The last 20 years have witnessed a phenomenal technological revolution that has transformed our lives – and our homes. We now live in a television world of cable, satellite, DVDs and camcorders; a computer world of PCs, laptops, computer games, PlayStations, iPods, the worldwide web and e-mail; and a telecom world of mobile phones, text messaging and camera phones. Faced with this electronic technological revolution, how should Christians and Christian parents react?

Some Television Facts⤒🔗

Television and the Internet can provide magnificent educational resources, opening up new worlds and cultures with powerful, beautiful and moving images of a wonderful world. Television can entertain. It can provide positive role models for our young people. It can enable children to see how other people live and empathise with them. But of course, there is the negative side: it has become, for many young families, an electronic babysitter and, as children get older and watch TV unmonitored in the privacy of their own bedrooms, it has produced the “splintering family”. Our screens are hit with information and images that are unedifying, distasteful and indecent, and lifestyles and ideas that are un-Christian.

According to the market research agency ChildWise, almost all 5 to 16-year-olds in the UK have access to multi-channel TV; 84% of them have a TV in their bedroom and watch 2.4 hours of television a day. Children aged 11 to 15 now spend 53 hours a week watching TV and computers — an increase of 40 per cent in a decade. Television has become an integral can’t-do-without apparatus that governs our daily routine.

It is claimed that children now spend more time watching a television screen than they spend in school. According to an article in the Daily Mail (1st October 2005),

by the age of 75, most of us will have spent more than twelve and a half years of 24-hour days watching television. It has become the industrialised world’s main activity, taking up more of our time than any other single activity except work and sleep.

Some Television Effects←⤒🔗

Dr Aric Sigman, an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society, claims a direct link between excessive television viewing and a host of health problems. He believes he has found that even viewing moderate amounts of television may damage brain cell development and function; it is the only adult pastime from the ages of 20 to 60 positively linked to developing Alzheimer’s Disease; it is a direct cause of obesity – a bigger factor even than eating junk food or taking too little exercise – and consequently significantly increases the risk of Type 2 diabetes. Furthermore, he asserts that television viewing leads to a significantly elevated risk of sleep problems in adulthood, causing hormone changes which in turn increase body fat production and appetite, damage the immune system, may lead to a greater vulnerability to cancer, and is a major independent cause of clinical depression (of which Britain has the highest rate in Europe). Other studies have claimed a link between television viewing and Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). For every hour of television a child watches a day, a 9% increase in attentional damage was noted.

More controversially, many studies have sought to show a link between media violence and aggressive and violent behaviour in the viewer, especially the young viewer. The same can be said for programmes in which sexually explicit scenes are depicted as normal and acceptable. However controversial the link between these and premature sexual behaviour in young people – as many studies claim – any viewing which arouses sinful thoughts and desires should be avoided and dealt with in terms of such texts as Matthew 5:27-30. It is not insignificant that the decline in Christianity and church attendance in the UK over the last 30 years has been accompanied – some would say partially caused by – the poisoning propagation of humanistic secularism through the medium of television.

Some Internet Facts←⤒🔗

Computers are now a key part of our lives. The World Wide Web has revolutionised global communication and has made it possible for information of mega-encyclopaedic proportions to flood into our homes instantly at the click of a mouse. The Internet allows us to do our weekly shopping online, book our holidays, sort out our finances, get all sorts of advice from medical matters to DIY, play games, listen to music, watch missed TV programmes, and chat to our friends. 93% of children have a computer at home and a third have their own PC. Users are spending an average of 1.9 hours per day online. As with television, the benefits are enormous, but so are the dangers.

Some Internet Effects←⤒🔗

Childnet International, a charity concerned with children’s Internet safety, categorises the dangers of the web for children into “Content”, “Commercialism,” and “Contact”. The easy access to inappropriate content poses dangers for adults as well as children, but the recent surge in social networking sites presents particular concerns for parents. Nearly three-quarters of youngsters have visited networking sites like Bebo and MySpace, with half of them, some as young as eight years old, setting up their own profile. A Panorama programme, “One Click Away From Danger”, (7th January 2008) highlighted the dangers of such sites, which are used by adults with dubious intentions posing as teenagers.

The Internet has become an insidious medium for pornography. It is easily accessible, affordable and anonymous. It has been estimated that 1 in 5 Internet UK users are logging on to sexually explicit sites, with 40% of all searches being conducted from the office. Evidence seems to point to Internet pornography being addictive for some. It has produced a new word – “cybersex”, referring to any form of sexual expression that is accessed through the Internet.

The Internet has major repercussions on church administration at national and local level. The church is able to communicate with the world through its various websites. Visitors to the websites of local congregations can find out the times of the services, listen to sermons and view other useful information with ease. Church committees and congregational church courts can exchange information easily and quickly. But this comes with a health warning! E-mail can very easily be abused and should never replace face-to-face contact, especially when communicating sensitive information.

How do We Respond?←⤒🔗

Getting rid of one’s TV and PC is one way to tackle the problem, but seeking to find ways of moderating and controlling the amount of daily screen time, though difficult, may in the long term prove a better alternative. Although some writers recommend that children under three should not watch any television at all, this ignores the evidence that limited, good educational TV can actually aid toddlers’ language development. Sigman recommends one hour a day for children under 13; an hour and a half for teenagers; and two hours for adults.

The key factor here, of course, is parental involvement and control of children’s viewing. Parents should attempt to watch programmes with their children and discuss what is seen. A good idea is for a family to discuss and plan which programmes should be watched, and so forestall or reduce family squabbles! Mealtimes should be a TV-free occasion to allow family discussion, and children should not be trying to do their homework with the telly on. Family routine should not be dictated to by the programme listings! All writers with a concern for the moral, spiritual and physical health of children are adamant that children under 16 should not have a TV or internet access in their bedrooms where they can view or surf in unmonitored isolation. A supply of wholesome DVDs and videos can provide good alternatives to the “daily TV dose”. Having access to non-screen entertainment (books, puzzles, board games, sport, etc) and being able to work on hobbies and crafts, helps parents to think “outside the box”. Above all, it is essential that parents set their children a good example by what, and by how much, they watch themselves. It has been suggested that there is abundant evidence that many of the harmful effects attributed to television can be greatly reduced or eliminated by controlling the quantity and quality of what is viewed.

We should not be slow to compliment the television companies for showing wholesome and edifying material, as well as being willing to complain to them when they broadcast offensive programmes.

Much the same advice can be offered with regard to the Internet. Having the PC in a family space permits regular monitoring of what information is being seen or what games are being played. The installation of filtering software to prevent young people entering inappropriate sites is advisable, but such technology is rapidly outdated and outsmarted by determined hackers. The CARE website (www.care.org.uk) has an excellent section on Internet Misuse containing good practical advice for helping those being affected directly or indirectly by Internet pornography.

Some Biblical Guidelines←⤒🔗

Television and the Internet present some of the greatest challenges facing us as individuals, as families and as a society. We must respond to these challenges by reminding ourselves that the Christian is in the world but not of it (John 17:15-19, 2 Corinthians 1:12, Ephesians 6:10-18, Philippians 2:15); that he must die to sin (Colossians 3:5) and be transformed by the renewing of the mind (Romans 12:2, Colossians 3:2, Titus 2:11-12); and be salt and light (Matthew 5:13-16, Philippians 4:8). He must cultivate the Spirit’s fruit of moderation in the amount of time spent in front of the screen (Galatians 5:23), and honour and promote the institution of the family (Genesis 2:22-24, Proverbs 22:6, Ephesians 5:22-6:4, Colossians 3:18-21).