Researchers at Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Centre in Seattle found that for each hour of TV a child watches, there is a 10% increase in the risk of attention deficit disorder (ADD). Read the complete research findings here.

Wonder why? Possibly because children become accustomed to a level of stimulation watching TV that is much higher than they would experience in life. Combine this with the flashing images common in children’s programming, and you’ve set children up to be ill-suited to deal with school, homework, concentration, reading, and real life in general. Three recent studies show that as TV viewing increases, academic performance decreases (Diller, Amen, and Armstrong).