IN a life dictated by deadlines more often than not, the telly sometimes seems to be the easiest option to keep kids out of mischief. "Between working and managing the home, I'm guilty of plonking my kids in front of the TV," admits Sraboni Bose. But are our kids being 'edutained' or are they being subjected, zombie-like, to all the wrong impressions from programmes definitely not intended for children?

Naina Malhotra* says that though she would like to monitor what her daughters watch on TV, the matter is out of her hands as her mom-in-law controls the remote. "They're glued to regressive soap operas and I can't do anything about it," she laments.

What exactly should your kids be watching?

To Watch Or Not

Says well-known child psychologist Dr Madhumita Puri, "The effect of TV on kids is age specific, and recent scientific medical studies have shown that if very young kids watch TV for an extended period of time, their powers of concentration will be affected. In the first two years of life, there is plasticity of the brain and it continues to regenerate for two years and till that time, what kids watch on TV is of great importance," she points out.

However, Dr Puri says that TV, viewed as a mode of recreation, has its own values, but care should be taken to ensure that it doesn't become a means of escapism. Also, if time is worked out for collective family viewing, it can act as important bonding time while giving parents innovative time to approach delicate issues, as those arising from graphic sexual scenes. TV viewing, she adds, can have educational value with the right guidance. But it should come with a warning that you constantly share with your kids - everything you watch on TV is not reality.

Dr Samir Parikh, consultant psychiatrist, Max Healthcare, points out that rather than nag kids about watching too much television, one has to accept that "TV is a reality and work accordingly." What is needed is parental supervision to prevent misconceptions being formed in young minds and also to utilise television time to stimulate the child's thought process. The antidote to TV, he says, is to involve children in outdoor games and fun, help them socialise with friends.

No Progress

Apart from National Geographic, Discovery, Cartoon Network, POGO and the like, it seems to be a choice between the devil and the deep sea where kids' TV programming is concerned. The findings of a study by the Asian Media Information and Communi-cation Centre in 1999 still appear to hold true: In most Asian countries, although children under the age of 15 comprised 40 per cent of the population, only a very small proportion of TV and radio programmes, cinema, books, periodicals and newspapers were produced for kids. Worse, in those countries with rapi-dly growing economies, rampant commercial-ism has entered kids' media programming.

Two major factors stood out when it came to programmes available for children - the predominance of animation programmes and the dominance of foreign programming. "Our children are more well versed with the Powerpuff Girls and other foreign characters and you can't blame them, because where are the truly Indian programmes for kids?" asks Deepa Kumar, mother of two children including a teenaged daughter. A point brought out by the Asian study - Asian-made children's programmes do not appeal to kids (''Not one of the programmes recalled by the sample of children interviewed in India were made in India!"). Which means the parents are left facing a Hobson's choice - to let the kids watch or not to watch TV. Because, what's the choice?

What's On Mama?

USE these core values to choose programmes for your kids:

Content: The theme should be positive and high on happiness quotient. The basic concept should be in tune with the child's cognitive development stage - colours/shapes, alphabets, counting, social etiquette, and interaction skills.

Execution: Should be simple, easy to comprehend - the language, accent, tone, narratives, etc, should be simple and easy to comprehend. The emphasis should be on repetition as it aids the child's comprehension of the subject. The use of fast moving images should be limited, as an easy pace helps the child to remain in 'active' mode. Most importantly, a child requires help in 'summing up' and therefore, a closure or a suitable ending per viewing occasion is advisable.

Physical Elements: Should be more visual, less verbal. Pictures, music and actions were considered more essential than narration. Bright colours help typify characters and hold the kids' attention. The main character should be an authoritative figure whom kids admire and whose qualities can be emulated.

Benefits To Young Viewers: The programme should be a preparatory tool to coping with peers and among the first steps in cognitive development.

Expert Speak

Straight from the Experts', a research study commissioned by POGO in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore, and with specialists, including educators, psychologists and psychiatrists, roped in, has thrown up some interesting revelations. First comes the not surprising finding that mothers or other family members play a substantial role in initiating young children to TV viewing. The initiation is either intentional (in the form of a reward) or unintentional, where the child as a secondary viewer watches TV with the mother or family.

What emerged is that most of what is watched on television by children was not appropriate.

According to the experts, most TV fare was:

Stereotyped (Mummy was always in the kitchen as a result of which kids develop fixed notions),

or Cluttered ('too many situations/relationships of different kinds with implied meanings which were impossible for the child to relate to'), or

Too fast paced ('by the time kids register what is happening, it's over and thus children tend to imagine outcomes, which is not a good thing'), or

A case of too much too soon, resulting in kids getting exposed to negative emotions very early.