Children and adolescents in most industrialized societies spend an average of 2 or more hours per day watching television. Many youths who watch 3 or more hours of television per day spend as much time watching television in an average year as they do receiving classroom instruction. Most children and adolescents spend more time watching television than reading, and television viewing time is inversely associated with reading time and reading comprehension. These findings are a cause of concern because research has suggested that extensive viewing of entertainment and general audience programming during childhood may be associated with poor academic achievement and deficits in attention and cognitive functioning. Although viewing educational television may be associated with positive outcomes, most children spend more than 90% of their television viewing time watching entertainment and general audience programming.
