About Families Online

Feature Articles for April 2003

In honor of TV Turnoff Week, April 21 to 27, millions of children and adults around the world will turn off their televisions and discover that life without TV may just be more rewarding, fun and relaxing.

Why Turn off the TV?
Television cuts into family time, can harm our children’s ability to read and succeed in school, and contributes to unhealthy lifestyles and obesity. Here are just a few of the facts:

• On average, children in the US will spend more time in front of the television (1,023 hours) than in school this year (900 hours).
•Forty percent of Americans frequently or always watch television during dinner.
•As US Surgeon General Dr. David Satcher said at the Kick Off of TV-Turnoff Week 2001, “We are raising the most overweight generation of youngsters in American history...This week is about saving lives.”

Who Participates?
Millions of people all over the world have participated in TV-Turnoff Week since it began in 1995. Children and adults, rich and poor - people from every background and all walks of life - take part through schools, churches or community groups, as families or individuals.

What’s So Great about TV-Turnoff Week?
Turning off the television gives us a chance to think, read, create and do, to connect with our families and engage in our communities, to turn off TV and turn on life.

Benjamin Loxley, a second-grader, sums it up well, “I had a great time, and my only question is: If this is so great, why don’t we turn off the TV for the other 51 weeks of the year?”

TV-Turnoff Week Works!
According to hundreds of responses to TV-Turnoff Week follow-up surveys, 90 percent of responding participants reduced their TV-viewing as a result of participating.

Sound like fun? It is! Join thousands of parents, teachers, pediatricians and other families by celebrating TV-Turnoff Week 2003.

TV-Turnoff Week is supported by over 70 national organizations including the American Medical Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, National Education Association and the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. For more information, visit the TV-Turnoff Network at www.tvturnoff.org/week.htm or call 202-518-5556.