We here at Plugged In are quite dogged in our desire to warn you about the dangers of TV. And, as it turns out, so is National Public Radio, among many other news outlets that recently circulated a story about just how dangerous TV really is.
A study by the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, reveals that TV can indeed be a danger to young children … actually sending them to the emergency room at times! About every 30 minutes, in fact, a child winds up in the ER due to injuries caused by running into or having a TV fall on him or her. About 17,000 kids are hurt by falling screens each year, with most of the injured being under the age of 5. Says Dr. Gary Smith, the senior author of the study:
There’s a myth that as flat screens were introduced in the marketplace, we would see a decrease in the number of TV tip-over related injuries. This study shows the opposite is true.
Now, don’t read this blog post as merely sarcastic. And please, please don’t read it as meanspirited or uncaring. As a father myself, I’m hardly insensitive to physical damage perpetrated upon youngsters. Read it instead as something of a metaphor: A visual image designed to help us. If we all sometimes pictured our TVs jumping up off their stands and out of their cabinets to ferociously attack those whom we love the most, maybe we could be a tad more wary about what jumps out of their screens even when they remain motionless.
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