Kids' Summer TV Viewing Spikes 150%

[Friffer]

TiVo-Sponsored Smart Television Alliance Launches 'OutSmart The Summer Spike!' Campaign

Did you know that kids’ TV viewing spikes by 150% in the summer?



The Smart Television Alliance is proud to announce the OutSmart the Summer Spike! campaign to raise awareness about the need for busy parents and caregivers to make smart viewing choices and to use technology to control what their children watch.

The STA is known for showing parents how to find the best stuff on TV, so our website is the perfect place to go to OutSmart the Summer Spike…after all, if you’re in control of what’s on the screen, you can actually bring educational time to a long summer outside of the classroom. That’s why organizations like the National Education Association, National Council of Women’s Organizations, National PTA, KIDSFIRST!, among many others are members.

There are a lot of great ways for you to participate. A good way to start is making a commitment to the kids in your life to take control.

Check out our Summer TV Tips blog posts to find out how you can use your kids’ favorite shows as inspiration for learning, while the show is on, and after it’s over.

Better yet, sign up for Smart News to get our tips and other great information sent right to you. That way, you won’t miss a beat!

What a way to kick off the summer!

http://www.smarttelevisionalliance.org

[ZeoTiVo]

lets not forget PCs as well. I change the password on the PC so the kids have to go through Mom or Dad to get on.

Also the Wii is on the first floor so time om it can be monitered as well.

[jehma]

My kids are spending more time on electronics over the summer. They're also spending more time on physical activities and reading for pleasure. Without all those hours usually spent on school, activities, and homework, they have tons of time to do all sorts of things.

[ZeoTiVo]

Originally Posted by Friffer

The Smart Television Alliance is proud to announce the OutSmart the Summer Spike! campaign to raise awareness about the need for busy parents and caregivers to make smart viewing choices and to use technology to control what their children watch.

Thanks Jehma. You hit on what was bothering me about this. The subtle implication in the paragraph I qouted is that TV is the enemy and parents are just giving in.

I am sure we can all find examples of that, but for a parent who does not give in but just naturally lets the kid enjoy summer it seems like more of an attack than some useful guide.

My kids watch a ton of animal planet and Disney stuff like Jake and Josh and iCarly etc.. (yah Zoey101 as well ) so some is fluff, but most is still engaging them in the World they are growing up in. I have no problem that their viewing time goes up since we already had a reasonable level of viewing time during the school year.

Many summer movies are watched as a Family so that time works out to a good thing for us as well.

Are there parents who use the tube as a baby sitter with no idea the kids are finding the dreck that is on it, sure.
Are they likely to repsond to TV is the enemy and you gave in message? they will probably tune it out as effectively as they tune out what the kids are watching.

Maybe a more positive, "look at the fun things you can do with your kids" and not the "your kids are wasting their lives away" approach would fly better. let the Parent's guilt at not doing things with the kids work on its own personal level.

[ZeoTiVo]

Cool. so I went to the site since I was shooting my keyboard off and found a very cool "record to TiVo" feature on the Program Recommendations: Ages 9-11 page

Happily dovetailing with my rant on the overall message just before this - we have 80% of that list on the TiVo already for the kids to watch. Guess I am just not the target for the mesage.

I will say the site is far more slanted to positive, proactive things and not so negative as the press release in the OP led me to think.

[alyssa]

And I thought it was only me getting my hackles up over the OP's post. There's a lot of good intentioned people out there with great advice & help but the mom police can go take a flying leap off a tall cliff.