An ever-more-common
baby-sitter

Around 90 percent of American kids under 2 and 40 percent of babies under 3 months are regular TV watchers, according to a recent pediatric study (via CNET).
"We don't know from the study whether [TV] is good or bad. What we know is that it is big," said study conductor Frederick Zimmerman of the University of Washington.

The American Academy of Pediatrics believes the average American child watches 4 hours of TV a day and that kids under 2 should be limited to 2 hours of kid-oriented programming a day.

Half of shows watched were educational, a category 29 percent of parents believe help children learn.
Another study by the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine found that teens watching three or more hours of TV a day are more likely to have attention or learning problems. One researcher said that TV, whose living room history is long, could "really dumb down society" over time.

More-detaile data from the AAP study are available from MarketingCharts.