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| Sunday, 20 July 2003 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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by Neomi Kodikara With around 79 per cent of households having at least one television set over 95 per cent of Sri Lanka's child population watch television and around 75 per cent of them watch till 10.00 p.m. Moreover, over 82 per cent of the children watch teledramas, which are adult oriented, however, only 25 per cent of children watch programmes intended for them. The average Sri Lankan child between 10-19 years sees a minimum of three hours of television daily. These are the findings of an islandwide survey conducted by Unda Sri Lanka and the Department of Mass Communication, University of Sri Lanka and scheduled to be released this week. A total of 1,736 households selected at random from 17 districts were subjected to the Survey, conducted between October-November 1999. It covered a population of 8,355 including 2,828 children. Only 80 per cent of those surveyed knew there was a 'Discovery' channel. The 'Discovery' channel was introduced by the Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation in 1998 as an educational programme, and almost all the programmes are in English. A grand 75 per cent had watched 'Discovery Channel' at least once, 40 per cent had said they had no time to watch, while 88 per cent had said they could not understand the language. Many children had said there were hardly any children's programmes on local channels and if there were any, they were telecast at a time they are away at tuition. Fifty four percent of the children attend private tuition after school and 94 per cent of them come home only after 6.00 p.m. Having no time to play, their main activity other than studies, is watching TV. But in an alarming trend, most programmes that are suitable for adults. A majority of the children commence watching TV around 4 p.m. and the number of children gathering around the screen increases gradually until 8.00 p.m, with most continuing to watch TV until 10.00 pm. The peak time of children's TV watching is from 8.00 pm. to 10.00 p.m. Around 61 per cent of children, the survey reveals, watch television during this period. Over 95 per cent of children do watch television on a given day but only 20 per cent of them watch children's programmes. The majority, 51 per cent start watching from 6.00 p.m. and another 25 per cent join in after 8.00 p.m. Around 75 per cent continue watching TV till 10.00 p.m. Working with the idea of different `belts' for different age groups has proved to be a failure as 61 per cent of children watch programmes meant for adults. They have shifted from the so called `children's belt' to the 'adult belt'. When asked about programme preferences, most, that is 58 per cent gave their first preference as teledramas, while 37 per cent gave their first preference as educational and children's programmes. One out of three children gave their first preference as music, cartoon and news programmes. Many of the local teledramas are based either on family problems or love stories. "Our children do not have a childhood or adolescence, they jump on to youth or adulthood straight away, which will have serious repercussions on their future," says Rev. Fr. Cyril Gamini Fernando, Director of Unda Sri Lanka. Rev. Fr. Fernando pointed out that even though children are interested in good educational programmes, authorities in the local TV channels do not seem to understand this. He feels that it is an arduous task to change the Children's viewing patterns as long as a competitive education system exists in the country and therefore, TV channels and media policy makers should explore ways and means to change their schedules, so that children would benefit by watching TV. "Television itself is neither good nor bad. It is only a medium. It all depends on how we handle it as communicators and viewers," he says. The average Sri Lankan child sees a minimum three hours of television daily. By the time most children pass out from school, they will have watched an estimated 15,330 hours of TV. It has been found that too much of TV is detrimental to school performance. Watching TV is mostly a one-way communication, and fears have been expressed that it may a syndrome of mental inactivity. This might encourage inactivity as students, as youth and even as adults. When they watch TV for three hours or more there is no time for interaction among family members. The survey also reveals boys to be spending more time in front of televisions than girls. Although there are TVs and VCRs in some schools given by the Department of Education, it appears that they are not used for children to watch educational programmes. Sixty-five per cent of the parents have said they control children's TV watching. Twenty-seven per cent of the parents had no time to control children's television watching, while 26 per cent said that their children would `any way watch what they want.' Only 32 per cent had confidence on their children, however, 87 per cent had said that they were confident that their children would not watch sex and violent films. Though generally parents had agreed to television being a good source of information, education and entertainment, more than half of them (56 per cent) had found TV to be a nuisance to the education of their children and 31 per cent had found that TV does promote violence. Only 8 and 3 per cent of the children admitted that they watch adult's films and blue films, respectively. Over half the children aged 15-19 years go to cinema halls. These children had access to adult's movies through VHS that could be easily got from video parlours and through cinema halls. However, the majority of children had admitted that their parents would punish them if they knew what they did, and 96 per cent believed that parents had the right to do so. Most of the children, the survey reveals, prefer state owned SLRC channel 1 (30 percent), ITN (25 percent) and a private channel, Sirasa (22 percent). The research team comprised Prof. Sunanda Mahendra, Fr. Cyril Gamini Fernando, Dr. Rohana Luxman Piyadasa, Dr. Chandrasiri Rajapaksha, Dr. Ariyaratne Athugala, Mapa Tilakaratna, Dharmadasa Paranagama, Sugath Mahinda Senarath. |
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