Is there really anything wrong with letting a very small child to watch television for a few hours a day? This is a question that didn’t need to be asked forty or fifty years ago, when children’s television in the UK was limited to not much more than an hour a day. But now that daytime television has become a reality, and many homes have satellite receivers with channels purely for children, parents have to decide if too much television harms children or not. There are those parents who believe that children need conversation and interaction with real people in order to develop properly, because watching television too much can be bad for the child’s development. On the other hand, the vast majority of parents feel that watching lively, bright cartoon and puppet shows on television is fun for the child, and a little amusement can’t be such a bad thing. One thing is quite clear; being able to place a baby in front of the television in the knowledge that he or she will sit there quietly for a while gives parents a welcome break now and then.