ABSTRACT
The study aimed to assess the impact of mass media on childhood development’. The purpose was fulfilled through five specific objectives: to examine the impacts of mass media on childhood development, to ascertain the impact of mass media on socialization process of a child, to Determine the measures that should be put in place to prevent children from learning bad things from media contents, to Determine the roles of parents and guardians towards how children are exposed to media contents and Carry out an assessment of the performance of the regulatory agencies in performing their duties of television programs censuring. The study followed survey design whereby quantitative technique was applied.
The study explored the ecological theory, post-positivist theory, hermeneutic theory, critical theory and normative theory.
The data were collected through questionnaires using a random sample of 200 respondents. It was found that, that mass media changes the way the respondent do things both at home and in school because 92% attest to that. Now the changes do not relate so much to the parents cause only 44.5% changes their behavior to their parents due to mass media’s influence while 76% of them had a change in the way they relate with people because of mass media. The study recommends that, Older children should be offered an opportunity to make choices by planning the week’s viewing schedule in advance. Ideally, parents should supervise these choices and be good role models by making their own wise choices. Parents should explain why some programs are not suitable and praise children for making good and appropriate choices, Families should limit the use of television, computers or video games as a diversion, substitute teacher or electronic nanny. Parents should also ask alternative caregivers to maintain the same rules for media use in their absence. The rules in divorced parents’ households should be consistent, and support further research on the impact of media on the mental and physical well-being of children and adolescents.
