A useful electronic babysitter? An essential educational tool in the modern age, which no self-respecting parent could deprive their children of? Or the reason for poor standards of reading, the growth in obesity and the creation of a generation of passive, telly-addicted couch potatos?
The pros and cons of television have been endlessly debated. But for nannies spending long hours looking after children, just as for parents, the issue of what to allow their charges to watch and for how long has never been as important as it is today, as channels and household sets multiply.
A survey last year by the Independent Television Commission (ITC) found that more than a third of all children under four - a staggering 36 per cent - had a TV in their bedroom. Among under-16s, more than half - 52 per cent - had their own set.
It's a trend all too evident in the United States. Vicky Lipinski spent four years working as a nanny for a family in Long Island, New York, where, she says, 'every room in the house had a TV set. There was one in the kitchen, one in the play room, living room and then all the children's bedrooms'.
Steps have been taken in the US to curb excessive viewing by children. Sets more than 13 inches wide now have to be fitted with a V-chip, which enables parents to regulate the amount children watch and the channels they tune in to. In the UK, Sussex-based inventor Tony Ratcliffe has just developed a screenblock - a black box that controls the flow of power to the TV. When it runs out the TV automatically switches off.
The National Family and Parenting Institute (NFPI), in a recent study of children and soaps, pointed to research endorsed by both the ITC and the Broadcasting Standards Commission which showed that 'many parents worry about the possibility that they will not be able to protect their, often more technologically-literate, children from exposure to undesirable influences'.
UK paediatrician Dr Harvey Marcovitch finds the trend towards very young children having a TV set in their room 'very disturbing'. He says, 'TV producers always point to the 9pm watershed as a protection for children, but if they have their own TV then there is no parental responsibility and control.'
The American Academy of Pediatricians has expressed its alarm at this state of affairs, suggesting that children under two should not watch any television at all, as it might 'negatively affect early brain development'. It stressed that 'the first two years of life are especially important in the growth and development of a child's brain'.
Dr Marcovitch believes that his fellow UK paediatricians take a more liberal line. 'It all depends on whether the TV programmes watched by toddlers are in line with their developmental needs. So much on television these days isn't,' he says.
But surely cartoons are a harmless diversion for bored toddlers? Wrong, says Dr Marcovitch. 'The average cartoon has between 100 and 200 fast-moving images in a short space of time. Pre-school children can only take in the frenetic movement on the screen; they can't understand what's going on.' The makers of 'Teletubbies', he says, 'clearly did their homework, because one reason for its enormous popularity is because it is developmentally suited to very young children. They like relatively static imagery, with long takes, not the rapid motion of a cartoon, and are happier with big pictures, lots of colour and plenty of repetition. "Teletubbies" has all of these qualities'.
SETTLING DOWN
Only a few children's programmes are developmentally tailored to their audience and fewer still, sadly, are designed to be educational. 'Sesame Street', an old favourite which spans the generations, remains a useful tool for teaching the alphabet and numbers, according to nanny Vicky Lipinski, who now looks after three-year-old Archie and his baby sister. Vicky says Archie watches television for about half an hour at lunchtimes - 'mainly so that I can get him to sit down and eat a sandwich'.
As winter draws in and trips to the park are curtailed, Vicky says watching TV and videos such as 'Bob the Builder' and 'Thomas the Tank Engine' becomes more common. She adds, 'I don't know any nannies who use TV as a babysitter, but it is helpful for both parents and nannies if you need half an hour to get something done.' Dr Marcovitch believes the job of parents and nannies would be easier if there was more and better funded research into what TV programmes are best suited for young children. He suggests that the UK should follow the example of Japan's state television, which created a special unit to produce evidence-based research to inform the work of children's programme makers.
Among the small band of UK researchers in this area is Dr Anne Sheppard in Leeds, who explored the reactions of six- to nine-year-olds to different programmes, including cartoons, 'Grange Hill' and 'The Bill'. 'The most striking finding of my research was how little they understood of the basic plot of these programmes,' says Dr Sheppard. 'They could identify the goodie and the baddie in a cartoon, largely because they are the same week after week, but could not understand who had committed a crime in "The Bill".' She says that some children actually picked up books and started to read rather than watch the TV. 'What this showed was that for children to understand some programmes, they require more mature cognitive skills. On TV the representation of events is often very fast and there is a great deal of non-verbal communication, where just a glance between two adults can convey meaning. Many children are just not equipped to understand that.'
This would also apply to the soaps that nannies might switch on for themselves, thinking the children in their care won't take much notice - and in fact, not doing their job. Whatever a nanny watches, some would say, she should be prepared to have the children watch with her.
Paula Hutton has recently returned after 10 months as a nanny in the US, where she noted that in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks children would often sit down with their parents and watch the news. While understanding the emotional impetus for this, she questions the value of exposing children to harsher elements that had so far been alien to their world. She accepts that it can benefit parents and children to watch together - 'but kids need to watch kids' TV and not soaps when they are eight or nine years of age and can't understand them'.
WATCH WITH NANNY
For Dr Sheppard, letting children watch TV with their carers is preferable to leaving them unsupervised in their rooms. 'Of course it's no use sitting down to watch a soap with a young child. But it can be a useful way discuss moral issues with older children.'
Her view is endorsed overwhelmingly by parents surveyed in the NFPI's research, who said that 'they did discuss soap stories with their families, and that soaps were helpful in bringing up issues for discussion'.
The children Paula Hutton currently cares for in London watch no more than half an hour a day. 'That's because I like to take them out to the park or have friends round for them to play with. Nannies have a more structured social circle during the day and so I think it's parents who are more likely to plonk their children in front of the TV for long periods, especially at weekends.'
Paula says that while caring for a two-year-old girl in a previous job, she realised that the parents were allowing her to watch things like 'The Simpsons' and 'Star Trek'. 'These were unsuitable for her age group. I had to tell her mum that the little girl was repeating things from "The Simpsons" she clearly did not understand in front of other children, and it was totally inappropriate.
'Obviously kids can't survive in the modern world without being acquainted with TV and their favourite characters. It's part of the way they gain social skills,' says Paula. 'But I did work for a Swiss-German couple in London who had no TV in the house, and their children were more creative in their play and enjoyed reading more.
' Dr Sheppard thinks television has been unfairly blamed for children not reading. 'The fact is that many would not have read anyway,' she says, adding that there is only a popular opinion, not scientific evidence, that TV viewing 'leads young people to mug old ladies'. She concludes that it is not viewing habits, but the home environment - where parents and nannies 'demonstrate emotional warmth and encourage good behaviour among the children they care for' - which will determine the way a child behaves.
VIEWING TIPS
* Get the agreement of parents on setting limits on how long the children can watch TV. Don't let them have the TV on while doing homework.
* Help children be selective. Use TV listings to decide what they are going to watch and teach them to switch the TV off when the programme is finished. Don't just switch it on idly to see what's on or leave it going in the background.
* Make time to sit down and watch TV with the children. Explain that characters on TV are make-believe, not real.
* Never use TV watching as a reward or a punishment.
* Avoid viewing just before bedtime, as research shows this can affect sleep patterns and cause poor concentration at school.