iTV: Exposure Risks?

So, Are There Actual Risks?

As technology pervades the pores of modern society, behaviors of children, adolescents and their parents are heavily influenced by it. For instance, Carson et al. (2013) stated that parents often expose their toddlers to screen-based media because they observe it as valid entertainment and even educational tool, or more often, they need to occupy children’s attention while they do some other tasks (Zimmerman et al., 2007). When observing TV/iTV exposure time in correlation to the outcomes, we can identify two basic questions – what and how viewers watch TV. Christakis (2009) points that what and how is watched is much more important than how much in the context of influencing the cognitive configuration of the viewer. This clearly puts a strong responsibility for the future children behavior and habits of using TV/iTV in the hands of parents. Vygotsky (1980) also noted that under proper parent guidance it can be expected that may children develop some cognitive skills, even though TV should not be actively promoted as the brain development tool. Mares and Pan (2013) supported this approach and the long-term benefits of educational TV. Linebarger et al. (2014) also concluded that combining parent responsiveness with educational programme content increased children executive functions and academic performance.