1. Limit children’s total media time (with entertainment media) to no more than 1 to 2 hours of quality programming per day.
  2. Remove television sets from children’s bedrooms.
  3. Discourage television viewing for children younger than 2 years, and encourage more interactive activities that will promote proper brain development, such as talking, playing, singing, and reading together.
  4. Monitor the shows children and adolescents are viewing. Most programs should be informational, educational, and nonviolent.
  5. View television programs along with children, and discuss the content. Two recent surveys involving a total of nearly 1500 parents found that less than half of parents reported always watching television with their children.5,47
  6. Use controversial programming as a stepping-off point to initiate discussions about family values, violence, sex and sexuality, and drugs.
  7. Use the videocassette recorder wisely to show or record high-quality, educational programming for children.
  8. Support efforts to establish comprehensive media-education programs in schools.
  9. Encourage alternative entertainment for children, including reading, athletics, hobbies, and creative play.

Read the AAPs full picy statement here: http://aappolicy.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/pediatrics;107/2/423