Chinese worry about children watching TV

Press, 10 February 1986, Page 36

Chinese worry about children watching TV

NZPA-AP Peking Television is taking over in many Cliinese homes, bringing with it problems such as undone homework, copycat violence, and a generation gap, sociologists report. The Shanghai-based magazine, “Social Sciences,” said that up to half the homes in Chinese cities now have television, with “unfortunate repercussions in a country where half of the one billion population are young people.” “Many parents find it hard to tear their children away from the television screen and teachers complain that their students spend much time watching television instead of doing their homework,” the journal said in an article reprinted in the Englishlanguage “China' Daily.” The magazine conducted surveys in the north-east city of Harbin and found that most children watch television about one hour a day. Those with falling academic standards watch more than two hours a day

and are often sleepy in class, it reported. “Under these circumstances, it is necessary to strictly limit children’s television watching time,” the journal said. T ‘We recommend that children should only spend 40 minutes a day watching television.” It quoted teachers as expressing concern about violent plays that encouraged fighting among children. Parents and teachers are losing their authority to the “television generation,” it added, noting that children now grumbled about adult ignorance or obsession with the past. Confronted by social problems portrayed on television, some children became pessimistic or cynical, the report said. - “All this is breeding estrangement between young and old,” it said. China’s television audience is estimated at 200 million. Programmes are mostly Chinese and concentrated in the evening. The most popular are dramatic series, sports, and the news.