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<title> TV is both good and bad for children! </title>
TV, this magic box, has always been accused of making children passive, hyperactive, violent, stupid, and etc. Many critics have also mentioned that children's sexuality can be damaged seriously, due to the one-dimensional images of men and women on TV.
Almost all children love watching TV, which has a minor importance for the parents who never wonder why TV has this very appealing role in their children's lives. Instead, they always put their focus and emphasis on the violence and the bad influence of TV, which may not be wrong, but not completely correct either.
Children interpret the TV shows in their own specific childish way and out of their limited experiences, wishes or needs. For these small citizens TV can actually play an enormous role, both positive and negative. But the older parents get, the more they idealize their own childhood as distant from TV violence. However, the only difference between those two generations is that children today meet the world in more televised and public form, while having better access to things that provoke their curiosity. 
How is TV good for children? TV-figures and their actions are like materials for building children's identity and for creating their social bands. In most cases kids cheer and love the heroes of the films or the cartoons and they hate the "bad guys". Their heroes can sometimes be violent, too, but their motives are noble. They use violence only to defend themselves or the weak ones. Most children know that the actions of their heroes are just pretences and they distinguish between what is made-up and what is real. In contrast, kids are horrified of true violence shown in News, because it's just real and kids know it. They can't any longer use the explanation " this is just made-up" to protect themselves. Therefore, parents shouldn't worry much for their children being afraid of cartoons, because kids do make progress when they overcome their fear.
Also, TV is a helpful means of developing language, where children hear more complicated sentences rather than "Seat still!", "Be quiet!" or "Hurry!". Then they think about the difficult words and try to use them, while playing with other kids. They identify with certain TV characters, so they imitate them.
In brief, TV makes it easier for children to handle with their feelings and it helps them to see things from different perspectives. TV has the potential to contribute substantially to children's education and development and to solutions to senseless violence and intolerance. 
How is TV bad for children? As children are the best things in life and childhood is a unique period which never returns, every child is entitled to a happy childhood with love and affection. Consequently, TV can be a powerful influence in their developing value systems and shaping behavior. Unfortunately, much of today's television programming is violent. Children and teenagers may be affected seriously, for instance: They may become "immune" to the horror or gradually accept violence as a way to solve problems.
Extensive viewing of TV violence causes greater aggressiveness. Children who view shows in which violence is very realistic, frequently repeated or unpunished, are more likely to imitate what they see. The impact of TV violence may be immediately evident in the child's behavior and the effects get even stronger when the family atmosphere shows no tendency toward violence. However, this doesn't mean that TV violence is the only source for aggressiveness, but it is a significant contributor. Poverty, inadequate education or domestic abuse can be examples of the causes of crime and violence.
Another bad influence TV can have on children is the fear effect, where heavy viewers of TV violence sometimes begin to identify with the victims of violence and view the world as a much scarier, fearful place. So, TV violence induces and cultivates a fear of the world. Also, media violence evidently leads to another kind of effect, where any given act of violence becomes less shocking and is viewed as less severe.
What parents can do to protect their children from excessive TV violence is considerably important. They have tremendous power to moderate these effects. Just by limiting the number of hours children spend watching TV will probably reduce the amount of aggression they see. They can instead encourage the kids to spend their time on sports, hobbies or with friends. This exactly what my parents did, when I spent a lot of time in front of TV. They encouraged me to watch programs that demonstrated helping, caring and cooperation. When we watched TV together, my parents usually disapproved of the violent films, stressing the belief that such behavior is not the best way to resolve a problem. At that time I didn't understand what their point was, but now it all makes sense.
Violence is as old as human beings. It started as a family affair, according to the Bible: Cain killed his brother Abel, but Cain hasn't become a hero in the history of mankind. Quite the contrary!
Unfortunately, in the entertainment industry of today, violence seems to be the number one formula for creating a hero. And it is no longer a family affair. It is a world family affair.
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