Too much TV, computer time can make kids "mentally ill"

Maybe mom was right: Two separate reports are suggesting that spending too much time in front of the television or the computer can make children mentally ill and/or clinically depressed.

The first study arrives from Britain, where they seem to spend a whole lot of money studying this stuff. Originating from the UK Children's Society, this study focused on how television advertising impacts young minds and forces extreme consumeristic tendencies on developing brains. A constant exposure to now-ubiquitous celebrity gossip and paparazzi-style video is what really adds fuel to the fire: "Children today know in intimate detail the lives of celebrities who are richer than they will ever be, and mostly better-looking," says the study. "This exposure inevitably raises aspirations and reduces self-esteem."

And the more time a kid spends glued to the TV (or TMZ), the worse this decreased self-esteem effect can get. The study also examined violence in the media and its effect on children. In keeping with former reports, the study says that exposure to violent images as young children in turn creates violent tendencies among children and conflict within families.

The second study comes from the U.S. and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and it links depression among young adults to the amount of television the person watched as a child. Studying 4,000 adolescents, the study suggests that TV and computer time are isolating behaviors, and that it interferes with normal social development by keeping the child from interacting in person with others. The impact of TV and Internet use on sleep patterns was also cited as a potential reason for the increased level of depression in heavy TV/computer users.

Of course, it's important to take studies like this with a grain of salt and not panic that if your kid sneaks a glance at a TV show before he turns 18 he's going to turn into a mass murderer. Only two months ago a conflicting study said it that computer use among young adults was critical for helping kids "pick up basic social and technical skills they need to fully participate in contemporary society," suggesting perhaps that there's a middle ground between too much television/computer use and not enough. Everything in moderation... come to think of it, maybe mom was right about that, too.