Why you don’t want a TV in your kid’s bedroom

April 10, 2008 by Kenneth Carlson, MD 

TV Turn of Week is coming April 21-27

If your child is making the classic pitch for a TV in his or her bedroom, here are the arguments you can use to bolster your case.

It’s bad for your health

A study of middle school students found that those with bedroom TV’s were twice as likely to start smoking. Among kids who had a TV in the bedroom, 42 percent smoked; among the others, the figure was 16 percent.

It will make you fat

  • The journal Pediatrics reported that preschool children with bedroom TV’s were more likely to be overweight.
  • The journal Obesity suggested the risk might be highest for boys.
  • In a study among French adolescents, boys with a bedroom television were more likely than their peers to have a larger waist size and higher body fat and body mass index.

You’ll sleep worse

A study in Pediatrics showed that kindergartners with bedroom TV’s had more sleep problems.

It will make you dumber

In a 2005 study in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, children with a TV in their bedroom scored significantly and consistently lower on math, reading and language-arts tests.
This post is a summary from an article recently seen in New York Times.

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