Why you need to regulate how much television your child watches

Dennis Agaba is only five and attends a local school. But whenever he arrives home from school, the first thing he does is to switch on the television. He cries profusely when he is denied a chance to watch the television. The sad twist to this is that his parents have since discovered that giving Agaba the liberty to as much TV as he wishes has negatively impacted some of his behaviours. “We have discovered that he has become violent and is always picking fights at school because he watches a lot of karate movies. He has actually confessed to his teachers that he wants to be like Jet Li or Schwarzenegger, both renowned movie stars,” says his mother. With this long holiday at hand, many parents, just like Agaba’s, are worrying about how to regulate their children’s use of television. Faustin Harelimana, the acting president of the Teachers Union in Rwanda, says its fine for children to watch TV, but the programmes they watch should be age-appropriate. “Television has many programmes today but these should not exceed the capacity of the children. For example, channels with terrifying scenes, or with nude images, should be locked at all times,” he says. He emphasises that these programmes will not only divert the child’s concentration from academics, but will also lead them into social deviation and errotic behaviour as they attempt to try out what they have watched. Felix Nkunda, a teacher at Saint Paul International School, Kigali, says children exploit the time they are not with their parents and holidays to watch ‘bad’ movies and channels. Therefore, he advises parents to supervise and orient children to channels that help them learn, citing animation channels. “They should not be allowed to watch movies that are likely to corrupt their young minds by attracting them into bad habits like smoking at an early age or engaging in risky sexual behaviour,” he says. Eudes kwizera, a teacher at Remera Catholique II in Kigali, says the parents should watch television with their children whenever they are free so as to influence their preferences. “Children copy some of their parents’ habits as they grow. So, if the child sees you watching cartoons or news channels, they are likely to follow suit,” he says. Mwene Data, the dean of the faculty of Law at the University of Rwanda, says children are always eager and keen to know everything that comes to their sight; therefore, parents should always control what they are exposed to. Neville Kamanzi, a parent and a resident at Nyamirambo, Kigali, says parents should look out for change in the behaviour of their children, especially during holidays, because it might be resulting from the environment surrounding them and the things they watch on the TV. “Most channels show adult scenes deep in the night, so parents should regulate when children go to sleep,” he says. Gloriose Mugirase, a lecturer at University of Rwanda’s College of Arts and Social Sciences, says children should only watch television on weekends when their parents are at home for perfect regulation. “Parents should switch off TVs on week days and house helps should be warned against watching the bad channels in the presence of children,” he says. Fahad Kagame, an employee of StarTimes, says not all channels are good for children, so there is need to pick the appropriate packages. “There are channels with good animation that helps children to learn how to count, spell, and arrange words in alphabetical order. Children can be allowed these ones since they won’t have any negative impact on them,” he said.

Education

Why you need to regulate how much television your child watches