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I spent the first twenty years of my career in the electronic media. Not only did I love it, it was a great excuse for me to purchase practically every electronic gadget, video and game that existed. If it was new, I had to have it. Hey, it was my job, right?

When our children came along, I began to worry about all of those electronics in our home. More and more research was being done and warnings were popping up seemingly everywhere about video game violence, sexual content on television and obese kids. The argument seemed pretty solid that the physical and mental health of our children was at risk. No doubt about it, some of the statistics today are eye-opening:

Over 80% of kids 6 and under use some form of screen media in a typical day
More and more children have a television or computer in their bedroom
Many parents encourage media use for longer periods so they can simply get other things done

While I do believe that media exposure can impact real experiences with some children, I also believe that as parents we need to put much of the fear and emotion aside and approach this whole issue with some common sense.

Not all children give up physical activity and gain fifty pounds because they watch television. Not all children act out in violence because they witness violence in a video game. As with any tool, the media isn't all good or all bad on its own, it depends upon how it's used.

It used to really bug me when our elementary school would make a huge event of No Television Week', asking kids to keep the television off and requiring them to keep a journal of what they did. My question to the teachers was always why not include a "Learn From Television Week' and ask kids to keep a journal of the programming they watched that helped them learn something.

I really do believe kids want us as parents to set limits whether it's eating ice cream, drinking soda or dabbling in the electronic media. Kids learn constantly, including the time they spend with the media. The problem is that kids lack the life experience to provide the right context so our guidance and supervision as parents is the key.

When our own kids began playing video and computer games, we would spend time watching them interact with the media-how did they react to what they saw, how long did they linger on a scene in a video game, were there personality changes later. We asked questions to be sure they understood the difference between fantasy and reality. We learned as much as we could about ratings and content before we allowed exposure to programming.

Our children are both teenagers now and from all indications are well on their way to becoming creative, socially responsible, well-adjusted young men. If anything, I believe much of the electronic media they experienced-right along with the written word-has actually contributed to their creativity, language development and problem-solving skills.

It truly is a partnership of children, parents and the industry and if the supervision is there and the balance is correct, many of those electronic wonders can be a positive part of a child's growth and development.

Learn more about this author, Michael Hammond.
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