A U.S. national poll, sponsored by the california-based, non-profit organization Children Now, has found that kids today don’t believe that television and film reflect the issues that define their own lives. The poll, conducted by the research firm of Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin & Associates, interviewed 750 children between the ages of 10 and 16 who were selected from a random telephone sample.

The study, which found that children in the U.S. are widely exposed to media (58 percent watch two to four or more hours of television each day; 66 percent live in homes with three or more televisions; and 54 percent have televisions in their bedrooms), also revealed that these same kids think that television and movies only do an average job of addressing the issues they think are most important. Most of the kids surveyed think that characters on entertainment television especially kids don’t deal with the same problems that people deal with in the real world. Yet, though some believe that TV isn’t representing them, 66 percent believe that their peers are influenced by what they see on TV.

Other findings of the poll show that kids think television is sending mixed messages about the moral values of society to the point where 49 percent believe that the behavior of young people on TV leads them to think that people in general are dishonest. But, on the other hand, these same kids also report that television characters usually do take responsibility for their actions (54 percent) and have generally good morals (61 percent).

For more information contact: Children Now at (800) CHILD-44.