Improving Educational and Informational Television For Children: When the Marketplace Fails

Abstract

American children view an average of four hours of television per day, a total of approximately 15,000 hours by the time they reach age 18. No single activity except sleep occupies as much of their time. For children, television content is entertaining and educational; the medium imparts many messages to children about society, its values, and its expectations. Indeed, it has been argued that for children, all television is educational, and the question is simply, "What is it teaching?"