Is TV a good Babysitter?

Violence in children shows is increasing greatly. Many people voice a negative opinion on this saying that the violence portrayed in these shows is making its way to the play ground. Shows like "Power Rangers" and "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" show fighting styles that include karate and other martial arts. The boys and girls sometimes are acting out these episodes on the playground. I know that when i was younger i watched these shows and even had life size Ninja turtles on my wall. While i understand that teachers blame these shows i truley believe that a large part of this problem is due to parents. Parents prefer to have the television babysit kids when they get home then to sit down and play a game, or read a book. Now while im not blaming the parents entirely i know that they work long hours, but there still needs to be interactive time away from the tv. My niece is 3 and she only gets to watch certain shows and certain amounts of time with the tv. She watches mostly disney and nickelodeon but even these stations are getting to be not suitable for children of her age. Then you have the cartoon network which plays all these shows and a show called "Biker Mice From Mars". Which isnt an all bad show. While there is fighting they are not human characters, which helps seperate reality from fantasy. As well as little fighting the mice are shown using computers and doing other intellectual things.



In the world we live in today, TVs are babysitters, Television for adults and kids is getting more violent, and even look at the news. You cant turn it on without seeing something about the war, a killing or kidnapping. Parents have been slacking with keeping tabs on thier children and i feel that we need to get back to an america where we care what kids see and dont just see them as consumers.