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Television is a blessing, a curse, a distraction or a goldmine, depending on who you talk to. For some harried parents, television is a godsend, a kind of electronic babysitter, nanny, entertainer and legal narcotic all rolled into one. For others, it is a Trojan horse, permitting the nastiness of the adult world insidious and damaging access to the minds of their children.

So, on balance, which is it - friend or foe? Can a young family do without television? Should parents ban it altogether?

My answers to the above questions would be: a bit of both, yes and maybe not.

Before I get to that, though, it might help to bear in mind just how huge a phenomenon television is. In the US alone, households with TV sets increased from 10% in 1950 to a whopping 98% in 2000. The percentage of TV households in the US with multiple sets was 82.5% in 2007. In 2006 American children watched, on average, 3 hours and 26 minutes of TV every day. Television is vast!

TV has mushroomed in recent decades, with terrestrial television joined by a multitude of satellite and cable channels. It would be fair to say (with apologies to Winston Churchill) that never in the history of broadcast entertainment has so much variety been available to so many.

What would be the impact if parents just said no to television? I think there would certainly be some benefits but also some drawbacks.

Let's look at the good things. First, getting rid of the TV would reduce at a stroke the risk of small children being exposed to adult content (broadcast violence, sex and adult-oriented advertising such as alcohol and gambling related commercials) and this would include violent console games and 18-rated DVDs.

It would also encourage creativity and resourcefulness. Televised entertainment is pre-packaged and requires no input from the viewer. Activities such as reading, making music, constructing things and playing games require involvement, imagination and the acquisition of skills. They can also boost social and leadership abilities, things which no amount of TV watching can help with.

If children stopped watching TV and played outdoors instead, they would become generally fitter and healthier. Turning little couch potatoes everywhere into runner beans would have both immediate and far-reaching effects - in the short term it would mean fitter, happier kids and in the longer term there would be a reduction of adult obesity and related medical problems.

There might be mental

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