What?! Another article on television's impact on children? Darn right! There can't be too many written on this topic, as far as I'm concerned.

Two things which bother me especially are the unrelenting themes of casual, promiscuous sex and mindless violence. In the former, look at how many unsuitable shows are on during the hours kids watch TV - after school until they go to bed. Some schools start early because of shared busing, so the kids are home by 3:00 - just in time to catch the late-afternoon soaps and the teen talk shows. The themes of these programs are invariably unsuitable for impressionable youngsters.

Over the supper hour are some of the better choices - Bill Nye, Touched by an Angel and Home Improvement (now in re-runs), to name a few. By 6:00 or 7:00, Spin City, Drew Carey, Friends and Melrose Place all appear somewhere on the dial, and there are many similar shows to these few examples, all obsessed with sex and determined to push the envelope a bit more each year.

We're told over and over that television shows simply reflect what the public wants. Casual sex is big, so make sure TV characters get (or talk about getting) lots of it. What is scary, in this age of rampant AIDS and herpes, is the overall impact on young viewers. When show after show suggests that it's normal to sleep around with no commitment of any kind, then that's the message they ingest.

Even ads are becoming more and more daring, linking sex with whatever product is being boosted. Have you seen the beer ad where a couple begins to make passionate love before they even get through the hotel door? Sex sells, apparently. I personally feel very uncomfortable if my children are in the room when that ad comes on.

As parents, we try to teach our children values. We don't want our daughters pregnant at 14 or our sons infected with herpes at 16. Kids see the world around them and weigh what parents tell them against everything else. Parents often lose, unfortunately.

Violence on the tube appears later in the evening on all the variations of cops-and-robbers shows. These differ from what we were used to as kids, mainly in the high-tech ways of murdering people and in the many spectacular special effects.

My concern in this area is that human life is shown over and over to be of little value (except for the hero). This may be no different from the cowboys and Indians films of the 50s, but surely we've progressed from those dismal days. In this age of human rights, it's amazing that the indiscriminate snuffing of lives on film draws no fire from the activists. That would be a cause worth getting riled up over!

Action flicks make their way in large numbers to the small screen, as TV movies, video rentals and now DVD rentals. These excessively violent movies have a very thin plot; they dwell on killing, blowing up, bombing, destroying, smashing and mutilating. Check out how large the action section is in a video store next time you're there. DVDs, by the way, are normally viewed on a computer monitor - a solitary activity and not healthy in large doses.

Copycat incidents, based on violent films, are cropping up all over North America. Disturbed individuals copy violent scenes, sometimes taking their own lives at the end of the carnage. The fact that these are frequently teens indicates a serious problem in society. Many of these films are textbooks on violence, teaching how to construct bombs or dispose of someone you don't like in creative and gruesome ways.

Speed is a film that many would describe as harmless and entertaining - okay for kids to watch. It has a PG rating. Think about the story carefully - what message comes across? That movie would appear to say that it's okay to destroy public and private property, endanger countless lives, presumably killing or injuring innocent bystanders who are in the way of the speeding bus (bad guys have rigged the bus so it will blow up if it slows down - hence the name of the movie). Sure, it's a silly plot and not very believable, but what are the long-term effects of a steady diet of this type of thing? Psychiatrists assure us that kids have no trouble differentiating between fantasy and reality, but I suspect that, for some, the lines are blurring somewhat.

Censorship is a bad word in today's society, and it's unlikely that governments or their agencies will do anything to regulate what's broadcast to North American children. Now that satellites beam innumerable channels into our living rooms, and cable keeps adding more and more choices, it has to be the parent who monitors what is watched. Sadly, many TV sets are turned on in the morning and stay on until late at night whether anyone is in the room or not. An overload of anything is brain-numbing!

Sometimes, parents would seek my advice when I was in the classroom. They were concerned that their children watched too much television and didn't get homework assignments completed. I suggested a few ground rules, but with this important factor: Let the child choose (with parental approval) what shows to watch, but limit the time to one hour per day. Several reported back to me that this worked out really well and everyone in the family discovered they had time for other things.

Making changes isn't always easy or smooth. When there are several children of various ages, battles over what to watch can erupt. A more complex schedule may have to be worked out, and - hey - there's nothing wrong with turning the darn thing off until the weekend! Take control of the box if you have to and become keeper of the remote. The kids will adjust to it eventually.

Television can be a relaxing diversion, or, like an invasive weed in the garden, it can gradually take over. It does nothing for conversational skills, has no exercise or nutritional value, and don't kid yourself that all the young ones watch is the education channel. Children who watch too much TV are less creative than their peers, are lethargic, frequently overweight and tend not to do well in school. In today's highly competitive world, parents need to give their kids every possible chance to succeed.

In every game there are winners and losers. The game of life is no different. It's easy to be a loser - you just don't try and everyone else passes you by. The sad part is that many are totally unaware that they're losing until it's too late. Encourage your kids to get involved - do things, join things, try things. Get them so busy that the TV will sit forlorn and forgotten and - you know what? After a while, the kids won't even miss.

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