TV licensing...

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Mark1978
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Re: TV licensing...

Post by Mark1978 »

I don't think it's a matter of all TV or no TV, most people have a balance and kids are no different. Some people can get a bit religious about television.
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Re: TV licensing...

Post by Vorpal »

We didn't have a TV or licence for years. We received a pile of letters, despite sending them back, calling to say we had no telly, etc. Then someone came one day to inspect the premises for TV receiving equipment. He even wanted to see up in the loft!

After that, though, we didn't get anymore letters or anything. When we did get a telly, we bought a licence, but TBH, I wish we'd never gotten one.

Now? the kids are allowed to watch during breakfast, and between 16.30 anf 17.30, if they want to. When the weather is nice, though, they spend that time outdoors. We are a little more flexible on weekends, but they are still limited to 2 hours per day.
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beardy
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Re: TV licensing...

Post by beardy »

What really disappoints me though is the brain rotting rubbish that fills children's TV. It could be an opportunity to educate and inform but instead they fill it with vacuous mind numbing cartoons that make no mental demands on the viewers.


This is essential preparation for adult viewing of the brain rotting rubbish that fills adult's TV.

Using iPlayer means that you select programmes to watch rather than just watch because it is there.

Not having a TV licence improves your quality of life, though in my case I dont have a TV because if I did have one I would waste my life sat in front of it (instead of the computer :oops: ).
kwackers
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Re: TV licensing...

Post by kwackers »

Interestingly most of the research I've seen shows that (moderate) TV is actually good for children. It exposes them to a wide range of different things and presents them with ideas and moral issues that they generally wouldn't experience in a small bubble around their house. That's obviously a 'moderate' amount and not a socially exclusive amount.

Contentious stuff I know... :wink:
Mark1978
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Re: TV licensing...

Post by Mark1978 »

kwackers wrote:Interestingly most of the research I've seen shows that (moderate) TV is actually good for children. It exposes them to a wide range of different things and presents them with ideas and moral issues that they generally wouldn't experience in a small bubble around their house. That's obviously a 'moderate' amount and not a socially exclusive amount.

Contentious stuff I know... :wink:


I think our daughter has learned a lot from TV really. Her favourite programme is 'Show Me, Show Me', which is about as educational as you can get and encourages improvisational play, something which she is quite good at.
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meic
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Re: TV licensing...

Post by meic »

Interestingly what is a moderate amount?

Vorpal says her children are allowed a maximum of 2 hours a day. In modern society that could be called deprivation by many yet it is a major chunk of their waking hours.

We also know it is good for kids to get a minimum amount of outdoor/exercise time and that is in direct competition with the TV time, forcing 2 hours a day onto kids would be seen as harsh treatment by modern society.

Not that any of that matters because the school has already decided that all my children's waking hours should be spent at school, traveling to/from school or doing home-studies.

Despite that we still cuddle up together to watch Dr Who or something else occasionally, especially in winter.
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meic
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Re: TV licensing...

Post by meic »

and encourages improvisational play, something which she is quite good at.


Which reminds me of the self mocking title of that old programme "Why dont you turn off your TV and do something less boring instead".

Children no more need encouraging to do improvisational play than bankers need to make money for themselves, watching a programme about it is just delaying them getting on with it.
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kwackers
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Re: TV licensing...

Post by kwackers »

meic wrote:
and encourages improvisational play, something which she is quite good at.


Which reminds me of the self mocking title of that old programme "Why dont you turn off your TV and do something less boring instead".

Children no more need encouraging to do improvisational play than bankers need to make money for themselves, watching a programme about it is just delaying them getting on with it.

The assumption being that improvisational play is all there is or that a child's imagination doesn't require any stimulus.

Most TV shows present children with ideas - often way ahead of what they'd come up with on their own. Not all children are imaginative.
I can certainly remember as a child seeing stuff on TV and having ideas that had me running off to do my "own" thing.

Of course I'm just repeating most of the stuff I've read in popular science magazines, any justification is my own input but most attempts to show TV is bad for children seems to end up showing exactly the opposite.
Obviously the amount a child should watch is a variable feast, almost certainly varies from child to child, depends on the quality and engagement of the material and probably doesn't need to be anything like the amount children currently watch...
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meic
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Re: TV licensing...

Post by meic »

but most attempts to show TV is bad for children seems to end up showing exactly the opposite.


Is this a bit like saying that fat and sugar are not bad for children?

My children get fats, sugar and "TV*" and each is probably good for them.

However we have a bit of a National childhood obesity crisis which can be fairly accurately blamed on the over use of the three of them (and the car).

*Which may also include iPlayer and other screen based pursuits.
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kwackers
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Re: TV licensing...

Post by kwackers »

meic wrote:
but most attempts to show TV is bad for children seems to end up showing exactly the opposite.

Is this a bit like saying that fat and sugar are not bad for children?

No, but it's exactly like saying variety is good, or; all things in moderation.

If your kids didn't watch Dr Who would they have a good enough imagination to come up with time travel?, a universe full of alien life?, the moral dilemmas presented by the program?
You can argue that you can get this information from books, but books aren't a natural medium for humans to learn. We're creatures that evolved to learn by seeing and doing and TV can do a great job of that.
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meic
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Re: TV licensing...

Post by meic »

That is how we would take it but you can bet that it soon gets mis-interpreted to "TV is good for them, let them sit there all day (and we can have some free time)".

I bought my daughter a Hudl at Christmas and my observation is that the machine has accelerated her learning quite dramatically. No shortage of games (that she finds for herself) that also teach at the same time.
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Mark1978
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Re: TV licensing...

Post by Mark1978 »

meic wrote:I bought my daughter a Hudl at Christmas and my observation is that the machine has accelerated her learning quite dramatically. No shortage of games (that she finds for herself) that also teach at the same time.


Freya is quite good with my wife's iPad too, she can unlock it, bring up the games she wants etc, same with the iPhone. I'm thinking that by Christmas she'll be three and a half, she might get a tablet of some description for herself.
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Tigger
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Re: TV licensing...

Post by Tigger »

horizon wrote:I'm just totting up the number of forum members posting on this thread. It has already exceeded the number of people I have ever known not to have had a TV. It's very heart warming. It may however futher fuel the ire of those who believe that this forum has more than its fair share of, well, "old fogies"?
...

Hey, I'm not in "old fogey" territory (yet) (just a grumpy old woman :lol: ) but haven't had a TV for well over three years :D :D :D Yes, it is heart warming to know that I am not alone!

I was most surprised when I had NO communication from the TVL people, for three years. Then a letter from them explained it - the previous owner (over age 75) hadn't notified them that she didn't live here anymore. (Should I have told them? Didn't know and didn't care since I had nothing to hide.) I debated whether to bin the letter or not, but in the end sent it back Unknown At This Address. I got another missive pronto, as expected, last December. Signed up online to say I have no TV (and don't watch it dead or alive on any device). Not heard anything since.

What amazes me is how they seem to target some folks and leave others in peace :?
kwackers
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Re: TV licensing...

Post by kwackers »

Tigger wrote:What amazes me is how they seem to target some folks and leave others in peace :?

Not me. I find a sense of righteousness makes some folk very obtuse and difficult to deal with. :lol:
Elizabeth_S
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Re: TV licensing...

Post by Elizabeth_S »

We didn't have a TV after we returned from Germany with a child under one year, and no leisure time [child never slept, TOH on a course, me working whenever he wasn't on course, no childcare], then we thought that we wouldn't bother while child was young so he would read (he taught himself aged 3). Then we had another child and it was only fair to give him the same opportunity (he was reading at 4). They did see TV on holiday as a treat.
Anyhow, for the first 6 years we just got the letters from TV licensing, then we moved and they wanted to visit, the house was a tip and needed to be refurbished, TOH was working away and I was on my own with primary school boys. I decided to let the guy in and chatted to him, he took one look at the lounge and left and I was never bothered by them again.
Later on we did get a TV when the boys went to high school and we quite enjoy sitting down watching films and DVDs together as a family and we did get a licence.
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