Study Finds Kids’ TV Shows Lack Educational Value

Less than half of all children’s TV programs can be considered high-quality, according to a survey released Monday.

“We’re witnessing a television industry in transition that still has not found a way to serve children well,” said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Washington, D.C.based Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, which issued the study.

It surveyed 1,063 kids’ programs - 300 distinct titles - on 21 channels over one week in a big-city market in the Northeast. The results: 37 percent were rated “low quality” and 23 percent “moderate quality.” The study did not cite specific shows.

Two-thirds of the programs were aimed at kids ages 5 to 11, and “the majority of those programs were violence-laden with no educational value,” the study said.

By contrast, about a quarter of the programs were aimed at preschoolers and more than 80 percent of those were considered high-quality.

The study noted that preteen and teen viewers are largely ignored, with only 4 percent of shows aimed at them. Of these, however, 80 percent were rated as high-quality.