ABSTRACT
Children are particular fans of television, watching an average of approximately 3 hours per day (Comstock & Scharrer, 1999, 2001). Television viewing begins early in the United States and continues rather steadily through childhood and adolescence (Comstock & Scharrer, 2001). Two-to 4-year-olds view an average of 2 hours, 8-to 13-year olds watch 3½ hours, and adolescents view 2¾ hours per day (Roberts, Foehr, Rideout, & Brodie, 1999). When other mediaincluding taped television programs, videotaped rentals, movies, video games, print media, radio, CDs and tapes, and the computer-are added to the equation, the daily exposure rate for children aged 2 to 18 rises to 6½ hours per day (Roberts, Foehr, et al., 1999).
