enjoy watch their favourite shows, over and over again. The increase in consumption is in part the result of more programming targeted at kids, she said, including video on demand, which is particularly popular among young children who like to watch their favorite shows over and over again. "When I was a kid, I had Saturday morning cartoons," McDonough said. "And now there are programs they want to watch available to them whenever they want to watch them." Children's health advocates are concerned and say increased television watching is linked to delayed language skills and obesity. "I think parents are clueless about how much media their kids are using and what they're watching,” Dr. Vic Strasburger, a professor of pediatrics at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine and a spokesman for the American Academy of Pediatrics, told the Times. "The biggest misconception is that it's harmless entertainment," added Strasburger, who has written extensively about the effects of media on children. "Media are one of the most powerful teachers of children that we know of. When we in this society do a bad job of educating kids about sex and drugs, the media pick up the slack." "There are some extraordinarily good media for kids," he said. "But even the best -- 'Sesame Street' for 5-year-olds -- kids shouldn't be watching five hours a day. They should be outside playing. They should be having books read to them." In the fourth quarter, children, aged 2 to 5 spent an average of 3 hours and 47 minutes a day watching television. This is up from 3 hours and 40 minutes in the fourth quarter of 2007, according to Nielsen. The data used in the report is based on Nielsen's national sample, which includes 6,700 kids ages 2 to 11.