• Parents often worry that their children will not be able to fit in with their friends if they do not watch popular children's television programs.  The research, however, tells us that children who watch more violent television programs are actually rated more poorly by their peers..
  
• Researchers have determined that the high level of violence in our society is being made worse by so many children having a regular habit of media violence.
  

     I have heard so called "experts" say that watching violent children's programming is no different than the fairy tales in books. However, television is different from fairy tales in books and as told by storytellers for many reasons.  First of all children are very visual learners.  Television is more visual, more salient, more intense than the fairy tales that are read or told to children.  Having fairy tales read by a parent is a shared experience.  It encourages development of a child's imagination, and there is usually an opportunity to comment and talk about what happened in the story.  Parents also have an opportunity to talk about what they would do in the situation of the story.  Parents can also gauge their children's reaction to the story and "tone it down" if necessary.  These read-aloud stories actually become an opportunity for parents to share their own family values with their children.  On the other hand, television is a very passive, solo activity usually done without the parent sharing the experience.  Talking and discussion are actually discouraged by television viewers ("Shhh!  Quiet!   I can't hear the TV!").
     Dr. Jerome Singer, is a professor of psychology at Yale University.  He suggests that parents to view TV as a stranger in their house.  This stranger, he says, teaches your kids to punch and kick their way through conflict resolution and this stranger tries to sell your children all kinds of products, some of which you may not approve.  Just as you would not allow a real uninvited stranger in your house, you need to think twice about what TV strangers are saying and doing to your children.  You also need to be aware of the moral and advertising messages you allow your children to see and hear without your supervision.