2009/04/24

PETALING JAYA: They may be too young to understand why they would not be allowed to watch TV for a week, but 25 children at a kindergarten are willing to give it a try.

The children even have plans for their no-TV days.

Claudia Nicole See Kah Ling, 6, said she would spend her time playing with her pet rabbit, while K. Karthik, also 6, said he would just focus on his homework.

For Ang Shuang Xian, also 6, the no-TV week would not be a problem as he never liked television, preferring to do his homework, reading and playing with his cousins.

The children are registered at Kinderland Playhouse where the "Turn Off The TV Week" campaign was launched by the Federation of Malaysian Consumers' Association yesterday.

Also present was Consumer Research and Resource Centre (CRRC) chief executive officer Paul Selva Raj and Kinderland managing director Arthur Ng. CRRC is a unit under Fomca.

Paul said children spent up to six hours watching TV per day and this has resulted in many health problems.

He said the campaign was aimed at returning children back to an active lifestyle, with more physical activities and spending more time with their families.

He said children should be out playing in the playgrounds or engaged in other activities, under the watchful eyes and guidance of adults.

Ng, who has 30 years experience in pre-school education, said studies showed that children who spent too much time watching TV were less communicative, gave brief answers, usually a "yes" or "no", and made little eye contact with others.

He said many of the children also developed bad eating habits and usually ate fast-food.

"Turn Off The TV Week" is an international annual campaign, held since 1995, to encourage parents to switch of the TV at home and spend time with their children on family-bonding activities.

This is the first time Malaysia is participating in the campaign.

Source: http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Friday/National/2539511/Article/index_html