Over a month ago, the Philippine Pediatrics Society met in Cebu to discuss a number of topics that the organization deemed urgent. Among the pressing items were the Filipino child’s inveterate usage of television and the apparent misguided TV watching by parents in the presence of children.

It may be too early to expect anything concrete from that annual meeting but it may help them and countless parents anticipating action to refer to a report issued nearly a year ago that stemmed from a Kaiser Family Foundation finding.

It said that two out of three American parents already kept close watch over their kids’ TV viewing as well as the use of Internet and video games. This is partly because of media’s relentless explanation of the likely ills that too much sex and violence on media can unduly affect American children. The chief reason was that the American Pediatric Society and several other child–focused organizations have been making noise about the potential harm that unbridled and unsupervised media usage may cause on the innocent.

Consequently, the report said, about two–thirds of American parents are prepared to fully support any legislation or new federal limits on such material on TV and that only a measly 16 percent thought that monitoring their kids was unnecessary.

Kaiser is an acknowledged expert in health policy research. It released the study when there was a lot of hullabaloo on the impact of violence, sex and adult language used on television and other media including the Internet. There was broad talk then as now associating violence at school with TV’s influence.

The Kaiser survey of 1,008 randomly–chosen parents with children aged 2 to 17, has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. It was conducted in October 2 to 27, 2007 by Princeton Survey Research Associates International, a private firm.

"There’s a common assumption that parents feel overwhelmed when it comes to their kids and the Internet and that they feel they are at a technological disadvantage," said Vicky Rideout, who directed the study. "We didn’t find that in this survey."

Meanwhile, parents "are fooling themselves" if they believe they have that much control, an expert on the effect the media have on children said. "Parents think they are controlling the media – kids say they are not," said Victor Strasburger, a professor of pediatrics at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine.

While about half of the respondents in the study said they are very concerned that their own children see too much violence and sexual material, the statistic was lower than those who expressed such worries in a 1998 Kaiser survey. (Black and Hispanic parents were more likely than whites to voice that concern.)

About three–fourths rated exposure to inappropriate material as one of their top concerns as parents citing that television and the Internet were the leading sources of angst.

The Kaiser study further found that two–thirds of parents interviewed said they would support new government regulations on television content. Some have proposed restricting the sex and violence that may be shown during the early evening broadcast hours.

"Clearly there’s a need for both the industry and our public servants to consider how to make things better," Tim Winter, president of the Parents Television Council, which to a certain extent is similar to the Anak TV group in the Philippines. The council is critical of violence and sex in the media.

On the other hand, Jim Dyke, executive director of TV Watch, a coalition that includes some television networks, said parents are doing a better job of controlling their children’s viewing habits. Incidentally, Dyk’s TV Watch opposes government control of TV programming. "If parents can make these decisions and enforce these decisions, why should the government," he said.

It is not too far fetched to expect the Philippine Pediatric Society to start the ball rolling in the country. Currently, estimates put the Philippines as among the highest users of television in the world. With a newly adjusted population figure of 88 million, that means that roughly 40 million are under 18 and therefore technically children view television four to five hours each day on the average.